1864 |
Boalsburg, Pa. Women put flowers
on the graves of their own Civil War dead (from the nearby
battle of Gettysburg) and on other war dead in summer and fall.
This is the start of their decorating the graves every year.
August 1868, Boalsburg chapter of GAR organized and takes
responsibility for yearly observance. |
April 1865 |
A descendent of President John
Adams, Mrs. Sue Landon Vaughn, is said to have led some
women to Vicksburg, Mississippi, cemetery to decorate the
graves of soldiers. 1954 |
May 1865 |
Winchester, Virginia. Local women
form the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Association and decorate
all the graves in the Confederate Cemetery, which is supposedly
the first cemetery established for soldier dead in the South. |
April 1866 |
Women of Columbus, Mississippi,
go to "Friendship" Cemetery, on outskirts of the
city, the burial ground for the Shiloh battle dead, and
lay flowers on both Union and Confederate dead. Greeley's
New York Tribune prints a story on the unprejudiced
acts of these women that lead to widespread interest in
impartial offering to memory of the dead. It is seen as
a "healing touch for nation."
Carbondale, Illinois. Inspired by seeing a woman with two children putting flowers on graves in rural Hiller Cemetery, just outside Carbondale, Ambrose Crowell, Russell Winchester, and Jonathan F. Wiseman clean and decorate other graves that day; then organize a wider-scale memorial observance at the larger Carbondale Woodlawn Cemetery on 29 April 1866. 219 Civil War veterans march to the cemetery, Southern Illinois' own Major General John A. Logan gives the principal address. Sexton James Green makes memo of the occasion on a flyleaf of old family book, complete with date, location, etc. Carbondale, therefore makes the claim of the first organized, community-wide Memorial Day observance in United States. In 1866 Carbondale Memorial Association, Inc. starts movement to establish its "first" claim. Illinois Congressman Kenneth Gray introduced House Bill No. 12175 to this end, to make Carbondale's Woodlawn Cemetery a national landmark. |
May 1866 |
5 May, Waterloo, New York. Formal
Memorial Day observations held. (see entry for May 1966) |
1867 |
These activities inspire a young
lawyer (later prominent jurist and co-founder of Cornell
University) Francis Miles Finch to write the poem ''The
Blue and the Gray, published in Atlantic Monthly September
1867. This work became very popular and contributed to the
movement for a special day to decorate graves of the soldiers. |
May 1868 |
In 1868 a former Union soldier
from Ohio, name unknown, wrote to the Adjutant-General N.P.
Chipman of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization
of Union veterans, suggesting an annual practice of honoring
dead of Civil War with ceremonies and decorating of graves.
The AG takes the suggestion to General Logan, the commander-in-chief
of GAR, and on 5 May 1868 Logan directs local posts of the
GAR to establish May 30 for this purpose. General Orders,
No. 11, Headquarters, Grand Army of the Republic, Washington,
D.C. 5 May 1868, proclaims ..."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...."
Arlington, Virginia, 30 May. Congressman James A. Garfield (later to become President) is first speaker at ceremony at National Cemetery at Arlington, Virginia. First formal and official observance of Memorial Day. |
1873 |
Memorial Day is recognized as
an official holiday, when New York State designates it as
a legal holiday. Other states soon follow. |
1882 |
The Grand Army of the Republic
urges that the name of the holiday be "Memorial Day".
Many, however, persist in calling it "Decoration Day",
because of the way it began, with the decoration of the
graves of fallen soldiers. |
1887 |
Joint Resolution 6, 23 February
1887 (24 Stat. 644), U.S. Congress allows the day of each
year which is celebrated as "Memorial" or "Decoration"
Day to be a holiday for all per diem employees of the Government,
on duty at Washington or elsewhere in the United States. |
1888 |
Act of Congress, 1 August 1888
(25 Stat. 353) made 30 May a legal holiday for all persona
in the District of Columbia. |
1901 |
Act of Congress, 3 March 1901
(31 Stat. 1404) provided that if this day falls on
a Sunday the next succeeding day shall be a holiday. Amended
by the Act of 30 June 1902 (32 Stat. 543). |
1926 |
Joint Resolution, 19 June 1926,
U.S. Congress, authorizes and directs Secretary of War to
accept a tablet commemorating the designation of 30 May
as Memorial Day by General Orders 11, 5 May 1868, Headquarters
of the Grand Army of the Republic, Signed by General John
A. Logan, Commander-in-Chief. |
1966 |
House Concurrent Resolution 587,
10 February 1966, introduced by Congressman Samuel S. Stratton,
89th Congress, 2d Session, recognized the village of Waterloo,
New York's celebration on 5 May 1866 as the "first
observance of Memorial Day as a national holiday to pay
tribute to those who gave their lives in all our Nation's
wars." The resolution also states that Congress does
"recognize Waterloo, New York, as the birthplace of
Memorial Day". It further states that while "Memorial
Day has since become a national holiday, observed from one
end of the land to the other on May 30", the President
is requested to issue a proclamation calling attention to
the centennial anniversary of the first observance of Memorial
Day. |
January 1971 |
With the passage of the "Monday
Holiday Law", the celebration of Memorial Day Holiday
is changed from 30 May to the last Monday in May. |
December 2000 |
"National Moment of Remembrance"
resolution, which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all
Americans "To voluntarily and informally observe in
their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing
from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or
listening to 'Taps" was passed. |