HAMLET - Yesterday, Monday, May 28th, was this year’s designated date upon which we as a nation officially remembered and honored members of our armed forces who gave their lives in defense of our country.
While there is little, if indeed any, debate as to the significance of this hallowed holiday, the origin of such is a different matter.
No less than ten different locales lay claim to having been the first to officially commemorate those who died in active military service.
While it is possible that some of these events occurred simultaneously, the likelihood of that being the case seems to be minimal.
Here is a listing (and probably an incomplete one at that) of municipalities who have provided some evidence to support their contention that the original “Memorial Day” took place in their town.
1. Warrenton, Virginia (June 3rd, 1861): Claims to have held the first “official” decoration of a soldier’s grave;
2. Savannah, Georgia (1862): Women of the town gathered to place flowers on the graves of Confederate soldiers in the city cemetery;
3. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (November 19th, 1863): Some contend that the dedication of the Gettysburg Cemetery (Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address) was effectively the first “official” recognition of military service deaths;
4. Boalsburg, Pennsylvania (July 4th, 1864): Promotes itself as the “birthplace” of Memorial Day, citing a July 4th, 1864 commemorative service in which ladies of the town decorated the graves of local Union soldiers;
5. Charleston, South Carolina (May 1st, 1865): According to contemporary accounts, 10,000 African-Americans, just freed from slavery, held a parade to honor 257 black soldiers whose remains had been reburied from a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp;
6. Columbus, Mississippi (April 25th, 1866): Women of the town gathered to place flowers on the graves of both Union and Confederate dead in the city cemetery;
7. Waterloo, New York (May 26th, 1866): The original claim that Waterloo druggist Henry Welles and county clerk John Murray founded the holiday here has since been disproved, but only after President Lyndon Johnson officially recognized Waterloo as the “official” birthplace of Memorial Day on the 100th anniversary of the supposed event;
8. Rochester, Wisconsin (1867): Another claimant to the honor of having staged the first “Memorial Day” parade;
9. Doylestown, Pennsylvania (1868): Claims to have held the “longest continuously running Memorial Day parade” - this may well be true but does not prove it to have held the first;
10. Decatur, Illinois (1868): Perhaps the most legitimate claimant of Memorial Day origins, it was the site of General John A. Logan’s establishment of “Decoration Day” in 1868. However, some historians contend that Logan was merely replicating services that had already been recurring in the South (e.g., Charleston, Savannah, Columbus, etc.).
Regardless of the specific site of the first “Memorial Day/Decoration Day” commemoration, in 1871 Michigan was the first state to officially recognize it as a legitimate holiday. By 1890, all of the existent states had done the same.
