Legacy Matters

It seemed queer putting up my own tombstone

The tombstone of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr, at Arlington Cemetery lists his military service first before his tenure as U.S. Supreme Court Justice, probably so his wife could be buried there as well, or so he wrote to his friend Harold Lasky.

I have a lovely spot in  Arlington toward the bottom of the hill where the house is, with  pine trees, oak, and tulip all about, and where one looks to see a  deer trot out (although of course there are no deer). I have ordered  a stone of the form conventional for officers which will bear my  name, Bvt. Col. and Capt. 20th Mass. Vol. Inf. Civil War- Justice  Supreme Court, U.S.-March 1841- His wife Fanny Holmes and the dates.  It seemed queer putting up my own tombstone-but these things are  under military direction and I suppose it was necessary to show a soldiers' name to account for my wife"

In a letter to another friend, Holmes writes about the unknown bones collected from Civil War battlefields.

I shall go out to Arlington  tomorrow, Memorial Day, and visit the gravestone with my name and my  wife's on it, and be stirred by the military music, and, instead of  bothering about the Unknown Soldier shall go to another stone that  tells beneath it are the bones of, I dont remember the number but  two or three thousand and odd, once soldiers gathered from the  Virginia fields after the Civil War. I heard a woman say there once,  'They gave their all. They gave their very names.' Later perhaps  some people will come in to say goodbye."

A good photograph of his tombstone can be seen at this link from findagrave.com