Part 2 of 2
Mrs. Williams used her influence and wrote to newspapers and the numerous Southern Aid Societies across the former Confederacy and urged them to petition their legislatures to make the day an official day of mourning. In those days women did not have the right to vote, but they had great influence, and they worked together. Her message was “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 wreath the graves of our martyred dead with flowers, and we propose the 26th day of April as the day.”
Their plan worked. In 1866, the Legislature of Georgia set apart the 26th day of April as a legal holiday in obedience to her request. The other states that followed were Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi. Different days were set as May 10th in South Carolina, June 3rd (Jefferson Davis’birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee, and January 19th in Texas (Robert E. Lee’s birthday). Mrs. Williams lived long enough to see her plan adopted all over the South. She died April 15, 1874, and was buried with military honors.
The idea spread over the entire United States and was celebrated quite separately. On the Union side, Memorial Day was celebrated on May 30th, as an order issued by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). The GAR was the powerful veterans’ organization of former union soldiers. The organization was powerful not only in numbers, but in politics as well. To be elected to any office, the GAR vote, or “soldiers’ vote,” was critical. The first state to recognize May 30th as a holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890, it was adopted by most all northern states.
After the War for Southern Independence (1861-1865), the country slowly grew back together. Finally, after the Spanish American War and World War I, May 30th was set aside by the entire country to honor their war dead. However, things began to change and by 1971, Congress passed the National Holiday Act to ensure a three-day weekend for federal holidays.
It is no wonder that Memorial Day has almost evolved into just another long weekend, instead of a special single day of remembrance. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored and many people do not know proper flag etiquette for the day. While there are towns and cities that still hold a Memorial Day parade, many have not had one in decades. There is a movement to help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, The National Moment of Remembrance. This was an act passed in 2000, which asked that at 3:00 p.m. local time, for all Americans “To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a “moment of remembrance and respect” for our war dead.
Although the National Moment of Remembrance is considered as a right step to help restore the meaning of the day, what may be needed is the return to the original day of observance. That is one day, set aside out of the year for the nation to get together to remember, reflect, and honor those who have given their lives, and their all for their country. It is not a day for veterans or the living. That is observed on Veterans Day in November. However, it is a day to remember our war dead, those who paid for our liberties with their lives.