Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery...

The southern end of Point Loma was set aside as a military reservation by Executive Order of the President of the United States on Feb. 26, 1852. Fort Rosecrans was the first of the ten great forts in California to be constructed outside of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Service at Fort Rosecrans was considered highly desirable, and applications for transfer or re-enlistment of discharged soldiers into its companies were being received constantly. As a result, the garrison was maintained at full strength with capable and experienced soldiers. It was jokingly called an "old soldiers' home" and many of those who served there, when discharged or retired from the service, became substantial citizens of San Diego and the surrounding community.

The first burial here was that of Pvt. John T. Welch of Company 1, 8th Infantry, Oct. 5, 1879. Originally about one acre, it now is over forty times that size and is breathtakingly beautiful.

California Registered Historical Landmark No. 55

A burial ground before 1847, this graveyard became an Army post cemetery in the 1860s. It is the final resting place for most who fell at San Pasqual in 1846, and for the USS Bennington victims of 1905. It became Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in 1934 and was placed under the Veterans Administration National Cemetery System in 1973. Over 50,000 who served the U.S. honorably in war and peace lie here.

We passed this vast cemetery on the way to Cabrillo National Monument. It was a must see before we left the peninsula.

What a wondrous place to wander in history.

We were surprised by the content of the Mormon Battalion Memorial. The plaque reads, "In memory of the Mormon Battalion whose members made the longest military march in U.S. History of over 2,000 miles from Iowa to San Diego in 1846-1847 during the war with Mexico."

This side memorializes Lydia Hunter. It reads, "Lydia Hunter died from complications resulting from the birth of her only child, a son named Diego Hunter, the first American born in San Diego. Diego was born 20 April 1847, Lydia died 6 days later."

"May we honor her and each of those women who served with the Mormon Battalion. We also pay tribute to the many others that sent their sons, husbands and brothers into the service of their country during the war with Mexico, 1846-1847."

Inside the stone wall, of the original area, lie the remains of the soldiers of the First Dragoons who were killed at the Battle of San Pasqual, Dec. 6, 1846. This granite boulder, from the battlefield, bears a bronze plaque with the names of those soldiers.

Sgt Henry Jones was one of the older gravestones we discovered. Born in Ohio in 1853, he died in 1883 somewhere in California.

"The markers in this memorial area honors veterans whose remains have not been recovered or identified, were buried at sea, donated to science or cremated, and the ashes scattered."

We were drawn to this unique and ornate headstone. Colonel, United States Army, Edward Pearson (retired May 16, 1899) had the job title as Dakota Indian Fighter, on and off from 1873 to 1880.

Another notable monument, the obelisk next to Steve, commemorates the deaths of 62 sailors in a boiler explosion aboard the USS Bennington. The Bennington, which had just returned from maneuvers in the Pacific, was anchored in San Diego Harbor. On July 21, 1905, the crew was ordered to depart in search for the USS Wyoming, which had lost a propeller at sea. At approximately 10:30 a.m., an explosion in the boiler room ripped through the ship, killing and wounding the majority of the crew. Two days later the remains of soldiers and sailors were brought to the post cemetery and interred in an area known as Bennington Plot.