The Origins of Memorial Day
"The 30th day of May 1868 is designated 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 and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land."
Maj. Gen. John Alexander Logan
Grand Army of the Republic
General Order No. 11, May 5, 1868
By Victor M. Parachin

You probably won't find Maj. Gen. John Alexander Logan's name on a list of famous Civil War leaders. Yet, by establishing Memorial Day as a day of remembrance, he continues to touch every American each May.

This Union soldier turned U.S. senator was born Feb. 9, 1826, on a farm in Jackson County, Ill. After he completed his education, Logan volunteered to serve in the Mexican War, although he never saw combat.

After the war was over, he returned to Illinois, became a lawyer, and started his own practice. He also began a political career that took him from the Jackson County clerk's office to the Illinois House of Representatives, to which Logan, a Democrat with strong Southern sympathies, was elected in 1858.

When the Civil War began, Logan again volunteered for military service, saying, "The Union must prevail." During the war, he rose from the rank of colonel to major general. Unlike his experience in the Mexican War, Logan saw quite a bit of action as a Union soldier; he was wounded twice and had his horse shot out from under him.

When the Civil War ended, Logan returned home to serve in Congress and eventually was elected to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate. A strong advocate of public education, Logan also had a deep and abiding concern for his fellow veterans.

In 1866, this concern for veterans led Logan to take part in Illinois' first veterans' memorial services at Woodlawn Cemetery in Carbondale. He also helped start a veterans' organization for former Union soldiers, sailors, and Marines called the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR).

While serving as commander in chief of the gar, Logan declared and signed General Order No. 11, which designated May 30, 1868, as a day to decorate graves and honor the memories of Union soldiers who had lost their lives. In his proclamation, Logan reminded gar members of the organization's goal of preserving and strengthening the fraternal ties that bind together those who have fought for their country.

"What can aid more to assure this result than cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foes? Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in chains, and their deaths the tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms. We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. ... Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of a free and undivided republic. ... Let us, then, at the time appointed gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us, a sacred charge upon a nation's gratitude, the soldier's and sailor's widow and orphan."

By the late 1800s, communities across the country were acknowledging May 30 as Decoration Day. Many Southern states, however, refused to observe May 30 as a day of remembrance because it only honored Union soldiers who lost their lives.

Instead, Southern states began observing Confederate Memorial Day, which was held on different dates in different places: Mississippi celebrated the last Monday in April, Alabama the fourth Monday in April, and Georgia April 26. North Carolina and South Carolina observed the occasion May 10, Louisiana June 3 (Jefferson Davis' birthday), and Virginia observed it the last Monday in May.

Other states observed the holiday under a different name. Tennessee held Confederate Decoration Day June 3, while Texas celebrated Confederate Heroes Day Jan. 19.

For the most part, these distinct days of commemoration came to an end after World War I, when May 30 was changed to honor all Americans who died fighting in any war. In 1971, Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday to be celebrated on the last Monday in May.

Although Logan was the first to officially declare a day of remembrance, there are many stories about the origins of Memorial Day, and more than two dozen cities claim to be its birthplace.

Residents of Boalsburg, Pa., say their community is the "Birthplace of Memorial Day" because graves began to be decorated there July 4, 1865. Another claim comes from Jackson, Miss., where Sue Landon Vaughn, a descendant of President John Adams, put out a call to decorate Confederate graves April 26, 1865. Her act is commemorated in stone on a monument erected in 1888 on the state capital grounds in Jackson, now known as Confederate Park.

Likewise, the residents of Hopkinton, Iowa, argue their community was the first in the nation to celebrate Memorial Day. On Nov. 7, 1865, townspeople dedicated a monument to 24 soldiers from Lenox College in Hopkinton who died while serving in the Civil War.

An earlier event where soldiers' graves were decorated took place April 13, 1862, under the direction of Sarah J. Evans. She and a few volunteers began to decorate the graves of fallen Union soldiers who were buried in the Washington, D.C., area, many of whom died defending the capital. The graves were decorated again in 1863 and 1864, and Evans was recognized in 1873 by gar Post 12 in Des Moines, Iowa, as the "originator of Memorial Day."

In 1966, the federal government, under the direction of President Lyndon B. Johnson, declared Waterloo, N.Y., the official birthplace of Memorial Day — for two reasons. First, Waterloo residents were among the earliest to officially designate a Memorial Day; theirs began May 5, 1866. Second, the town made Memorial Day an annual community-wide event. Businesses closed, and residents spent the day decorating the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.

Today, in villages, towns, and cities across America, the tradition begun by Logan continues. On the last Monday in May, parades march through town, flags fly at half-mast, and families mourn and remember loved ones. Memorial Day continues to remind Americans that freedom is both precious and costly, and those who expect to enjoy the blessings of freedom must, at times, engage in battle to protect it.