Quisque iaculis facilisis lacinia. Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued the 1868 proclamation declaring the first Decoration Day, which was celebrated with a large memorial observance at Arlington National Cemetery, with about five thousand attending. The following year, some 336 cities and towns in thirty-one states, including the South, arranged parades and orations. By their labor, their words, their songs, and their solemn parade of flowers and marching feet on their former owners' race course, they created for themselves, and for us, the Independence Day of the Second American Revolution. American deaths in all other wars combined through the Korean conflict totaled 606,000. Officially, as a national holiday, Memorial Day emerged in 1868 when General John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Union veterans organization, called on all former northern soldiers and their communities to conduct ceremonies and decorate graves of their dead comrades. … It was originally called Decoration Day as the women would decorate the graves of the Civil War veterans. But a measure of how white Charlestonians suppressed from memory this founding in favor of their own creation of the practice later came fifty-one years afterward, when the president of the Ladies Memorial Association of Charleston received an inquiry about the May 1, 1865 parade. By their labor, their words, their songs, and their solemn parade of flowers and marching feet on their former owners' race course, they created for themselves, and for us, the Independence Day of the Second American Revolution. The old race track is still there — an oval roadway in Hampton Park in Charleston, named for Wade Hampton, former Confederate general and the white supremacist Redeemer governor of South Carolina after the end of Reconstruction. Pride of place as the first large scale ritual of Decoration Day, therefore, goes to African Americans in Charleston. The dead were visible by their massive absence. The symbolic power of the low-country planter aristocracy's horse track (where they had displayed their wealth, leisure, and influence) was not lost on the freedpeople. The city was largely abandoned by white residents by late February. Before strewing flowers upon the graves of the dead, the crowd listened to an address by James A. Garfield (1831–81), then an Ohio congressman who had also served as a major general in the Civil War. Following the solemn dedication the crowd dispersed into the infield and did what many of us do on Memorial Day: they enjoyed picnics, listened to speeches, and watched soldiers drill. Beyond the Barbecues; It was originally called Decoration Day; It wasn’t always celebrated the last Monday of May; Observe a National Moment of Remembrance — It’s the Law; James A. Garfield delivered a rather lengthy speech at the first Memorial Day ceremony; Several states observe Confederate Memorial Day Americans understand that Memorial Day, or "Decoration Day," as my parents called it, has something to do with honoring the nation's war dead. A New York Tribune correspondent witnessed the event, describing "a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before. The … Among the first troops to enter and march up Meeting Street singing liberation songs was the Twenty First U. S. Colored Infantry; their commander accepted the formal surrender of the city. Then came black men marching in cadence, followed by contingents of Union infantry and other black and white citizens. Thousands of black Charlestonians, most former slaves, remained in the city and conducted a series of commemorations to declare their sense of the meaning of the war. Hence Decoration Day. A cantankerous widower (Garner) who is virtually living the life of a recluse is forced to rejoin his community when his Godchild (Skaggs) gets in trouble and a childhood friend (Cobbs), a black tenant farmer, refuses to belatedly accept the Medal of Honor for bravery in World War II. Collectively, we are not even allowed to see our war dead today. The vintage postcards included here are…, Divided Back Postcard Decoration Day - Civil War Memorial Day. But where did it begin, who created it, and why? See more ideas about Day, Memorial day, Memorial day decorations. May 10, 2013 - Explore Pamela Lee's board "The First Decoration Day", followed by 297 people on Pinterest. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. But all of them commemorate cemetery decoration events from 1866. MORE: Of Memorial Days, and Sons and Daughters, Next It wasn’t always celebrated the last Monday of May. The most immediate legacy of the Civil War was its slaughter and how remember it. Sometimes these pictures required no words to explain them and other times text…, Decoration Day - Boys As Sailor & Soldier with US Flag - Memorial Day, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Colored Troops, who performed a special double-columned march around the gravesite. As I mentioned in that post, Pyle often had his Drexel Institute students make compositions with seasonal themes and then submit the results to art editors of various periodicals. On May 30, 1868, when flowers were plentiful, funereal ceremonies were attended by thousands of people in 183 cemeteries in twenty-seven states. 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