Here is Kathleen Parker at The Washington Post:
A Swedish mother visiting her daughter watched in wonderment at the crowd gathered for a funeral honors ceremony for Revolutionary War troops — replete with a parade, a play, prayers and a plethora of dignitaries — to honor 14 soldiers who died on Aug. 16, 1780.
I turned to her and said, “We love our wars.” To which I should have added, “And we love our warriors.”
The soldiers’ remains were discovered last fall, buried as shallow as six inches deep in the sandy soil where they fell during the Battle of Camden. Thanks to the work of archeologists, coroners and historians, aided by buttons and other military paraphernalia, the battleground remains have been determined to belong to 12 Continental soldiers, one British loyalist and one British regular. Thirteen were honored as heroes in ceremonies planned by countless volunteers, both civilian and military. The 14th individual was determined to have had at least some Native American ancestry and so will be buried with help from the Catawba Nation and the Lumbee Tribe.
In fact, the reinterment of all the soldiers at the Camden Battlefield site is being delayed until the U.S. Army and the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust can turn the ground into a military cemetery. The Army, which has a legislative mandate to protect military remains in perpetuity, buries its dead only in military cemeteries. For now, at least, the carefully crafted coffins are being held in a safe place until preparations for the cemetery are completed.
Read the rest here.