The people of Savannah used to call themselves “The Hostess City of the South,” which is one of those surely government-based promotional nicknames that is not in anyway worthy of a lovely town. Savannah is a lovely town. The Yankee and I took our first trip here. We got married here. We sometimes come back, as we have this week.

You do it for scenes like this:

The former was in the historic district. The latter was at Bonaventure Cemetery, where we spent some time today, taking in the sun and breeze and quiet while walking among the history and solemn scenery.

Amidst it all, there are a few dozen military graves in their own formal section.

Edward Myers had service in three wars, and earned a bronze star:

John Carter and the 401st were in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge. He died in Belgium:

Charles Higgs Jr. was a marine platoon sergeant. He was killed on the first day of the invasion of Iwo Jima:

Gentry Hoitt was in a different division of marines, but I bet Higgs knew the gunnery sergeant from back home. Hoitt was killed on the second day at Iwo Jima. He had six brothers and sisters, but they are all gone now. The last of them died in 2014. The 5th Division, meanwhile, scratched, cussed and fought on Iwo for more than a month with 2,482 killed in action, 19 missing in action, and 6,218 wounded in action, the highest casualty rate among the three Marine divisions involved in the invasion.

The 6th Marine Division fought in the Solomons, Guam, Guadalcanal and Okinawa. I can’t find anything about him online or what he did in the few years of his short life that he was left with after the war. If he was there for all of those events, though, he probably saw more than he should have had to:

John Chudob served in two wars, and there’s a brief mention of him in a Kansas newspaper, in between. There are a few Chudobas still in Georgia. I wonder if this is one of their ancestors:

It isn’t readily apparent what the 18th did in the Big Red One during World War I, but if William Breen was there throughout he might have seen one or some of these battles, Montdidier-Noyon, Aisne-Marne, St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, Lorraine or Picardy. There are reasons the First Division became so famous during and after that war. They were the first to go to Europe, the last to come home and they paraded in New York City in 1919. Who knows, he could be one of the men in the photos on this site covering their return and parade. I wonder if he ever talked about it when he came back home:

One of the steps on this memorial arch is engraved “Heirs together of the grace of life,” which becomes an even more beautiful sentiment the more you think about it.

There are beautiful oaks at Bonaventure:

And back downtown, at night:

But that was before dinner at the Crab Shack: