Memorial Day History

During the Civil War, Union soldiers who were prisoners of war had been held at the Charleston, South Carolina Race Course; at least 257 died there and were hastily buried in unmarked graves. Freedmen (freed slaves) cleaned up and landscaped the burial ground, building an enclosure and an arch labeled "Martyrs of the Race Course." Following President Abraham Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, there were a variety of events of commemoration. The first known observance of a Memorial Day-type observance was at the Charleston Race Course on May 1, 1865. Nearly 10,000 people gathered to commemorate the dead (3,000 schoolchildren newly enrolled in freedmen's schools, teachers, mutual aid societies, Union troops, black ministers and white northern missionaries); most brought flowers to lay on the burial field. The ceremony was covered by the New York Tribune and other national papers and was called the ‘First Decoration Day’ (Memorial Day was first used in 1882). On April 25, 1866 women in Columbus, Mississippi laid flowers at the graves of both the Union and Confederate casualties buried in its cemetery.

The Southern states established Confederate Memorial Day with dates ranging from April 25 to mid-June (by 1916 the June 3 birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was observed as a state holiday in 10 southern states). Across the South associations were founded after the War, many by women. The Ladies Memorial Association’s Lost Cause played a key role but the most important was the United Daughters of the Confederacy which grew from 17,000 members in 1900 to nearly 100,000 women by World War I.

On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the organization for Union Civil War veterans, issued a proclamation that "Decoration Day" should be observed nationwide and May 30 was chosen because it was not the anniversary of a battle. Events were held in 183 cemeteries in 27 states in 1868 and 336 in 1869. The northern states quickly adopted the holiday; Michigan made "Decoration Day" an official state holiday in 1871 and by 1890 every northern state followed suit. The ceremonies were sponsored by the Women's Relief Corps which had 100,000 members. In 1865 the federal government began a program of creating national cemeteries for the Union dead. By 1870 the remains of nearly 300,000 Union dead had been reinterred in 73 national cemeteries located near the battlefields and therefore mostly in the South. The most famous are Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania and Arlington National Cemetery near Washington DC. The ceremonies and Memorial Day address at Gettysburg National Park became nationally well known starting in 1868. Ironton, Ohio lays claim to the nation's oldest continuously running Memorial Day parade (first held May 5, 1868) and the town has held it every year since. However, the Memorial Day parade in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, predates Ironton's by one year.

The Memorial Day speech became an occasion for veterans, politicians and ministers to commemorate the War and at first to rehash the atrocities of the enemy; people of all religious beliefs joined together, they mixed religion and celebratory nationalism and provided a means for the people to make sense of their history in terms of sacrifice for a better nation. By the end of the 1870s much of the rancor was gone. Around 1890 there was a shift from consolatory emphasis on honoring specific soldiers; the ceremony's hymns and speeches reflected an evolution of the ritual into a symbol of cultural renewal and conservatism. By 1913 the theme of American nationalism shared equal time with the Lost Cause and the speeches praised the brave soldiers both Blue and Gray. In July 1913 veterans of the United States and Confederate armies gathered in Gettysburg to commemorate the 50th anniversary of one of the Civil War's bloodiest and most famous battle. The 4-day "Blue-Gray Reunion" featured parades, re-enactments and speeches from a host of dignitaries, including President Woodrow Wilson (first Southerner elected to the White House since the War). Alabama’s noted orator James Heflin was given the honor of the main address (this choice was criticized as he was opposed for his racism). His speech was moderate in tone and stressed national unity and goodwill which gained praise from newspapers. By the 1950s the theme was American exceptionalism and duty to uphold freedom in the world.

The Memorial Day name for the holiday became more common after World War II and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967. On June 28, 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill which moved 4 holidays from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a 3-day weekend. The change moved Memorial Day from its May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect in 1971 and after some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply all 50 states adopted the change within a few years. Since 1987 Hawaii's Senator Daniel Inouye, a World War II veteran, has introduced a measure to return Memorial Day to its traditional date (Veterans of Foreign Wars [VFW] and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War also advocate returning to the original date); in a 2002 Memorial Day Address the VFW stated: Changing the date merely to create 3-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed a lot to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day. I believe they may be right.