Memorial Day

At my request, my dad gave me some thoughts about Memorial Day:

Memorial Day is a solemn, sacred day of remembrance and mourning. This national holiday and patriotic anniversary commemorates those who lost their lives in military service to America. (Remember that holiday was originally "holy day" and sacrifice means to make sacred.) More than 1,000,000 American men and women made the supreme sacrifice in 10 major wars and twice that many conflict situations since our nation began.

On Memorial Day we do not honor war. Rather, we recall with respect the battles and the wars which the heroes of our nation fought to preserve our American heritage. Our national observance involves laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The U.S. flag should be displayed at half-staff until noon in honor of the deceased men and women who defended our nation and in honor of those who are still missing in action, then raised to the top of the staff. When flown at half-staff, the flag should be first hoisted to the peak for an instant and then lowered to the half-staff position. The flag should be raised again to the peak before it is lowered for the day.

From Decoration Day to Memorial Day

Formerly known as Decoration Day, this holiday began in the Spring of 1866 with a small spontaneous ceremony in Columbus, Mississippi. Three women often went to Friendship Cemetery there to tend the graves of soldiers who had died in Columbus Military Hospital in the early years of the Civil War. The example set by these three Miss Moreton, Mrs. Fontaine and Mrs. Hill led others to join them in a public procession on April 25th.

The long procession made its way to the cemetery. First came the young girls, all in white. Then, in black, came the women who were married or who had lost their husbands. Last, in carriages, came the elderly. Everyone carried a bouquet of spring blossoms. They halted by the graves and formed a square. They heard an address and then laid their flowers as badges of honor upon their dead.

Some 1,400 Confederate dead lay there; somewhat apart from them were the graves of about 40 Northern soldiers who had died in Columbus as prisoners of war. The women of Columbus, Mississippi, with a single generous impulse of heart, also laid flowers on the Yankee graves.

The news spread everywhere. In Ithaca, New York, a lawyer named Francis Miles Finch heard the story. He wrote a poem entitled "The Blue and the Gray" which Atlantic Monthly printed the next year. It was reprinted in newspapers, and memorized and debated. Steadily, like new grass growing over a battlefield, the generous example of the women of Columbus, and Finch’s eloquence, spread across the nation, healing the bitterness of conflict.

In 1868, John A. Logan, Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued a general order (see next section) designating May 30 "for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion." Logan did this "with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year." General James A. Garfield, who later became President, spoke at the first Memorial Day ceremony, saying, We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke; but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. For love of country, they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and virtue.

In 1882 the Grand Army changed the designation to Memorial Day. Various states had already made it a legal holiday; others followed suit and soon it became a national holiday. Later it was extended to honor all U.S. war dead. In 1971, by an act of Congress, Memorial Day was fixed on the last Monday in May.

The Original Memorial Day Order

Headquarters Grand Army of the Republic
Washington, D.C.
May 5, 1868

General Orders
No. 11

I. The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form or ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

We are organized, comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose, among other things of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers, sailors and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion. What can aid more to assure this result than by cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foes? Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a face in chains and their deaths a tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms. We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders. Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no vandalism or avarice or neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of a free and undivided republic.

If other eyes grow dull and other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remains in us.

Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as sacred charges upon the nation’s gratitude the soldier’s and sailor’s widow and orphan.

II. It is the purpose of the Commander in Chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades. He earnestly desires the public press to call attention to this order, and lend its friendly aid in bringing it to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance therewith.

III. Department commanders will use every effort to make this order effective.

By command of
John A. Logan,
Commander in Chief
N. P. Chipman, Adjutant General