Page 1 - Aerotech News and Review, May 28, 2021

Aerotech News
Aerotech News
Aerotech News

Journal of Aerospace, Defense Industry and Veteran News
and Review
and Review

Memorial Day 2021
Remembering our

nation’s fallen heroes

As we mark Memorial Day 2021, it is Today, cities in the North and the South
important to understand why we mark this claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day
special day, and how the observance came in 1866. Both Macon and Columbus, Ga.,
to be. claim the title, as well as Richmond, Va.
Three years after the Civil War ended, The village of Boalsburg, Penn., claims
on May 5, 1868, the head of an organiza- it began there two years earlier. A stone
tion of Union veterans — the Grand Army in a Carbondale, Ill., cemetery carries the
of the Republic — established Decoration statement that the first Decoration Day cer-
Day as a time for the nation to decorate the emony took place there on April 29, 1866.
graves of the war dead with flowers. Carbondale was the wartime home of Gen.
Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Logan. Approximately 25 places have been
Decoration Day should be observed on named in connection with the origin of
May 30. It is believed that date was cho- Memorial Day, many of them in the South
sen because flowers would be in bloom all where most of the war dead were buried.
over the country.
The first large observance was held Official birthplace declared
that year at Arlington National Cemetery, In 1966, Congress and President Lyn-
across the Potomac River from Washing- don Johnson declared Waterloo, N.Y., the
ton, D.C. “birthplace” of Memorial Day. There, a
The ceremonies centered around the ceremony on May 5, 1866, honored lo-
mourning-draped veranda of the Ar- cal veterans who had fought in the Civil
lington mansion, once the home of Gen. War. Businesses closed and residents flew
Robert E. Lee. Various Washington offi- flags at half-staff. Supporters of Waterloo’s
cials, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. claim say earlier observances in other plac-
Grant, presided over the ceremonies. Af- es were either informal, not community-
ter speeches, children from the Soldiers’ wide or one-time events.
and Sailors’ Orphan Home and members By the end of the 19th century, Memo-
of the GAR made their way through the rial Day ceremonies were being held on
cemetery, strewing flowers on both Union May 30 throughout the nation. State legis-
and Confederate graves, reciting prayers latures passed proclamations designating
and singing hymns. the day, and the Army and Navy adopted
regulations for proper observance at their
Local observances claim to be facilities.
first It was not until after World War I, how-
Local springtime tributes to the Civil ever, that the day was expanded to honor
War dead already had been held in vari- those who have died in all American wars.
ous places. In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a
One of the first occurred in Columbus, national holiday by an act of Congress,
Miss., April 25, 1866, when a group of though it is still often called Decoration
women visited a cemetery to decorate the Day. It was then also placed on the last
graves of Confederate soldiers who had Monday in May, as were some other fed-
fallen in battle at Shiloh. Nearby were eral holidays.
the graves of Union soldiers, neglected
because they were the enemy. Disturbed Some states have Confederate
observances
at the sight of the bare graves, the wom-
en placed some of their flowers on those Many Southern states also have their
graves, as well. See MEMORIAL DAY, Page 2

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