The First Memorial Day: May 1868
Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. Memorial Day is a time for visiting cemeteries and memorials to mourn the military personnel who died in the line of duty. Volunteers will place American flags on the graves of those military personnel in national cemeteries.
Largely ignored by history, the African American community was the first to observe a memorial day to honor the fallen dead in the Civil War. The plaque in a Charlestown cemetery commemorates the event:
At the time of the Civil War, Hampton Park was the site of the Washington Race Course, which was owned by the South Carolina Jockey Club and was one of the most famous race tracks of the Antebellum South. In late 1864, this site became a large open-air prison with thousands of Union troops evacuated from the Andersonville, Georgia prison in advance of Sherman’s March to the Sea. Before Charleston fell in February 1865, several hundred of the prisoners died and were buried in mass graves. In an effort led by African American churches in April 1865, the dead were reinterred in orderly graves enclosed by a picket fence. Over the gate was written: Martyrs of the Race Course.
On May 1, 1865, a parade in honor of the prisoners of war who died here took place with 10,000 participants, according to contemporary accounts. Nearly 3000 were school children from the new Freedman’s Bureau Schools. The children led the parade, carrying armloads of flowers and singing patriotic songs. They were followed by women’s organizations, church leaders, Unionists, recently emancipated slaves, and Union troops, including the 54th Massachusetts. The soldiers were later buried in Beaufort and Florence National Cemeteries or in their hometowns. Annual events to honor the dead of both sides of the Civil War eventually became known as Memorial Day. The event in what is now Hampton Park is acknowledged by most historians to be the first Memorial Day in the United States of America.
"OFFICIAL" MEMORIAL DAY
Many sources acknowledge celebrations in both the north and south in the US, starting just after the Civil War, but cite the first national observance of what would become Memorial Day as occurring on May 30, 1868. Then known as Decoration Day, the holiday was proclaimed by Commander-in-Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic – a fraternal organization of veterans – to honor Union soldiers who had died in the American Civil War. This national observance followed the example of many local observances which were begun between the end of the Civil War and Logan's declaration. Many cities and people have claimed to be the first to observe it, however, the National Cemetery Administration, a division of the Department of Veterans Affairs, credits Mary Ann Williams of the Ladies Memorial Association of Columbus, Georgia, with originating the idea of an annual date to decorate the graves of Civil War veterans with flowers.
Official recognition as a holiday spread among the states, beginning with New York in 1873. By 1890, every state had adopted it. The world wars turned it into a day of remembrance for all members of the U.S. military who fought and died in service. In 1968, Congress changed its observance to the last Monday in May, and in 1971 standardized its name as "Memorial Day.” Two other days celebrate those who have served or are serving in the U.S. military: Armed Forces Day, which is earlier in May, a ceremonial U.S. day of commemoration for honoring those currently serving in the armed forces, and Veterans Day on November 11, a legal holiday which honors all those who have served in the United States Armed Forces.
NORTHERN PRECEDENTS
There are numerous precedents in the South; two are of note in Pennsylvania.
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
The 1863 cemetery dedication at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, included a ceremony of commemoration at the graves of dead soldiers. Some have therefore claimed that President Abraham Lincoln was the founder of Memorial Day. However, Chicago journalist Lloyd Lewis tried to make the case that it was Lincoln's funeral that spurred the soldiers' grave decorating that followed.
Boalsburg, Pennsylvania
On July 4, 1864, ladies decorated soldiers' graves according to local historians in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania (Centre County). Boalsburg promotes itself as the birthplace of Memorial Day. However, no published reference to this event has been found earlier than the printing of the History of the 148th Pennsylvania Volunteers in 1904.
In a footnote to a story about her brother, Mrs. Sophie (Keller) Hall described how she and Emma Hunter decorated the grave of Emma's father, Reuben Hunter, and then the graves of all soldiers in the cemetery. The original story did not account for Reuben Hunter's death occurring two months later on September 19, 1864. It also did not mention Mrs. Elizabeth Myers as one of the original participants.
A bronze statue of all three women gazing upon Reuben Hunter's grave now stands near the entrance to the Boalsburg Cemetery. Although July 4, 1864, was a Monday, the town now claims that the original decoration was on one of the Sundays in October 1864.
NATIONAL DECORATION DAY
... “Let us then gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of Springtime; 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 as a sacred charge upon a Nation's gratitude—the soldiers' and sailors' widow and orphan.”— John A. Logan, May 5, 1868
On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan issued a proclamation calling for "Decoration Day" to be observed annually and nationwide; he was commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), an organization of and for Union Civil War veterans founded in Decatur, Illinois. With his proclamation, Logan adopted the Memorial Day practice that had begun in the Southern states two years earlier. The northern states quickly adopted the holiday.
In 1868, memorial events were held in 183 cemeteries in 27 states, and 336 in 1869. At least one author asserts that the date, May 30, was chosen because it was not the anniversary of any particular battle. Logan's wife noted that the date was chosen because it was the optimal date for flowers to be in bloom in the North.
STATE HOLIDAY
In 1873, New York made Decoration Day an official state holiday and by 1890, every northern state had followed suit. There was no standard program for the ceremonies, but they were typically sponsored by the Women's Relief Corps, the women's auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), which had 100,000 members. By 1870, the remains of nearly 300,000 Union dead had been reinterred in 73 national cemeteries, located near major battlefields and thus mainly in the South. The most famous are Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania and Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C.
The 1870 Decoration Day parade in St. Paul, Minnesota
EARLY NATIONAL HISTORY
In April 1865, following Lincoln's assassination, commemorations were extensive. The more than 600,000 soldiers of both sides who fought and died in the Civil War meant that burial and memorialization took on new cultural significance. Under the leadership of women during the war, an increasingly formal practice of decorating graves had taken shape. In 1865, the federal government also began creating the United States National Cemetery System for the Union war dead.
By the 1880s, ceremonies were becoming more consistent across geography as the GAR provided handbooks that presented specific procedures, poems, and Bible verses for local post commanders to utilize in planning the local event. Historian Stuart McConnell reports: “on the day itself, the post assembled and marched to the local cemetery to decorate the graves of the fallen, an enterprise meticulously organized months in advance to assure that none were missed. Finally came a simple and subdued graveyard service involving prayers, short patriotic speeches, and music ... and at the end perhaps a rifle salute.”
Orphans placing flags at their fathers' graves in Glenwood Cemetery in Philadelphia on Decoration Day
