The Southern Origins of Memorial Day

Memorial Day originated as Decoration Day, a national day of remembrance for Union soldiers killed during the War Between the States.  It was proclaimed by Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, " ...for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion..." in General Order No. 11.  It was first celebrated on May 30, 1868.  

Decorating graves of fallen soldiers dates to antiquity but the practice became common in the South as the Confederacy suffered casualties and ultimate defeat in its War for Independence.  It is claimed that the first soldier's grave decorated during the War was in Warrenton, Virginia in 1861. The Ladies Relief Society of Savannah, Georgia decorated the graves of fallen Confederate soldiers on May, 2 1862. With surrender imminent, Sue Landon Adams Vaughan decorated the graves of fallen soldiers in Jackson Cemetery on April 26, 1865 and is credited for founding Decoration Day on a monument in Jackson, Mississippi (The National Cyclopædia of American Biography, Supp. 1, New York: James T. White & Co., 1910, Pg 128). When local women of Columbus, Mississippi decorated the graves of both Union and Confederate dead at Friendship Cemetery on April 25, 1866, the act inspired "The Blue and the Gray", a poem remembering the dead of both sides by Francis Miles Finch, which reads in part:  

...These in the robings of glory,

Those in the gloom of defeat,

All with the battle-blood gory,

In the dusk of eternity meet:

Under the sod and the dew,

Waiting the judgement-day;

Under the laurel, the Blue

Under the willow, the Gray...

The Southern practice of decorating the graves of their fallen heroes was touching to Mrs. John A. Logan who saw hundreds of soldiers' graves near Petersburg decorated with Confederate flags, flowers, and wreaths during a visit to Virginia in March of 1868. When she told her husband of this, he was inspired to issue General Order No. 11. According to Mrs. Logan in Reminiscenses of a Soldier's Life, An Autobiography, General Logan intended to follow the Southern example:

Since his death there have been many who have claimed for themselves or their friends the authorship of Decoration Day, but the story I tell here contains the true facts as to the origin of Memorial Day. It was conceived by General Logan, his sympathetic nature being deeply touched by what we had told him that we had witnessed in the cemeteries of Virginia. He said that it was strange that a people who were so loyal to their country as had been the Union soldiers and their friends should not have been the first to inaugurate this beautiful ceremony, and that it must be attributed to the fact that they were so engrossed in taking up their vocations in life that they had not had time to indulge in sentiment. He said it was not too late for the Union men of the nation to follow the example of the people of the South in perpetuating the memory of their friends who had died for the cause which they thought just and right.  (C. Scribner's Sons, New York, 1913, Pgs. 243-246).

While inspired by Southern practices, Decoration Day was not observed in the South since it memorialized Union dead and Southern states adopted their own Decoration Days to honor Confederate dead.  In 1882, the term "Memorial Day" began to supplant Decoration Day though the focus of the holiday did not change. After World War I, Memorial Day expanded to include Americans who had fallen in all wars and its recognition began in the South though it was still largely called Decoration Day until after World War II.  In 1967, Memorial Day became a Federal holiday and it continued to be observed on May 30 until 1971.