A history of Memorial Day/Decoration Day

[packman]

Although not known by many today, the early evolution of the Memorial Day holiday was a manifestation of Lincoln’s hope for reconciliation between North and South.

In the years following the bitter Civil War, a former Union general took a holiday originated by former Confederates and helped spread it across the entire country.

The holiday was Memorial Day, and this year’s commemoration on May 28 marks the 150th anniversary of its official nationwide observance. The annual commemoration was born in the former Confederate States in 1866 and adopted by the United States in 1868. It is a holiday in which the nation honors its military dead.

Gen. John A. Logan, who headed the largest Union veterans’ fraternity at that time, the Grand Army of the Republic, is usually credited as being the originator of the holiday.

Yet when General Logan established the holiday, he acknowledged its genesis among the Union’s former enemies, saying, “It was not too late for the Union men of the nation to follow the example of the people of the South.”

More:

https://theconversation.com/the-forgotten-history-of-memorial-day-97199

Interesting that Memorial Day has it genesis in reconciliation, forgiveness and honoring one's former enemies.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

1. Yes...

... I had to substitute for a social outreach/recreation program exactly two years ago, and I did a presentation on exactly that! The women of the South started it.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

2. There is nothing more sobering than......

Being at Arlington National Cemetery over the Memorial Day remembrance. I have been there twice in 1984.

The JFK grave just down the hill from Arlington House, home of Martha Custis Washington , whose granddaughter was married to Robert E. Lee during the Civil War. The Eternal flame burns to this day. The flags at each tombstone, the Mast of the US Maine, the tombs of the nation's greatest military leaders, President's, etc., are scenes that never leave you.

Who besides me feel this way?