Odd Tombstones

[DHaze]

Anyone no what the shield means? The back of another tombstone with polished shells a few are missing its OLD and I have never seen any others like it.

 

[usernotfound]

The one on the right looks military in nature. Would have to actually search for exact branch/time period, but I'm lazy.

 

[DHaze]

Was the only one I have seen in the graveyard altho havent checked everyone. The other one on left appears to be the oldest one on site Thx for the reply

 

[desertmoons]

The shield looks early. You will find similar things here...but not exactly the same.

The Project Gutenberg e-Book of American Military Insignia, 1800-1851; Author: J. Duncan Campbell and Edgar M. Howell. Try posting in militaria or coin section... Odd there is no eagle...

 

[Shortstack]

Considering the numbers of stars shown on those flags, this insignia is well after the Civil War. Possibly the Spanish American War?? That star at the top of the circular area is a star within a star. I believe the military award called the Silver Star has a small silver star inlaid into a slightly larger bronze star. Maybe that star on the stone notes the person was a military man who was awarded the Silver Star......which is awarded for extraordinary valor in combat.

 

[Lafitte Deux]

The shells on the left stone may be the deceased's initials. E.I.K.?

 

[usernotfound]

maybe they are a eye catcher for u to look a little closer at the stone

Not everything has value in terms of signs and symbols. Sounds like the P word to me.

 

[Mileaway]

Shells on Gravestones

To place shells on graves or to use them as a motif on a headstone is a worldwide custom. In pagan myth, the shell was regarded as a source of life. Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and fertility - later to become the Roman Venus - was born from sea foam. She then sailed in a shell to the shore.
Likewise, mourners hope, and express by the symbolism of the shell, that the dead buried in the grave, after a safe journey to the unknown shore of life beyond, will embark on a new and everlasting existence.
In its shape, the shell closely resembles the pudendum, the female genitals, which are the gateway of life. A shell thus symbolized the source and basis of all existence, fertility, and reproduction.
Looked at superficially and merely from the outside, a shell is hard and lifeless. However, on the inside, it is soft and vibrantly alive. The frozen features of the dead, equally, are like a shell. On the other side of death, in the beyond - eternal life awaits them. Shells on a grave, therefore, in whichever form, point to death as being merely a gateway to renewal and to a higher level of consciousness.
The Accoutrements of Death
Here are a lot more references to these decorations and their meanings:
shells on gravestones - Google Search
The tombstone is one of a Civil War Veteran as noted by the Shield on the government issued marble slab. More than likely the occupant is a Union Artillary Officer as noted by the swords and Cannonballs.
http://www.co.monroe.mi.us/government/departments_offices/museum/monroe_and_the_civil_war.html
The advent of the military headstones.
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/text_only.html