A LITTLE HISTORY ABOUT MEMORIAL DAY
Memorial Day is the day that the United States officially honors its war dead.
The Memorial Day tradition began in the small town of Waterloo, New York, shortly after the Civil War. Henry Welles, a druggist, and John Murray, a Union general, organized a ceremony to honor the Civil War dead of both North and South. On May 5, 1866, the village flags were flown at half-mast and a parade of villagers marched to the cemetery and placed flowers on the graves.
The idea spread. In 1868, a group of Union veterans began campaigning for a national, official day of commemoration. Their efforts resulted in May 30 being designated Decoration Day. However, ceremonies soon became more elaborate, involving far more than just decorating graves. After a period of years, the day came to be known as Memorial Day.
No one knows exactly why May 30 was selected as the day of observance. One theory is that the day approximately represents the date of surrender of the last Confederate general. General Kirby-Smith surrendered on May 26, 1865.
Though Waterloo, New York has been legally designated by the U.S. Congress as the official birthplace of Memorial Day, there is some evidence that the honor actually belongs elsewhere.
On April 25, 1866 a group of women from Columbus, Mississippi honored the soldiers killed in the Battle of Shiloh by placing fresh flowers on all graves -- Confederate and Union alike. Newspaper coverage of the event verifies that the ceremony took place ten days before the Waterloo, New York observance.
Every Memorial Day for the past 60 years, a wreath-laying ceremony has been held at the Tomb of the Unknowns, in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.
Originally called the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, this monument pays tribute to the servicemen who died in combat but whose bodies could not be identified. The original tomb was completed in 1931 and bore the body of a soldier killed in World War I. Congress later directed that an unidentified body from each subsequent war -- World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War -- be placed in the tomb and that the monument's name be changed to the Tomb of the Unknowns.
Taken from The Advocate
May 29, 1995 |
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