Irwin McDowell for Memorial Day

General McDowell isn't highly thought of in Civil War history.  He is sort of a doofus loser general, who faded from interest after the debacle at First Bull Run.


When I went to the Presidio in search of the graves of two men who died in the Picacho Pass skirmish, I found out that General McDowell is buried in San Francisco's Presidio as well. So is Belle Boyd.


I promised myself that I would go see McDowell's grave, and thought it would be a good Memorial Day trip. Imagine the surprise of seeing the stone pictured at the left--and that is all.


No monument, no horse statue--nothing to indicate that this man did his best at the beginning of a long, sad war except the same marble headstone that graces the graves of the rest of the soldiers.  It is both humble and humbling.


He may have ruined Ellsworth's 11th New York, but not on purpose--"We are all green together."


I left a watermelon.