Hundreds of Lawrence and Douglas County residents have spilled their blood in service to our nation.

Today — Memorial Day — we honor those killed in wartime.

More than 400 Douglas County soldiers and civilians have died in battle since the Civil War. Their names can be found at LJWorld.com/memorial-day/2011/names.

The list was compiled in the book “Rise up in Honor” by the Douglas County Memorial of Honor. The list of those killed from the Civil War through Vietnam, is sobering. (A complete list including the war on terrorism is not available.)

The victims list of Quantrill’s Raid, Aug. 21, 1863, numbers 161 killed, including recruits from the 14th Kansas Cavalry. That’s nearly double the number of Douglas County residents killed in action during the Civil War, 88.

World War II claimed the lives of 123 Douglas County residents; World War I, 19; Vietnam, 18; Korea, 10; and the Spanish American War, 3.

One doesn’t have to go to Washington, D.C., to visit a war memorial. Our community has many public memorials to honor our veterans. Lawrence and Douglas County are home to at least a dozen war memorials, from Kansas University’s Memorial Stadium and Memorial Union, both dedicated to World War I veterans, to Oak Hill Cemetery in east Lawrence, which includes a salute to Union soldiers as well as a memorial to the victims of Quantrill’s Raid. “From the Ashes,” a bronze sculpture by Jim Brothers outside the Lawrence Visitors Center, honors all soldiers, sailors, police officers and firefighters who died in the line of duty.

The complete list of the memorials was published in Friday’s Journal-World and on LJWorld.com, which includes an interactive map of all the memorial sites in Douglas County.

We should all make time this weekend to pay our respects and visit one of the many memorials in town, and say a word of thanks to all those who served.