A12
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Saturday, May 25, 2019
The forgotten history of Memorial Day
the southern Memorial
Day holiday was a famil-
iar phenomenon through-
out the entire, and recently
reunited, country.
General Logan was
aware of the forgiving
sentiments of people like
Finch. When Logan’s order
establishing Memorial Day
was published in various
newspapers in May 1868,
Finch’s poem was some-
times appended to the
order.
By RICHARD
GARDINER
Columbus State University
In the years following
the bitter Civil War, a for-
mer Union general took a
holiday originated by for-
mer Confederates and
helped spread it across the
entire country.
The holiday was Memo-
rial Day, and this year’s
commemoration on May
27 marks the 151st anni-
versary of its offi cial
nationwide
observance.
The annual commemora-
tion was born in the former
Confederate States in 1866
and adopted by the United
States in 1868. It is a hol-
iday in which the nation
honors its military dead.
Gen. John A. Logan,
who headed the larg-
est Union veterans’ fra-
ternity at that time, the
Grand Army of the Repub-
lic, is usually credited as
being the originator of the
holiday.
Yet
when
General
Logan established the hol-
iday, he acknowledged its
genesis among the Union’s
former enemies, saying,
“It was not too late for the
Union men of the nation to
follow the example of the
people of the South.”
I’m a scholar who has
written — with co-au-
thor Daniel Bellware — a
history of Memorial Day.
Cities and towns across
America have for more
than a century claimed to
be the holiday’s birthplace,
but we have sifted through
the myths and half-truths
and uncovered the authen-
tic story of how this holi-
day came into being.
Generous acts bore
fruit
During 1866, the fi rst
year of this annual obser-
vance in the South, a fea-
ture of the holiday emerged
that made awareness,
admiration and eventu-
ally imitation of it spread
quickly to the North.
During the inaugural
Memorial Day observances
‘The blue and the
grey’
EO fi le photo
Pendleton Pioneer Chapel, Folsom-Bishop hosts Veterans and Memorial Day ceremonies to
recognize veterans and those currently serving in the military.
which were conceived in
Columbus, Georgia, many
Southern participants —
especially women — dec-
orated graves of Confed-
erate soldiers as well as,
unexpectedly, those of
their former enemies who
fought for the Union.
Shortly after those fi rst
Memorial Day obser-
vances all across the South,
newspaper coverage in the
North was highly favorable
to the ex-Confederates.
“The action of the ladies
on this occasion, in bury-
ing whatever animosities or
ill-feeling may have been
engendered in the late war
towards those who fought
against them, is worthy of
all praise and commenda-
tion,” wrote one paper.
On May 9, 1866, the
Cleveland Daily Leader
lauded
the
Southern
women during their fi rst
Memorial Day.
“The act was as beauti-
ful as it was unselfi sh, and
will be appreciated in the
North.”
The New York Com-
mercial Advertiser, rec-
ognizing the magnani-
mous deeds of the women
of Columbus, Georgia,
echoed the sentiment. “Let
this incident, touching and
beautiful as it is, impart to
our Washington authorities
a lesson in conciliation.”
Power of a poem
To be sure, this senti-
ment was not unanimous.
There were many in both
parts of the U.S. who had
no interest in conciliation.
But as a result of one of
these news reports, Fran-
cis Miles Finch, a Northern
judge, academic and poet,
wrote a poem titled “The
Blue and the Gray.” Finch’s
poem quickly became part
of the American literary
canon. He explained what
inspired him to write it:
“It struck me that the
South was holding out a
friendly hand, and that it
was our duty, not only as
conquerors, but as men and
their fellow citizens of the
nation, to grasp it.”
Finch’s poem seemed to
extend a full pardon to the
South: “They banish our
anger forever when they
laurel the graves of our
dead” was one of the lines.
Almost
immediately,
the poem circulated across
America in books, maga-
zines and newspapers. By
the end of the 19th century,
school children every-
where were required to
memorize Finch’s poem.
The ubiquitous publication
of Finch’s rhyme meant
that by the end of 1867,
It was not long before
Northerners decided that
they would not only adopt
the Southern custom of
Memorial Day, but also
the Southern custom of
“burying the hatchet.” A
group of Union veterans
explained their intentions
in a letter to the Philadel-
phia Evening Telegraph on
May 28, 1869:
“Wishing to bury for-
ever the harsh feelings
engendered by the war,
Post 19 has decided not
to pass by the graves of
the Confederates sleep-
ing in our lines, but divide
each year between the blue
and the grey the fi rst fl o-
ral offerings of a common
country. We have no pow-
erless foes. Post 19 thinks
of the Southern dead only
as brave men.”
Other reports of recipro-
cal magnanimity circulated
in the North, including
the gesture of a 10-year-old
who made a wreath of fl ow-
ers and sent it to the over-
seer of the holiday, Colo-
nel Leaming, in Lafayette,
Indiana, with the following
note attached, published
in The New Hampshire
Patriot on July 15, 1868:
“Will you please put this
wreath upon some rebel
soldier’s grave? My dear
papa is buried at Ander-
sonville, (Georgia) and per-
haps some little girl will be
kind enough to put a few
fl owers upon his grave.”
President Abraham Lin-
coln’s wish that there be
“malice toward none” and
“charity for all” was vis-
ible in the magnanimous
actions of participants on
both sides, who extended
an olive branch during
1the Memorial Day obser-
vances in those fi rst three
years.
Although not known
by many today, the early
evolution of the Memorial
Day holiday was a mani-
festation of Lincoln’s hope
for reconciliation between
North and South.
———
This is an updated ver-
sion of an article originally
published on May 25, 2018.
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Friday, June 7th
1pm Shotgun Start
Big River Golf Course - Umatilla
Golfers of all skill levels are invited to participate in the 26th annual “Scramble
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or individual pairings can be made by the tournament committee. Your $70
entry fee covers green fees, a box lunch, and BBQ dinner, and makes a
charitable donation to the foundation to use in awarding scholarships
for local health care students.
Register at scrambleforscholarships.eventbrite.com
or by calling 541-667-3405. Entry deadline is June 5th.
Great prize holes and Hole-in-one on #1 & #9
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