Memorial Day, observed annually on the last Monday of May, stands as a solemn federal holiday in the United States. It is a day specifically dedicated to mourning and honoring the men and women of the U.S. military who have died while serving their country. Originally known as Decoration Day, this important day of remembrance provides an opportunity for Americans to reflect on the sacrifices made by these heroes and to express gratitude for their ultimate service.
As a nation, the act of remembering and respecting our fallen is deeply ingrained in the observance of Memorial Day. This tradition was formally established in 1868 through a “Memorial Day Order” issued by Commander-in-Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic. Today, the official proclamation for Memorial Day calls upon all citizens to engage in prayer, each according to their own faith, for enduring peace, highlighting the hope that such sacrifices will ultimately contribute to a more peaceful world.
The Historical Roots of Memorial Day: From Local Observances to National Holiday
The seeds of Memorial Day were sown in the aftermath of the American Civil War (1861–1865). In the years immediately following this devastating conflict, communities across a divided nation—North and South, Black and White—began independently practicing springtime “decoration days.” These were occasions to adorn the graves of soldiers with flowers and other tokens of respect. This custom of honoring the deceased with floral tributes has historical precedents stretching back to ancient Roman times and was a known practice in 19th-century Western Europe.
A pivotal moment in the formalization of this tradition arrived on May 5, 1868, when the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a politically influential organization composed of Union veterans and led by Major General John A. Logan, issued General Orders No. 11, also known as the “Memorial Day Act.” This order officially designated “Memorial Day” as a Decoration Day, a day for the nation to collectively remember its war dead by decorating their graves with flowers.
Over time, various communities and towns began to assert their claim as the birthplace of Memorial Day. However, recent historical research suggests that the ladies of Columbus, Georgia, played a significant role in advocating for a formalized Memorial Day. In April 1866, they actively campaigned for a designated day to place flowers on the graves of Civil War casualties.
One of the earliest documented instances of a memorial observance took place in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, in October 1864, where a group of women decorated soldiers’ graves. Another historically significant event occurred in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 1, 1865. Here, Black freedmen and White Northern abolitionists organized a large-scale program at the “Martyrs of the Race Course” cemetery, the burial site of 257 Union soldiers. This event, orchestrated by a predominantly Black community to honor U.S. troops on land previously owned by wealthy White Southerners, carried a powerful message. It echoed the sentiment of Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs’ decision to transform Robert E. Lee’s estate into Arlington National Cemetery—a symbolic repurposing of Confederate property for Union remembrance. Unlike Arlington, however, the Charleston racecourse cemetery was not permanent; the remains were later moved to Beaufort National Cemetery.
The idea of adorning Civil War soldiers’ graves, both Union and Confederate, gained momentum in Columbus, Georgia, where the city cemetery was in a state of disrepair. A Ladies Memorial Association was formed to revitalize the cemetery and launched a media campaign to promote their cause. A letter from Secretary Mary Ann Williams, published in the local newspaper on March 11, advocated for “a certain day to be observed…and be handed down through time as a religious custom of the country, to wreathe the graves of our martyred dead with flowers.” They chose April 26, 1866, as their day of observance.
However, Columbus, Mississippi, held its memorial event a day earlier, on April 25, 1866, leading to its claim as the location of the first actual Memorial Day event. The Mississippi program gained national attention and was immortalized in Francis Miles Finch’s popular poem, “The Blue and the Gray.” These early memorial events in the South, honoring both Confederate and Union fallen, represented a step towards national reconciliation, although this gesture was understandably met with discomfort by some in the North.
General Logan was well aware of these burgeoning memorial efforts and their origins. In a speech delivered at an Independence Day celebration in Salem, Illinois, in 1866, he spoke of floral tributes in the context of post-Civil War Black civil rights. He contrasted “traitors in the south [that] have their gatherings day after day to strew garlands of flowers upon the graves of the Rebel soldiers” with the right of a Black man “who has gained his liberty by the march and prowess of American arms, [who] shall come along with a basket of flowers to strew upon the grave of some poor loyal soldier that he shall have the right to do it.”
Despite Logan’s awareness of these grassroots movements, the GAR officially attributed the idea for Memorial Day to an “anonymous comrade” who suggested the practice, drawing from German cemetery traditions, in a letter to Adjutant General Norton P. Chipman. Chipman then brought the idea to General Logan, who expanded upon it and issued it as General Orders 11.
Mrs. John Logan, a significant figure in her husband’s career, also claimed credit for the idea. In her autobiography, Mary S. Cunningham Logan recounted suggesting the idea of placing flowers on soldiers’ graves to her husband after visiting a Confederate cemetery in Virginia. She stated that General Logan believed 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.” While General Logan’s “adoption of the Southern custom was transparent to nearly everyone living in America in 1868,” his issuance of G.O. 11 was instrumental in establishing Memorial Day as a national observance.
While the precise origins of Memorial Day continue to be explored, the widespread emergence of memorial observances across the nation in the years following the Civil War underscores a profound and shared impulse, both North and South, White and Black, to commemorate the war dead.
Decoration Day Takes Root: Establishing National Observance
The GAR order designated May 30th as the date for ceremonial observance, strategically chosen to ensure the availability of “the choicest flowers of springtime” across the United States. The order did not prescribe a specific ceremony, allowing “posts and comrades” to “in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.” Typical Decoration Day programs organized by GAR posts included parades of veterans and ceremonies featuring flags, music, and prayers, centered around graves adorned with flowers and attended by families and the public.
The first national Decoration Day celebration took place on May 30, 1868, just weeks after the GAR issued G.O. 11, at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. At this time, approximately 11,250 White and Black Union soldiers were buried there, along with around 350 Confederate soldiers, many of whom were unknowns. The ceremony was held near the Arlington mansion, which was decorated with flags and draped in mourning. A focal point was the “very profuse decoration of the main tomb where the remains of 2,111 unknown soldiers are buried.” Arlington, formerly the home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, had been designated a national cemetery in 1864 by General Meigs.
The 1868 commemorative program at Arlington featured remarks by General and Congressman James A. Garfield (who later became the twentieth U.S. President), prayers, dirges, hymns, a recitation of the Gettysburg Address and G.O. 11, and the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Asylum participated by “deploying…to the decoration of the graves throughout the cemetery, strewing flowers and raising miniature flags over the graves.” Prominent Union generals and Washington officials were present, and federal government employees were granted “free leave” to attend.
Chipman, the GAR adjutant general who oversaw the event arrangements, also reported distributing “a small box” of flowers gathered from “all the public gardens” to several regional national cemeteries, including Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Fredericksburg, Poplar Grove, and Winchester, Virginia; and Loudon Park, Maryland. The GAR further documented the widespread enthusiasm for Memorial Day by publishing a compendium detailing the hundreds of Memorial Day events organized by its posts in local cemeteries, primarily in Northern states, even in communities with few veterans. It is important to note that former Confederate states observed memorial days on different dates, typically between April and June.
Logan’s General Orders No. 11 also emphasized the enduring importance of remembering the human cost of the Civil War: “We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance… Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no 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.”
In 1873, New York became the first state to officially recognize Decoration Day as a holiday. By 1890, all Union states had followed suit. The GAR’s success in ensuring the commemoration of Union soldiers’ and sailors’ graves on Memorial Day is evident in Army policy dating back to 1891. This policy stipulated that if the GAR or other patriotic organizations were unable to organize a ceremony and decorations at a national cemetery, the responsibility would fall to the cemetery superintendent. This practice continues today, with the managing agency responsible for coordinating Memorial Day gravesite traditions, and the federal government often providing miniature flags for grave placement.
Memorial Day: A Day of Remembrance for All American Wars
The observance of Decoration Day, increasingly known as Memorial Day, continued as an informal patriotic holiday throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Following World War I, its scope broadened to encompass and honor those who died in all American wars, not just the Civil War. The placement of tablets bearing Logan’s G.O. 11 in the 20th century reinforced this broader association.
The Woman’s Relief Corps (WRC), the auxiliary organization of the GAR established in 1883, played a key role in Memorial Day traditions. Their duties included collecting flowers, making wreaths and bouquets, and decorating the graves of unknown soldiers. Seeking to reaffirm Logan’s patriotic message, the WRC commissioned cast-iron tablets featuring a bas-relief portrait of Logan above the text of his G.O. 11.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the WRC donated these tablets to states for prominent placement in state houses, courthouses, and schools. By 1933, the WRC reported placing thirty-five “General Logan Bronze Tablets” across the country. More were donated in subsequent years. These tablets can still be found at locations like Wood National Cemetery in Wisconsin and Andersonville National Cemetery in Georgia.
The U.S. Army also installed its own version of the Memorial Day Act tablets in many of the national cemeteries it developed between the world wars in urban areas, including Baltimore, Maryland, and Long Island, New York. These were among twenty-eight tablets produced by Levering Brothers Inc. in York County, Pennsylvania, in 1939. Their design mirrored the dimensions and appearance of iron tablets bearing the Gettysburg Address that the Army had installed in all existing national cemeteries in 1909 as a centennial tribute to President Abraham Lincoln.
The Memorial Day Act and Gettysburg Address tablets joined a collection of official markers that the Army had installed in the late 19th century to guide visitors and explain the origins and regulations of these relatively new cemeteries. These included Civil War-era bronze shields initially placed on inverted cannon “monuments” around 1873, and cast-iron tablets installed in 1881–1882 bearing General Orders No. 80 of 1875, the National Cemeteries Act of 1867, and lines of verse from “Bivouac of the Dead.”
The federal government continued to formally recognize Memorial Day through legislative actions. A congressional resolution approved on May 11, 1950, requested the President to issue a proclamation calling upon Americans to observe each Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace and to designate a period for national unity in prayer.
In 1966, a congressional resolution officially recognized Waterloo, New York, as the “birthplace” of Memorial Day, commemorating a century of observances held there on May 30th, a proclamation made official by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Shortly thereafter, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, enacted in 1968 and effective in 1971, officially designated Memorial Day as a national holiday and shifted its observance from May 30th to the last Monday in May.
Most recently, to further emphasize the enduring remembrance of America’s fallen heroes, the National Moment of Remembrance Act (PL 106-579) was established in December 2000. This act created the White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance. The commission encourages Americans to “give back to their country, which provides them so much freedom and opportunity” through Memorial Day activities. The commission also formally endorsed a National Moment of Remembrance at 3 pm local time each Memorial Day, a minute of silence to honor those who have died in service to the nation.
General John A. Logan: The Man Behind Memorial Day
John Alexander Logan (1826–1886) was born in Murphysboro, Illinois. His life was marked by military service and political engagement. He served in the Mexican-American War (1846–1848) before returning home to become a lawyer and being elected to the Illinois House of Representatives. In 1855, he married Mary Simmerson Cunningham (1838–1923), and they had two children. Logan’s military and political careers were often intertwined. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat (1859–1862) but resigned to serve in the Civil War, where he rose to the rank of major general of Volunteers.
After the Civil War, Logan was re-elected to Congress (1867–1877), this time as a Republican. Simultaneously, he served as the national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) for three terms, beginning in January 1868. In 1879, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, serving until his death. Logan is buried at the Soldier’s and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Fort Logan National Cemetery near Denver, Colorado, was named in his honor in 1889.
The first GAR post was established in Decatur, Illinois, on April 6, 1866. The organization quickly grew into the leading Union veterans’ association. While initially focused on fraternal bonds, it evolved into a powerful political force. GAR membership peaked in 1890 with over 400,000 members, including U.S. Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley. In the late 19th century, the GAR wielded significant political influence unmatched by almost any other private organization or any other veterans’ group. The GAR dissolved with the death of its last member in 1956, but its legacy is carried on by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW), founded in 1881 and chartered by Congress in 1954.
Memorial Day in Literature: Poetry of Remembrance
Beyond official proclamations and ceremonies, the spirit of Memorial Day has been captured in popular literature, particularly poetry. In addition to Theodore O’Hara’s “Bivouac of the Dead,” which, though written after the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), remained resonant in the post-Civil War era, numerous poets have explored themes of veteran remembrance and Memorial Day. Two poems stand out for their enduring impact.
One is “Decoration Day” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a prominent 19th-century American poet. Published in The Atlantic magazine in June 1882, well after the Civil War, the poem concludes with the poignant lines: “Your silent tents of green / We deck with fragrant flowers / Yours has the suffering been, The memory shall be ours.”
The second is “Ode for Memorial Day” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872–1906), a highly influential early Black poet in American literature. Dunbar was the son of Joshua Dunbar, a formerly enslaved man who served in the U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War and is buried in Dayton National Cemetery. Dunbar wrote his “Ode for Memorial Day” in 1896, including these verses:
“Flowers of charity, peace, and devotion / Bloom in the hearts that are empty of strife; / … / So with the singing of pæans and chorals, / And with the flag flashing high in the sun, / Place on the graves of our heroes the laurels / Which their unfaltering valor has won!”
Selected Sources
David Blight, Race and Reunion – The Civil War in American Memory (Belknap Press, 2001)
Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (Knopf, 2008)
Richard Gardiner and Daniel Bellware, The Genesis of the Memorial Day Holiday in America (Columbus State University, 2014)
Mary Cunningham (Mrs. John A.) Logan, Reminiscences of a Soldier’s Wife-An Autobiography (Scribner’s Sons, 1913) Reminiscences of a soldier’s wife. – Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library
John Neff, Honoring the Civil War Dead: Commemoration and the Problem of Reconciliation (University Press of Kansas, 2005)
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