Our Grateful Nation Remembers Thanks to Those in Uniform Who Have Made the Ultimate Sacrifice By Contributor, Photographer Steve Tabor
Our Grateful Nation Remembers Thanks to Those in Uniform Who Have Made the Ultimate Sacrifice
y Contributor, Photographer Steve Tabor
Many credit our nation’s sixteenth President, Abraham Lincoln, with establishing our National Day of Remembrance, Decoration Day, later known as Memorial Day, for those soldiers who lost their lives during the Civil War. However, in all four versions of his 1863 Gettysburg Address, Lincoln only established a portion of the battlefield at Gettysburg “as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.”
The actual origin of Decoration Day is unclear, but its existence is credited over twenty-five small events that occurred during and shortly after the conclusion of the Civil War as well as a Presidential Proclamation signed by Lyndon B. Johnson over one hundred years after the conclusion of the conflict.
Many of those events took place in the Southern states to honor the soldiers that lost their lives during a variety of Civil War encounters. The City of Richmond, Virginia’s newspaper, the Times-Dispatch, published a story in 1906 which credits the first Civil War soldier’s grave to be decorated occurred on June 3, 1861, in Warrenton, Virginia. Reportedly, the soldier, John Quincy Marr, died on June 1, 1861, in Virginia during the Battle of the Fairfax Courthouse.
According to another account published in the History of the 148th Pennsylvania Volunteers in 1904, on July 4, 1864, ladies decorated the graves of fallen soldiers in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. A debate arose when it was confirmed that one of the graves decorated belonged to a soldier that was killed over two months after the event at occurred. The town now claims the event took place on one of the Sundays in October of 1864.
One of the panels on the Confederate Monument erected in 1891 in Jackson, Mississippi, notes that Sue Landon Vaughn decorated the graves of Confederate and Union soldiers on April 26, 1865. However, this is the only published acknowledgement of the event.
Both the Charleston Daily Courier and the New York Tribune published reports of an event taking place in Charleston, South Carolina on May 1, 1865, involving a group of approximately 10,000 recently freed African Americans conducting a parade to honor 257 Union soldiers whose remains were reburied after being exhumed from a mass grave at a Confederate prison camp.
The U.S. National Park Service and other sources directly credit the Ladies Memorial Association of Columbus (LMAC) (Georgia) with the uniform observance of Decoration Day. In March 1866, Mary Ann Williams, Secretary for the LMAC, sent a letter to newspapers requesting their assistance in establishing the date of April 26th as an annual observance of decorating the graves of soldiers throughout the South. The letter was reprinted by several newspapers across the South. On April 26, 1866, observances marking the event were conducted in cities throughout the South.
During that same year on April 25th, a group of women in Columbus, Mississippi set out to decorate graves of Confederate soldiers who lost their lives in the Battle of Shiloh. After completing their task, they glanced over at the undecorated graves of the Union soldiers, and were so moved by the circumstances, that the woman decorated their graves as well.
In 1868, General John A. Logan, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), an organization of and for Union Civil War veterans, issued a proclamation establishing Decoration Day observations on May 30th. Of course, many Southerns viewed General Logan’s actions as an imitation of their established practice. Their thoughts were later confirmed by some sources that indicated General Logan’s wife, brought the practice to the General’s attention after learning about the events during her trip to Virginia that previous spring.
In its first year, Decoration Day activities were conducted in twenty-seven northern states. By 1871, Michigan became the first northern state to proclaim the date as an official state holiday. By 1890, every northern state adopted the date as an official state holiday.
General Logan’s proclamation created another national divide. Wishing to set their observance apart from those activities conducted in the northern states, many of the southern states, the included “Confederate” in the title of their Memorial Day events. In 1874, the Georgia legislature proclaimed “Confederate Memorial Day” as a public holiday. The practice spread throughout the South. Some of the southern states chose to observe the event on the birthday of former Confederate States of America President, Jefferson Davis’, June 3rd. Others held the observance on the date marking the President’s capture by Union forces between late April or on May 10th.
In the early 1900’s the members of GAR became concerned that the intention of the day was being lost on those Americans born after the Civil War. They were replacing the remembrance activities with leisure activities. In 1911, GAR members were outraged when the Indianapolis Motor Speedway chose to host their car race, later known as “The Indianapolis 500” on May 30th. Efforts were made in the early 1920’s by the Indiana legislature to disallow the race from occurring on May 30th, but the pressure from the newly formed American Legion and local officials, gave reason for Governor Warren McCray to veto the legislation.
As the United States became involved in World Wars and other conflicts, the Day’s observance included those service members whose lives were taken during those conflicts. Eventually, “Decoration Day” was replaced by the more favored term, “Memorial Day.” In 1967, federal legislation officially named the day of remembrance as “Memorial Day”.
Controversy struck the day of observance again in 1968. Congress passed the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act.” Beginning in 1971, the observance of Memorial Day would be moved from May 30th to the last Monday in the month of May. The move was done to “create a convenient three-day weekend.”
Raising the concerns voiced by the GAR in the early 1900’s, the change in the observance causes some to criticize that this solemn day “undermined the very meaning of the day.” With some objection, eventually, all fifty states approved the change.
Congress passed the National Moment of Remembrance Act in 2000. The Act calls of an observance of a moment of silence at 3:00 p.m. local time for us to halt our activities of the day and remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for God and Country!
There’s More to the Story
Presidential Controversy
In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson, issued a Presidential Proclamation designing Waterloo, New York as the city first initiating the observance of Memorial Day. Many contest the legitimacy of the Proclamation citing documentation related to many of the observance conducted in the southern states. In their defense, Waterloo officials claim that their celebration was the first recurring community-wide event to take place.
Confederate Memorial Day
Today, Confederate Memorial Day is officially observed on or about April 26th in several southern states in marking the date of the last Confederate field army’s surrender at Bennett Place, South Carolina. Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina officially recognize the day as a state holiday. Georgia, Louisiana, and Virginia have not declared the event as a state holiday, but they do formally recognize the event. Commemoration activities are also conducted in Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.
Wearing Red Poppies
The wearing of red poppies on Memorial Day in remembrance of fallen soldiers, dates back to a poem “In Flanders Fields,” (name given to the battlefields in France and Beligum) drafted in 1915 by a Canadian Expeditionary Force physician, Lt. Colonel John McCrae. The reference is drawn from the poppies growing among the graves of the soldiers who lost their lives in battle.
During the period between 1914 and 1918, a million soldiers from more than fifty countries were wounded, listed as missing or killed in Flanders Fields.
Memorial Day Flag Etiquette
On Memorial Day, the U.S. Flag is positioned at half-staff until 12:00 noon local time. For the remainder of the day, the flag is raised to full staff.
Sources:
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Wikipedia
Steve Tabor Bio
This South Bay native’s photographic journey began after receiving his first 35 mm film camera upon earning his Bachelor of Arts degree. Steve began with photographing coastal landscapes and marine life. As a classroom teacher he used photography to share the world and his experiences with his students. Steve has expanded his photographic talents to include portraits and group photography, special event photography as well as live performance and athletics. Steve serves as a volunteer ranger for the Catalina Island Conservancy and uses this opportunity to document the flora and fauna of the island’s interior as well as photograph special events and activities.
Watch for Steve Tabor Images on the Worldwide Web.
