The Beginnings of Memorial Day

A few years after the Civil War as the nation started upon its long
road toward reconciliation, rebuilding, and healing the wife of one of
the war’s union generals noticed the touching devotion of Confederate
widows, wives and their children as each year they came together to
place flowers and little flags at the graves of their fallen.

Mary
Simmerson Cunningham Logan was so moved by the devotion she witnessed
that she urged her husband, Illinois General John A. “Blackjack” Logan,
to look into creating what was to become Memorial Day.

General Logan was a Senator from Illinois and eventually became a
candidate for Vice President on the 1884 Republican ticket, losing to
Grover Cleveland and another Illinoisan, Vice President Adlai Stevenson.
But before all that Logan was instrumental in creating Decoration Day,
the celebration of the nation’s war dead that eventually became Memorial
Day.

The following is the general order that Logan issued in 1868.

HEADQUARTERS GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC

General Orders No.11, WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5, 1868

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.

Department commanders will use efforts to make this order effective.

By order of

JOHN A. LOGAN,

Commander-in-Chief

N.P. CHIPMAN,

Adjutant General

Official:

WM. T. COLLINS, A.A.G.

Today, America takes the time to remember those who served and died
in service to our country and it is fitting that the holiday was born of
both a re-united South and North after our bloodiest war.

Please enjoy your Memorial Day and say a prayer for the souls of our fallen heroes.