This is the one day out of the year in which we pay solemn tribute to the brave heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. It is a day of reflection. It is a day in which our nation was born from those that we have lost in battle. Take a moment at 3:00 PM to pause for one minute to honor those whose lives were cut far too short.
Originally it was observed by order of the Commander-in-Chief John A Logan in 1868. As the years passed from the Civil War communities both in the North and South, black and white, decorated the graves of fallen soldiers. In the decades that followed, this observance has become nationwide. There were ladies in Columbus Georgia who pushed for this observance. In Georgia there were women who observed how that the cemetery was in disarray and they sought to improve its appearance. Eventually this became a day to honor both the Confederate and Union soldiers who died as a step toward reconciliation between the North and South.
It was the idea of the wife of Gen. Logan to place flowers on soldiers’ graves. She believed it was a good idea to honor the dead from both the union and the Confederacy. The example of the South seeking to honor the memory of their fallen soldiers was adopted by the North. The number of soldiers lost in that Civil War was monumental for both the white and the black. May 30 was chosen as the official day since that was the probability when the best flowers of springtime would be available for the observance. It must be emphasized that this day is not a holiday. Nor is it to honor the living veterans but those who have given their all for their country.
That day at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia was the first national commemoration. It was for the 11,250 white and black Union soldiers who would be buried along with 350 Confederate soldiers. More than half of those soldiers were listed as unknowns. In the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers is buried the remains of 2111 unidentified heroes. Arlington was once the home of Confederate Gen. Robert E Lee and was designated as a national Cemetery in 1864 by Gen. Meigs. The commander-in-chief program included remarks by James A Garfield who would later become the 20th US President. Prayers, dirges, hymns, and recitation of the Gettysburg address and the declaration herein made was accompanied by the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner.
How fitting it was that children living at the soldiers and sailors orphan Asylum was asked to provide the declaration for the graves throughout the cemetery. Besides flowers they posted miniature flags over the graves. Gen. Logan encouraged the nation to never forget the human cost that those graves represented for this war. In 1873 New York became the first state to officially recognize Memorial Day. The federal government has since provided miniature flags to be placed on the graves of fallen soldiers. From the commemoration of Civil War soldiers who gave their lives, the honor was expanded to all those who died in American wars. Cast iron tablets became prominent in multiple national cemeteries. On May 11, 1950 Congress requested the president to issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe each Memorial day is a day for prayer for “permanent peace and designated a period during which such time and the people United States may unite in such supplication.” In 1971 Memorial day was recognized as a national holiday and moved to be observed the last Monday in May. In December 2000, the national moment of remembrance act established the White House commission on the national moment of remembrance. The commission’s message to all Americans was to give back to the country which provides them so much freedom and opportunity by encouraging Memorial Day activities. The commission endorsed a national moment of remembrance at 3 PM local time for each Memorial day as a minute of silence for those who died in the service of our nation.
A poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and another poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar has been recognized as the two greatest poems for Memorial Day. It is noteworthy that Dunbar was one of the first influential black poets in American literature whose father was a former slave and served in the Civil War. Let us as citizens of the freest and most powerful nation in the world stop our activities so that we might honor those who have given their all in our behalf and for the duration of individual sacrifice.
Christian Writer 