Civil War Decoration Day | Scene Through the Lens

I love history - and Philadelphia - as much as I love making pictures. So these are exciting times as Philly is getting ready for its close-up leading to America’s Semiquincentennial in July 2026.

That focus on history brought me to yesterday’s annual observance of Decoration Day at Laurel Hill Cemetery, a tradition dating from 1868 to pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the Civil War. Now known as Memorial Day, it became a national holiday in 1971.

The ceremony is an annual tradition of the Grand Army of the Republic George Meade Post #1. First held in 1868, the service recreates the historic memorial observance of adorning the graves of fallen soldiers with wreaths.

I can relate to El, who says history is his life. He is a volunteer curator at the Philadelphia VA hospital’s museum and served with the 82nd Airborne as a paratrooper.

Behind him is the Silent Sentry, standing over the graves of Civil War veterans. The monument was originally dedicated in 1883 to watch over the Soldiers Home’s Civil War veterans burial plot in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Kingsessing. The 700-pound bronze statue of a Union soldier was stolen in the 1970s, then rescued by a Camden scrap dealer, but was in storage for four decades until it was restored and reinstalled in Laurel Hill on Memorial Day ten years ago by the Pennsylvania Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS).

Sebastian Major, a junior at Washington Township High School, N.J. also volunteers with Bugles Across America!, a national group that provides a real bugler to play a live rendition of Taps at funeral services for veterans.

Since 1998, a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color: