Tomb of the Unknown Soldier: The Old Guard (Essay Sample)

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. “Old Guard”
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Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. “Old Guard”
Warfare leaves behind a significant number of casualties of soldiers. In the old days, it was hard to identify the dead bodies of fallen soldiers because of the damage inflicted on them by the weapons used. In the early 1800s before the civil war in the United States, bodies of fallen soldiers were buried in mass graves at the Arlington National Cemetery. During the civil war, the number of unidentified bodies increased. That led to the formation of National Cemeteries in 1862 to ensure a proper send-off for soldiers in service. Even after the creation of the National Cemeteries, a big number of soldiers remained unidentified. During World War I, soldiers in the Us army wore discs to help identify them in case of death. A new unit (Quartermaster Corps), was formed to conduct burials of fallen soldiers. It was however difficult because there were hundreds of thousands of unidentified bodies during World War I.
In 1920, Congressman Hamilton fish jr., a war veteran proposed a bill to have an unknown soldier’s body brought back to the United States to represent all other unidentified fallen soldiers. The unidentified body was brought back a year later in Washington DC at the navy yard. The unknown was transported to the Arlington National Cemetery two days later where a state funeral was held. The tomb was decorated with a wreath