05/25/2026
Today we remember our fallen military Brothers & Sisters.
Memorial Day Defined:
In the waning years of the Civil War (1861–1865) and immediately afterward, communities in the North and South, Black and White, decorated soldiers' graves with floral honors on springtime "decoration days." The practice of strewing flowers on graves has been documented from Classical Roman times to western Europe in the nineteenth century.
On May 5, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a politically powerful organization of Union veterans led by Major General John A. Logan — issued General Orders No. 11 or the "Memorial Day Act." This issuance formally established "Memorial Day" as a Decoration Day on which the nation would remember its war dead and decorate their graves with flowers.
In subsequent decades competition flourished to claim when and where the first such gathering occurred — in one way or another. Recent scholarship, however, points to the ladies of Columbus, GA, who in April 1866 lobbied for a clearly defined Memorial Day on which to place flowers on the graves of Civil War dead.
Source:
https://www.cem.va.gov/history/Memorial-Day-history.asp
