Memorial Day Observance

While we won’t be bringing you an ASPPA Connect newsletter on Monday in view of it being Memorial Day, we did want to share with you some interesting facts about the holiday that you might not have known.

• Memorial Day began after the Civil War. The loss of life and its effect on communities throughout the country led to spontaneous commemorations of the dead.

• A ceremony of commemoration was held a cemetery dedication at Gettysburg, Pa. in 1863.

• In 1864, women from Boalsburg, Pa., put flowers on the graves of their dead from the just-fought Battle of Gettysburg.

• In 1865, a group of women decorated the graves of soldiers buried in a Vicksburg, Miss., cemetery.

• The first widely-publicized observance of a Memorial Day-type observance after the Civil War was in Charleston, S.C., on May 1, 1865. During the war, Union soldiers who were prisoners of war had been held at the Hampton Park Race Course in Charleston; at least 257 died there and were hastily buried in unmarked graves. Together with teachers and missionaries, freedmen of Charleston organized a May Day ceremony in 1865, which was covered by the New York Tribune and other national papers. Nearly 10,000 people, mostly freedmen, gathered on May 1 to commemorate the war dead. Involved were about 3,000 school children, newly enrolled in freedmen’s schools, as well as mutual aid societies, Union troops, ministers and northern missionaries. Most brought flowers to lay on the burial field.

• In April 1866, women from Columbus, Miss., laid flowers on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers. In the same month, in Carbondale, Ill., 219 Civil War veterans marched through town in memory of the fallen to Woodlawn Cemetery, where Union hero Maj. Gen. John A. Logan delivered the principal address.

• Waterloo, N.Y. began holding an annual community service on May 5, 1866. Although many towns claimed the title, it was Waterloo that won congressional recognition as the “birthplace of Memorial Day.”

• On May 5, 1868, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the veterans’ organization for Union Civil War veterans, General John A. Logan issued a proclamation calling for “Decoration Day” to be observed annually and nationwide. It was observed for the first time that year on Saturday May 30; the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of any particular battle. According to the White House, the May 30 date was chosen as the optimal date for flowers to be in bloom.

• Memorial events were held in 336 cemeteries in 1869. The northern states quickly adopted the holiday.

• The communities with the longest continually running Memorial Day parades are Alton, Ill. and Ironton, Ohio, whose parades have run every year since 1868.

We’ll be back on Thursday, May 28 with the next ASPPA Connect, which will feature useful and timely information.