Almost 21

"Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me.
The carriage held but just ourselves
and Immortality."
~ Emily Dickinson

Part of what I love about running is the stumbling - sometimes literally! - across sites I wouldn't see if I weren't running along a particular path. This gravesite is off in the woods, off the main trail and completely by itself. One of my absolute favorites running spots is in a battlefield with tons of monuments and cannons and signs detailing the Civil War battle as it raged through for several days. But this grave stands totally alone and isolated.

I came across Jonathan Bull's gravestone a couple of years ago and am fascinated and saddened at the same time by this boy who lost his life the day before he turned 21. His family apparently found his body and either buried him where he fell or erected this monument in his memory. I wonder if he still lies beneath the soil here. I always stop for a moment when I pass by and say a prayer of peace for his soul. I add a rock to this spot and others do too because these are not all mine.

I wonder who Jonathan was. Who found him lying here - mortally wounded or already deceased? What family did he have that mourned him? What sort of life did he live before the war? I would like to find out and tell his story somehow. I hope his family would be comforted by the fact that he is not forgotten.