Today is a day set aside to honor those who have given the last
full measure of devotion in service to the United States of America.
Though it is now observed on the last Monday of May, Memorial Day was
originally designated as May 30 and has its origins in the Civil War.
The
nation was not prepared for the destruction wrought by civil war and
hospitals were quickly overrun whenever a battle was fought. Likewise,
existing cemeteries could not handle the overwhelming numbers of dead
and the first national cemeteries were established in order to deal with
the problem.
In the years following the war it had
become increasingly common for towns and cities to hold tribute to the
fallen soldiers each spring, laying flowers at their graves and
speaking words of homage and respect.
It is unclear
exactly where this tradition originated. Though, in May 1966, President
Lyndon Johnson officially declared Waterloo, New York to be the
birthplace of Memorial Day, it is likely that numerous communities
independently initiated memorial gatherings.
What we do
know for sure is that on May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, national
commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization
and advocacy group for Northern Civil War veterans, issued General Order
No. 11. This order proclaimed that, “The 30th 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.” Logan was calling for a
nation-wide day of remembrance, which he dubbed as “Decoration Day.”
General John A. Logan
Logan
chose May 30 for the date of Decoration Day because it was not the
anniversary of any particular battle, and could therefore serve as a
time to honor all those who had made the ultimate sacrifice.
On
the first Decoration Day in 1868, memorials were held in a variety of
cemeteries ranging from local churchyards to the large national
cemeteries established during the war. All told, events were held in 183
cemeteries in 27 different states. The largest commemoration effort
took place at Arlington National Cemetery where General James Garfield
gave a speech, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000
Union and Confederate soldiers interred on the grounds.
Preparing flowers for Decoration Day in 1899
In
the years that followed the idea continued to spread, gaining traction
when the State of New York officially recognized the day in 1873. This
example was soon followed by other states and by 1890 Decoration Day was
recognized by all of the northern states.
The Southern
states, however, were largely reticent to acknowledge the day, and
instead honored their dead in their own way and on separate days.
Even
so, the roots of Memorial Day can be found in the south at the same
time or even earlier than they arose in northern cities. The first
recorded instance of an observance similar to what we now know as
Memorial Day occurred just after the war ended in Charleston, South
Carolina on May 1, 1865.
During the war, at least 257
Union prisoners had died while being held on the grounds of the
Charleston Race Course, and had been hastily buried in unmarked graves.
Knowing of these internments, freedmen in Charleston, assisted by
missionaries, put together a May Day ceremony to honor these men. Nearly
ten thousand people, most of them former slaves who had gained their
freedom as a result of the war, gathered together to commemorate the
fallen. Most brought flowers to lay on the burial field. Today the site
of this commemoration is known as Hampton Park.
Historian David W. Blight describes the events of the day in this way:
"This
was the first Memorial Day...What you have [in Charleston] is black
Americans recently freed from slavery announcing to the world with their
flowers, their feet, and their songs what the War had been about. What
they basically were creating was the Independence Day of a Second
American Revolution.”
We also know that in 1867 Nella L. Sweet published a hymn called,
Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping which
carried the dedication “To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating
the Graves of the Confederate Dead,” which suggests that organized
women's groups in the South as well as the North were decorating graves
in the years immediately following the war.
Following the
Great War (World War I) half a century later, the holiday evolved to
commemorate all those who had been killed serving in the American
military, grew in scale, and was observed by southern as well as
northern states.
As time passed the name of the holiday
gradually changed from "Decoration Day" to "Memorial Day," a description
which is first recorded in 1882. The latter name did not become
commonly used, however, until after World War II, and was not declared
as the official name until 1967.
For a full century
Decoration/Memorial Day was observed on May 30, the date Logan had
originally selected for the first Decoration Day in 1868. One hundred
years later, in 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act,
which changed recognition of Memorial Day to the last Monday in May, so
that it would always result in a three-day weekend, beginning in 1971.
This law also declared Memorial Day to be an official federal holiday.
It has been observed in this manner ever since.
The manner
in which Americans have celebrated Memorial Day has changed, but the
principal idea of decorating graves with flowers continues. Over time
the poppy has overtaken all other flowers as the primary floral symbol
of Memorial Day, and the tradition has expanded to include the wearing
of flowers in addition to placing them at gravesites.
Field of Red Poppies in France near the fields of Flanders
In 1915 Moina Michael, inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields," wrote these lines:
We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.
In
addition to writing these words Moina decided to wear red poppies on
Memorial Day to honor the fallen. She soon begin to sell poppy flowers
to others as well and used the profits to benefit American servicemen in
need. Her devotion and example, coupled with her poem, gave birth to
the practice of wearing a poppy in one’s lapels in observance of
Memorial Day.
Stars signifying American lives lost in WWII at the National Memorial in Washington, DC
The
day has also become a special time to honor the mothers and widows of
those who have been lost. These special ladies are known as Gold Star
mothers and wives, inspired by the practice of hanging a gold star in
the window to symbolize the loss of a loved one in WWI and WWII.
Three
Gold Star mothers alongside a park ranger dressed as a Civil War
officer at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC in 2010
In
the nearly 150 years since its inception Memorial Day has also come to
mark the beginning of summer and is often a time of picnicking,
barbequing and family vacation. In recent years the focus of the day has
shifted toward a celebration of summer and away from honoring the
fallen. In an effort to restore the focus to the intention of the
holiday, in December, 2000 the "National Moment of Remembrance"
resolution was passed to asks all Americans at 3 p.m. local time, “To
voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of
remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a
moment of silence or listening to Taps.”
So this Memorial
Day make sure to pause and reflect upon the sacrifice of so many that
has allowed this nation to be a beacon of freedom and liberty for 236
years.
It is for us the living, rather, to be
dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have
thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to
the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take
increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full
measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall
not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for
the people, shall not perish from the earth.
~President Abraham Lincoln at the Dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg,
November 19, 1863
