Today is Memorial Day. The beginning of summer for many, occupancy of a beach house, or somewhere in the mountains, or for so many city dwellers in the inner metropolitan areas, a trip to the park for a picnic. Barbecue, cold beer, games, all mark this day in various places and in various ways. The Veterans of Foreign Wars, and both active and retired Military personnel treat the day with somewhat greater seriousness, in observance of fallen of comrades, the legacy of America’s losses in distant conflicts. What are the origins of this day? Wikipedia provides some answers;
Following the end of the Civil War, many communities set aside a day to mark the end of the war or as a memorial to those who had died. Some of the places creating an early memorial day include Sharpsburg, Maryland, located near Antietam Battlefield; Charleston, South Carolina; Boalsburg, Pennsylvania; Richmond, Virginia; Carbondale, Illinois; Columbus, Mississippi; many communities in Vermont; and some two dozen other cities and towns. These observances coalesced around Decoration Day, honoring the Union dead, and the several Confederate Memorial Days.
According to Professor David Blight of the Yale University History Department, the first memorial day was observed in 1865 by liberated slaves at the historic race track in Charleston. The site was a former Confederate prison camp as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers who died in captivity. The freed slaves reinterred the dead Union soldiers from the mass grave to individual graves, fenced in the graveyard and built an entry arch declaring it a Union graveyard. This was a daring action for them to take in the South shortly after the North’s victory. On May 30, 1868, the freed slaves returned to the graveyard with flowers they had picked from the countryside and decorated the individual gravesites, thereby creating the first Decoration Day. A parade by thousands of freed blacks and Union soldiers from the area was followed by patriotic singing and a picnic.
It is widely thought that the wider observance of Memorial Day began on May 5th 1866 in the town of Waterloo, New York. Our friend Wikipedia goes on to say;
The village was credited with being the place of origin because it observed the day on May 5, 1866, and each year thereafter. The friendship between General John Murray, a distinguished citizen of Waterloo, and former Union army General John A. Logan, who helped bring attention to the event nationwide, likely was a factor in the holiday’s growth.
Logan had been the principal speaker in a citywide memorial observation on April 29, 1866, at a cemetery in Carbondale, Illinois, an event that likely gave him the idea to make it a national holiday. On May 5, 1868, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans’ organization, Logan issued a proclamation that “Decoration Day” be observed nationwide. It was observed for the first time on May 30 of the same year; the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of a battle. The tombs of fallen Union soldiers were decorated in remembrance.
Many of the states of the U.S. South refused to celebrate Decoration Day, due to lingering hostility towards the Union Army and also because there were relatively few veterans of the Union Army who were buried in the South. A notable exception was Columbus, Mississippi, which on April 25, 1866 at its Decoration Day commemorated both the Union and Confederate casualties buried in its cemetery.
The alternative name of “Memorial Day” was first used in 1882. It did not become more common until after World War II, and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967 . On June 28, 1968, the United States Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill, which moved three holidays from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend. The holidays included Washington’s Birthday, now celebrated as Presidents’ Day; Veterans Day, and Memorial Day. The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971.
After some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply, all fifty states adopted the measure within a few years. Veterans Day was eventually changed back to its traditional date. Ironically, most corporate businesses no longer close on Veterans Day, Columbus Day, or President’s Day, with the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and/or New Years Eve often substituted as more convenient “holidays” for their employees. Memorial Day endures as a holiday which most businesses observe because it marks the beginning of the “summer vacation season.”
So today, as you chow down on hotdogs, hamburgers and slurp up some ice cold beer, enjoy the day certainly…but spend a few moments thinking about how this day first began and perhaps briefly, consider those who died, in order that you might live in liberty and freedom today.
Happy Memorial Day everyone, wherever you may be.
