Some Day, No More Bloodshed. Decoration Day.

Coast Guard Compass

Excerpts by Stephen K. Robinson, 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs Office:

"...While Waterloo, N.Y., was officially declared the birthplace of Decoration Day, by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, nearly one hundred years after its inception, it’s difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860’s tapped into the general human need to honor our dead. Each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated when Gen. John Logan, Grand Army of the Republic commander-in-chief, issued a proclamation that “Decoration Day” be observed nationwide. It was observed for the first time on May 30 of the same year; the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of a battle. The tombs of fallen Union soldiers were decorated in remembrance.

According to Professor David Blight of the Yale University History Department, the first Memorial Day was observed by formerly enslaved black people at the Washington Race Course (today the location of Hampton Park) in Charleston, South Carolina. The race course had been used as a temporary Confederate prison camp in 1865 as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers who died there. Immediately after the cessation of hostilities, formerly enslaved people exhumed the bodies from the mass grave and reinterred them properly with individual graves. They built a fence around the graveyard with an entry arch and declared it a Union graveyard. The work was completed in only ten days. On May 1, 1865, the Charleston newspaper reported that a crowd of up to ten thousand, mainly black residents, including 2,800 children, proceeded to the location for a celebration which included sermons, singing, and a picnic on the grounds, thereby creating the first Decoration Day.

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General Logan in his 11th General Order, and was first observed on May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.


The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890, it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South did not acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every state on the last Monday in May – passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 to ensure a three-day weekend for Federal holidays – though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis’ birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.

Many of the states of the U.S. South refused to celebrate Decoration Day, due to lingering hostility towards the Union Army and also because there were relatively few veterans of the Union Army who were buried in the South. A notable exception was Columbus, Mississippi, which on April 25, 1866, at its Decoration Day commemorated both the Union and Confederate casualties buried in its cemetery.




















In 1915, inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields,” Moina Michael replied with her own poem:
We cherish too, the Poppy red that grows on fields where valor led. It seems to signal to the skies that blood of heroes never dies."

She then conceived an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial Day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need.

Shortly before Memorial Day in 1922 the VFW became the first veterans’ organization to nationally sell poppies. Two years later, their “Buddy” Poppy program was selling artificial poppies made by disabled veterans. In 1948 the U.S. Post Office honored Ms. Michael for her role in founding the National Poppy movement by issuing a red 3-cent postage stamp with her likeness on it.





The alternative name of “Memorial Day” was first used in 1882. It did not become more common until after World War II, and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967. On June 28, 1968, the United States Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill, which moved three holidays from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend. The holidays included Washington’s Birthday, now celebrated as Presidents’ Day; Veterans Day and Memorial Day. The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971.

Traditional observance of Memorial Day has diminished over the years. Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper flag etiquette for the day. While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country.

Memorial Day is a day for remembering those who have died in our nation’s service, not just a day that provides a long weekend for vacations. It is not important who first honored our veterans, but rather that we do honor them today. Memorial Day is not about division, it is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all, for us.

Have a wonderful day with family and/or friends. Or alone with your thoughts and all of nature to surround and hold you. Today, we pause at 3:00 p.m. local time for a moment of silence to honor those who died in service to the nation. We're planting red geraniums out front. Geraniums stand for "comfort and protection." It's the flower of remembrance. In folklore, geraniums cast away evil influences and snakes! They were first discovered around 1600, growing at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.