Preview

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
4192 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a practice utilized throughout the world to memorialize soldiers who have died in modern wars without being identified. The first monument of this kind was the Tomb of Unknown Soldiers in Frederica, Denmark (1858), which memorialized unknown soldiers who died in the First War of Schleswig. Another such Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is found in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was erected in 1866 to honor those soldiers who died during the American Civil War.
The history of Tomb of Unknown Soldier begins in modern times in 1920. A Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was erected while burying an unknown soldier who had fallen, unidentified, during the First World War. The soldier was buried to commemorate all of the unknown soldiers and was laid to rest in the famous Westminster Abbey. Throughout history, Westminster Abbey has been the burial place for British monarchs and nobles, and as such erecting a Tomb of Unknown Soldiers at this spot was seen as a highly significant and meaningful gesture. This first Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in modern times has the inscription, "They buried him among the kings because he had done well toward God and Toward His house".
Since that time, many other countries have also created a Tomb of Unknown Soldiers to honor veterans from following wars, including France, also after the First World War. The history of Tomb of Unknown Soldiers also extends to the United States, where such a tomb was erected to honor fallen during the Revolutionary War, and later came to commemorate all soldiers fallen during wars involving American soldiers, including the American Civil War. The history of Tomb of Unknown Soldiers also includes a long and moving letter written by John Adams in 1777 after he toured the site himself.
Although the site of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Pennsylvania began simply as a place to bury the masses of soldiers who died during the Revolutionary War, in later times it would be dedicated

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Howard Cater

    • 1500 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The tomb of King Tutankhamun was discovered by Howard Cater in 1922. It was the summer in 1922, Lord Carnarvon was disappointed about the lack of success that the team had worked on, he decided to let Howard Cater’s team finish the season and pull out. However the amazing dramatically news sent from Howard Cater to Lord Carnarvon, their team found the stairs (the entrance) of the tomb. These stairs leaded to the descending passage which the other end was The antechamber, they found furniture, boxes, and many other objects inside the room, but as well as two doors that contained other rooms, the small one went to the annex, the big one with two live-size of the king in black were the entrance of the burial chamber, there was another, the last room in the tomb, which was the treasury, this room was the most valuable one, it was guarded by a statue of Anubis. The team could not wait till the official opening, they went into the room the night before and were surprise about these, they found couches, wall paintings, valuable treasures, games that Tutankhamun used to play, chariots, throne, canopic chest and shrine, Anubis, and the sarcophagus! These contents were important because they told us about Ancient Egyptian society.…

    • 1500 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    his tomb in 1922. Since then, studies of his tomb and remains have revealed much…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    When you think of a tomb you essentially think of the pyramids in Egypt but really a tomb is a house or a home for the dead. A tomb does not have to be a pyramid. Even the first tombs were not pyramids. They were made of two slaps and a stone roof.…

    • 238 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    As you look at the tomb you see rows and rows of these warriors and the individualism in each one of them pops out at you , and you start to wonder to yourself it must have taken years for one artist to finish each warrior? But based on some Chinese guides they state, ¨ 700,000 people were killed to keep anyone from revealing its location. It was then buried and hidden from view (theplanetd.com).¨ Qin was so adamant about keeping his tomb underwraps because he knew the ¨peasants¨ was not fond of him and knew once again they was going to find his tomb and destroy it, but another guide will completely disregard that story because these ¨facts¨ were passed around through word of…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Ulysses S. Grant’s mausoleum is the largest tomb on the continent of North America.” (Aronson, p.78). Now formally known as General Grant National Memorial it is located in New York, NY. The architectural design on the tomb is very eye catching with many of Ulysses’ moments in history engraved on the rock itself or on mosaic glass panels. The panels show events like when he was a graduate of West Point , and the wars he served in which include the Mexican War, Civil War, Battle of Vicksburg and Chattanooga. One of the other panels show General…

    • 183 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the military, sad, but true, for centuries, in times of war, it is very likely that military personnel will lose their lives, and a proper burial will need to take place. However, if the Soldier, Marine, Airman, Sailor is not identified, this process may take longer.…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This site has 3 parts which are the Camp Sumter military prison, the Andersonville National Cemetery, and also the National Prison of War Museum, which was later added to honor all those who were prisoners of war. The cemetery consisted of all the soldiers who had either died in the prison, during war, or at the hospital were buried here. “By 1868, the cemetery held the remains of more than 13,800 Union soldiers whose bodies had been retrieved after their deaths in hospitals, battles, or prison camps throughout the region” (Learn About the Park). One of the prisoners was in charge of writing down names of all those who had died for prison records. Without others knowing he also kept track on his own which ended up having a positive effect, since he had all those name 460 of the 13,000 soldiers that died had “Unknown U.S soldier” on their graves. (Andersonville Prison)…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The soldier returned to service, fought bravely the war during its entirety, but was killed in the last battle.When his compatriots lifted his body to be taken back to base, they found, tucked away safely in the pocket of his uniform, the…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    German playwright Frank Wedekind famously said of monuments that they “... are for the living, not the dead.” A memorial does not serve any purpose for those it commemorates, rather, they educate and remind those that visit of the enshrined individual(s) or event. They also vary greatly in scope with one memorial being dedicated to the entirety of American forces in World War II while another could be dedicated to a single soldier. In the case of the George Rogers Clark National Historic Park, it serves as a historic site wherein a number of those involved with the Illinois campaign are memorialized in present day Vincennes, Indiana.…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mount Lykaion Essay

    • 414 Words
    • 2 Pages

    It’s not a cemetery.” Ioannis Mylonopoulos, Professor of Archaeology at Columbia University, added that the skeleton may be from a later period and was simply buried at the site.…

    • 414 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Chinas First Emperor

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages

    "The big hill, where the emperor is buried — nobody's been in there," said archaeologist Kristin Romey, curatorial consultant for the Terracotta Warrior exhibition at New York City’s Discovery Times Square. "Partly it's out of respect for the elders, but they also realize that nobody in the world right now has the technology to properly go in and excavate it."…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    A cemetery in Naugatuck Connecticut was visited, the date of Birth, Date of Death, and Age at Death from 20 men and woman who died before 1920 were recorded. After this step was completed, the date of Birth, Date of Death, and Age at Death from 20 men and woman who died after 2001 were also recorded. Once this was completed, the information was copied over into excel, graphs were produced and interpreted.…

    • 975 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Our armed forces exist solely to ensure our nation is safe, so that each and every one of us can sleep soundly at night, knowing we have 'guardians at the gate.'” We must never forget the lives that were taken while protecting our country. Having the privilege to lay the wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown would touch me on a personal level. I have a great-great uncle who served in Vietnam. I remember hearing stories of how his mother and sister were worried sick that he wouldn’t make it home. Thankfully, he arrived home safely. On the other hand, somewhere there was a mother who will never know what happened to her son. A mother who never got to lay her little boy to rest. A wife that never got to grow old with her husband. Maybe even a little girl who was never able to have her daddy walk her down the aisle. Although the identities of these men are unknown, they all have a different story. I could never imagine what it would be like to never truly know what happened to your father, son, or brother. It brings tears to my eyes thinking about those families who faced that type of situation. If I were able to lay the wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, it would become my greatest responsibility. I would forever remember the day that I was able to honor those who fought for our…

    • 1320 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Visitor God

    • 942 Words
    • 4 Pages

    "Long before the time of the Pharoahs..there was a god who cares for all of the skies and dozens of his kind...." Inscription found on wall above the Tomb of Osiris The Great Secret Surrounding the Tomb of Osiris In the Late 1950's , while the Super Power of the United States was tapping into the future through space expeditions, the other Super Power of Russia was tapping into the future by seeking the knowledge of the past. A very top secret project began..so secret that even today the knowledge they discovered remains hidden yet today.…

    • 942 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Unknown Citizen

    • 329 Words
    • 2 Pages

    "The Unknown Citizen" is an occasional poem. That is to say, it is a poem written to mark a specific occasion or event. The occasion is indicated in the lines contained in parenthesis that precede the body of the poem. As these lines indicate, the poem is a written monument that functions like a cenotaph: it commemorates a fallen man whose identity is unknown. However, unlike the soldier who falls in a battle of war, the battle this individual appears to be unwittingly a part of is a social battle as he is labelled an unknown citizen and not soldier.…

    • 329 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays