Memorial Day
Memorial Day is set aside for the brave dead who lost their lives in
the many noble struggles for our freedom. It was observed for the first time on
May 30, 1863, because it was not the
anniversary of a battle. Since that time the gravestones at National Cemeteries
are graced by the American flag
on the last Monday in May. Memorial Day is a federal holiday formerly
known as Decoration Day. It was first enacted to honor Union and Confederate
soldiers following the American Civil
War and was extended after World War I to honor Americans in all wars.
Memorial Day marks the start of the
summer vacation season and Labor Day its end. Begun as a ritual of remembrance
and reconciliation after the
Civil War, by the early 20th century Memorial
Day was an occasion for more general expressions, as people visited the graves
of their deceased relatives,
whether they had served in
the military or not. It also became a long weekend increasingly devoted to
shopping, family get together, fireworks, trips to the
beach, mountains and
national media events such as the Indianapolis 500 and the Kentucky Derby.
From Gettysburg in 1863, the practice
of decorating soldiers' graves was widespread. The first observance was in Waterloo,
New York. General John Murray,
a distinguished citizen of Waterloo
was likely a factor in the holiday's growth. On May 5, 1868, in his capacity as
commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of
the Republic, the organization for
Northern Civil War veterans, Murray issued a proclamation that Decoration Day should
be observed nationwide. There
were events in cemeteries in twenty-seven
states that year, and by 1890 every state had followed suit.
By 1870, the remains of nearly 300,000
Union dead had been buried in seventy-three national cemeteries, located mostly
in the South, near the
battlefields. The most famous national
cemetery was the sixty acre Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington. It
was confiscated from the losing
Confederate, General Robert E. Lee
The Memorial Day speech became an
occasion for the blabber mouthed politicians and ministers, to commemorate and
mention atrocities. They mixed
religion and politics which provided a
means for people to make sense of history in terms of the sacrifice for a
better nation, one closer to God. People of
all religious beliefs joined
together. By the end of the 1870s the
rancor was gone and the speeches praised the brave soldiers both Blue and Gray.
In the 1950s, the theme was American
exceptionalism and duty to uphold freedom in all the world. Ironton, Ohio lays claim to the nation oldest continuously
running Memorial Day parade, since 1869.
In South Carolina 1865, freedmen
(freed enslaved Africans) celebrated at the Washington Race Course, today the
location of Hampton Park. The site had
been used as a temporary confederate
prison camp for captured Union soldiers... Immediately after the cessation of
hostilities, freedmen exhumed the
bodies from the mass grave and
reinterred them in individual graves. They built a fence around the graveyard
with an entry arch and declared it a Union
graveyard. On May 1, 1865, a crowd of
up to ten thousand, mainly black residents, including 2800 children, proceeded
to the location for events that
included sermons, singing, and a
picnic, good feelings, creating maybe the first Decoration Day celebration.
On this day may the sun rise to greet
you, and shine warm upon your face. May the wind be at your back always, and
the rain fall soft upon your
garden. May God be with you now and forever. Amen
DR. KARL WALLACE D.D.S.
