Three years after
the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of former
Union soldiers and sailors - the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) - established
Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war
dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared it should be May 30.
The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery,
across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The cemetery already held
the remains of 20,000 Union dead and several hundred Confederate dead.
The ceremonies centered around the mourning-draped veranda
of the Arlington mansion, once the home of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Gen. and
Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant and other Washington officials presided. After speeches,
children from the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphan Home and members of the
GAR made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers on both Union
and Confederate graves, reciting prayers and singing hymns.
Local springtime tributes to the Civil War dead already
had been held in various places. One of the first occurred in Columbus,
Miss., April 25, 1866, when a group of women visited a cemetery to decorate
the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen in battle at Shiloh. Nearby
were the graves of Union soldiers, neglected because they were the enemy.
Disturbed at the sight of the bare graves, the women placed some of their
flowers on those graves, as well.
Today cities in the North and the South claim to be the
birthplace of Memorial Day in 1866. Both Macon and Columbus, Ga., claim
the title, as well as Richmond, Va. The village of Boalsburg, Pa., claims
it began there two years earlier. A stone in a Carbondale, Ill., cemetery
carries the statement that the first Decoration Day cere- mony took place
there on April 29, 1866. Carbondale was the wartime home of Gen. Logan.
Approximately 25 places have been named in connection with the origin of
Memorial Day, many of them in the South where most of the war dead were
buried.
In 1966, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson declared
Waterloo, N.Y., the "birthplace" of Memorial Day. There a ceremony
on May 5, 1866, was reported to have honored local soldiers and sailors
who had fought in the Civil War. Businesses closed and residents flew flags
at half-mast. Supporters of Waterloo's claim say earlier observances in
other places were either informal, not community-wide or one-time events.
By the end of the 19th century, Memorial Day ceremonies
were being held on May 30 throughout the nation. State legislatures passed
proclamations designating the day. The Army and
Navy adopted regulations for proper observance at their facilities. It was
not until after World War I, however, that the day was expanded to honor
those who have died in all American wars. In 1971 Memorial Day was declared
a national holiday by an act of Congress, though it is still often called
Decoration Day. It was then also placed on the last Monday in May, as were
some other federal holidays.
Many Southern states also have their own days for
honoring the Confederate dead. Mississippi celebrates Confederate Memorial
Day the last Monday of April, Alabama on the fourth Monday of April, and
Georgia on April 26. North and South Carolina observe it May 10, Louisiana
on June 3 and Tennessee calls that date Confederate Decoration Day. Texas
celebrates Confederate Heroes Day January 19 and Virginia calls the last
Monday in May Confederate Memorial Day.
Gen. Logan's order for his posts to decorate graves in
1868 "with the choicest flowers of springtime" urged: "We
should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. ... Let pleasant paths
invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let
no 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."
The crowd attending the first Memorial Day ceremony at
Arlington National Cemetery was approximately the same size as those that
attend today's observance, about 5,000 people. Then, as now, small American
flags were placed on each grave - a tradition followed at many national
cemeteries today. In recent years, the custom has grown in many families
to decorate the graves of all departed loved ones.
The origins of special services to honor those who die
in war can be found in antiquity. The Athenian leader Pericles offered a
tribute to the fallen heroes of the Peloponnesian War over 24 centuries
ago that could be applied today to the 1.1 million Americans who have died
in the nation's wars: "Not only are they commemorated by columns and
inscriptions, but there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven
not on stone but in the hearts of men."