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A Grand Army of the Republic Decoration Day card features an veteran in an unusual khaki uniform--blue was the norm. May be from the Spanish American War era, but the vet seems to young.
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Today is, of course, Memorial Day
in the United States. The Uniform Holiday Act, passed
in 1968, set 1971 as the year the Federal government would begin observing
the holiday on the last Monday of May giving Americans a three day holiday weekend to start the summer
season, to be balanced by a three day Labor Day weekend in September.
Veteran’s organizations were nearly unanimous in opposition to the move fearing
that it would dilute the observance as families planed fun activities instead
of solemnly commemorating the war dead.
Several states refused at first to change their observances in conformity with
the Federal law creating two Memorial Day holidays. That proved unworkable
and eventually all fell in line.
Of course the veterans groups were
right. Attendance at their parades
and cemetery services dropped off in
favor of barbeques or a day at the beach.
The origins of the solemn rituals go
back to the end of the Civil War.
Almost as soon as the firing
stopped communities were gathering
to honor their dead, which in the sentimental 19th Century naturally
meant trekking out to local cemeteries to festoon the graves with flowers. Some credit the first organized commemoration to Confederate
widows.
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Former slaves in Charleston, South Carolina form up for the dedication
of the cemetery that they built for the graves of Union prisoners of war on
May 1, 1865. Many consider this the first Memorial Day.
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Others say that former slaves
in Charleston, South Carolina originated it when they reburied Union soldiers who died in a Confederate prisoner of war camp there and dedicated the
cemetery they created as a Union
graveyard. A local paper said that up to 10,000 people, mostly former slaves, were present for a
dedication of the cemetery on May 1,
1865 marking the occasion with singing
and prayers.
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This dramatic and impressive equestrian monument to General John A. Logan, Civil War hero and first Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, sits atop a prominent mound in Grant Park in down town Chicago. Ironically it became a rallying point for anti-war demonstrators during the 1967 Democratic National Convention and the scene of a bloody police charge.
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Some kind of local observances
sprang up in towns and cities both north and south. Waterloo, New York
lays claim to the first Decoration Day, as it became known with an
observance on May 5, 1865. It was surely just one of many. But the
friendship of the local leader of
the celebration, General John Murray with General John A. Logan, the first Commander-in-Chief
of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R) planted the idea of creating a national observance. On May 5,
1868 Logan issued G.A.R. General Order No. 11 instructing local posts to participate:
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 church-yard in the land. In this observance no form
of 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 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 race in chains, and their deaths the 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
of 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, 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 remain to us.
Let us, then, at the time appointed
gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above
them with the choicest flowers of spring-time; 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 a sacred charge
upon a nation's gratitude, the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan.
- 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 lend its friendly aid in bringing to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance therewith…
To this day, Logan’s
order is often read at Memorial Day observances conducted by the American
Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and other veterans’ organizations.
Decoration Day was soon
observed across the North, and at Union cemeteries in the South. For many
years it was confined to the Yankee dead
and was thus boycotted by Southern states, most of which designated
their own separate memorial days for
the Confederate dead. It was
not until after the Spanish American War in 1898 in which Southerners served
in arms under the Stars and
Stripes once again, that the notion began to spread of honoring all of the
war dead—although this was fought tooth and nail by the GAR. The South
began to share the May 30th date, but tended to call their observances Memorial
Days to differentiate them from the GAR’s Decoration Days.
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A Confederate Memorial Day ceremony at the Woodington Universalist Church in Lenoir County, North Carolina 1920.
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After World War I it
became common to include the dead of that war—and later all wars—in the
commemorations and the use of the term Memorial Day became more common even in
the North. But it was not until 1967 the Congress officially
changed the name.
In 1915 Moina Michael of Georgia, inspired
by the poem In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae conceived of the idea of making and selling paper
flowers for the support of maimed
soldiers. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917 she began selling her
poppies on Decoration Day to honor the dead of all wars. She later
donated proceeds to French and Belgian war orphans. The poppy tradition spread to other Allied countries. After the relief organizations she had been donating
to disbanded after the War, Michel approached the Veterans of Foreign Wars,
who adopted Memorial Day poppy sales in 1922. Two years later they
inaugurated their annual Buddy Poppy sales. Soon no respectable
American would be seen on the
streets on Memorial Day without a Poppy.
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Moina Mitchell was inspired by the popular poem In Flanders Fields to make and sell paper poppies to raise funds for the reliefe of Belgian and French refugees and war orphans in the Great War. After the war she approached the Veterans of Foreign Wars who began selling their Buddy Poppies in 1922.
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These days the tradition of
decorating soldier’s graves is kept
alive by Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and veteran’s organizations that place
small flags on the graves of veterans, not only at National Cemeteries, but
in local graveyards as well. Many cities and towns still hold parades,
General Logan’s Order is read, prayers are uttered, politicians orate, high
school bands play patriotic music, and sometimes straggling lines of elderly
veterans rattle off vollies of rifle fire in the salute to the flag.
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Aging veterans and Civil Air Patrol Cadets form an honor guard at a local Memorial Day observance.
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That’s the way it will be in my town.
Then we will come home and burn the hell out of some brats and burgers.
How about you?
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