General Orders No. 11 Grand Army of the Republic Headquarters

The 30th day May, 1868 is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in the defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but Posts and comrades will, in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit. We are organized, Comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose among other things, "of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers sailors and marines, who united to suppress the late rebellion." What can aid more to assure the result than by cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead? We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All of the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their adornment and security, is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond memories. Let no neglect, not 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. If other eyes grow dull and others hinds slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain in us.

By Command of:
John A. Logan
Commander in Chief

The reason we have a Memorial Day. Let us all remember that.

:thumbsup:

In 1967 Federal Law invoked the name Memorial Day, and in 1968 the Uniform Holiday Bill was passed, moving several holidays to Monday (3 day weekends, don't you know?) The law took effect at the federal level in 1971.
Happy Memorial Day!

Read David Blight's Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory.

One of the first memorial days of this variety was organized by former slaves in South Carolina after the war. It was an extension of a more personal tradition that existed throughout both the South and the North, but that had no distinct day attached to it nationwide nor any particular manner of observation. It was effectively made a holiday by those former slaves and later appropriated by Logan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day

According to Professor David Blight of the Yale University History Department, the first memorial day was observed in 1865 by liberated slaves at the historic Washington Race Course (today the location of Hampton Park) in Charleston. The site was a former Confederate prison camp as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers who died in captivity.

The freed slaves disinterred the dead Union soldiers from the mass grave to be inhumed properly reposed with individual graves, built a fence around the graveyard with an entry arch, declaring it a Union graveyard. A daring action for freed slaves to take such in the South just shortly after the Union's victory. On May 30, 1868, the freed slaves returned to the graveyard with flowers they had picked from the countryside and decorated the individual gravesites, thereby creating the first Decoration Day. Thousands of freed blacks and Union soldiers paraded from the area, followed by much patriotic singing and a picnic.