Memorial Day

(My 12 year old son Austin Forrest, and myself celebrated Memorial Day 2007 remembering some of America's greatest heroes)

I thought I would take a few moments to talk about the history of
Memorial Day, and let you know how it became such a prominent day in my home and
in the United States.

From the May, 1893 issue of "Confederate Veteran," the Origin of Memorial Day
It is a matter of history that Mrs. Chas. J. Williams, of Columbus, Ga., instituted the beautiful custom of decorating soldiers' graves with flowers, a custom which has been adopted throughout the United States. Mrs. Williams was the daughter of Maj. John Howard, of Milledgeville, Ga., and was a superior woman. She married Maj. C. J. Williams on his return from the Mexican War. As colonel of the First Georgia Regulars, of the Army in Virginia, he contracted disease, from which he died in 1862, and was buried in Columbus, Ga.
Mrs. Williams and her little girl visited his grave every day, and often comforted themselves by wreathing it with flowers. While the mother sat abstractly thinking of the loved and lost one, the little one would pluck the weeds from the unmarked soldiers' graves near her father's and cover them with flowers, calling them her soldiers' graves.
After a short time while the dear little girl was summoned by the angels to join her father. The sorely bereaved mother then took charge of these unknown graves for the child's sake, and as she cared for them thought of the thousands of patriot graves throughout the South, far away from home and kindred, and in this way the plan was suggested to her of setting apart one day in each year, that love might pay tribute to valor throughout the Southern States. In March, 1868, she addressed a communication to the Columbus Times, an extract of which I give:
"We beg the assistance of the press and the ladies throughout the South to aid us in the effort to set apart a certain day to be observed from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, and to be handed down through time as a religious custom of the South, to wreathe the graves of our martyred dead with flowers, and we propose the 26th day of April as the day."
She then wrote to the Soldiers' Aid Societies in every Southern State, and they readily responded and reorganized under the name of Memorial Associations. She lived long enough to see her plan adopted all over the South, and in 1868 throughout the United States. Mrs. Williams died April 15, 1874, and was buried with military honors. On each returning Memorial Day the Columbus military march around her grave, and each deposits a floral offering.
The Legislature of Georgia, in 1874, set apart the 26th day of April as a legal holiday in obedience to her request. Would be that every Southern State observed the same day.

The Mighty William Anderson

Col. Quantrill's Command

American Confederate Soldier

While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it's difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and 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 in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868. It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.

Austin Forrest King at the grave of

Pvt. John Casler

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 refused to 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 War for Southern Independence 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 (P.L. 90 - 363) 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 (Robert E. Lee's birthday), April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi(American Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's surrender to General William Sherman); May 10 in South Carolina( the anniversary of American President Jefferson Davis's capture by Union troops); and June 3 (President Jefferson Davis' birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.

Pvt. John Casler

33rd Virginia Infantry, Stonewall Brigade

American Soldier

In 1971, over 100 years later, Memorial Day was declared a
national holiday to be observed on the last Monday in May. It
memorialized the memory of all soldiers who have died in our
nation's service. I want to take this time to express my
thanks to the men and women who gave their lives in the 18th,
19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, at home and abroad, to give us
the freedom to pursue our dreams in peace and without fear of
oppression.

Let us not forget

It is the VETERAN, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion.