The exact origins of Memorial Day are disputed, Yale University historian David Blight places the first Memorial Day in April 1865, when a group of former slaves gathered at Charleston, S.C., where more than 250 Union soldiers had died. Digging up the soldiers' mass grave, they interred the bodies in individual graves, built a 100-yd. fence around them and erected an archway over the entrance bearing the words "Martyrs of the Race Course."
On May 1, 1865, some 10,000 black Charleston residents, white missionaries, teachers, schoolchildren and Union troops marched around the graveyard singing and carrying armfuls of roses, a children's choir singing "The Star-Spangled Banner." Some historians consider the gathering the first Memorial Day.
Then in May 1868, General John A. Logan, the commander-in-chief of the Union veterans’ group, issued a decree that May 30 should become a nationwide day of commemoration for the more than 620,000 soldiers killed in the recently ended Civil War. Americans should lay flowers and decorate the graves of the war dead “whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet
churchyard in the land.”
Since 1865, when Memorial day began, the USA has been involved in over 50 wars. These wars have taken the lives of over 1,300,000 military personnel, young and old; over 2,800,000 casualties with the wounded, both physically and mentally and the missing...This does not include civilian casualties...These numbers are staggering.
These lives must be honored...
May the global unified desire be for peace.
"The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart...should swell into a mighty chorus of remembrance, gratitude and rededication on this solemn occasion."
-President Abraham Lincoln
"Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices."
-President Harry Truman
Peace,
-Angela
