History

Flags flying at gravesites at Fort Logan National Cemetery during Memorial Day, 2006, Denver, Colorado

Troops at the Washington, D.C. Memorial Day parade, 1942

A boy holding an American flag during the 2009 National Memorial Day Concert on the West Lawn of the United States Capitol

The sheer number of dead soldiers, both Union and Confederate, meant that burial and memorialization would become important following the war. People in towns, particularly women, had buried the dead and decorated graves during the war. In 1865, the federal government began a program of creating national cemeteries for the Union dead.

Following President Abraham Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, there were a variety of events of commemoration. The first known observance of a Memorial Day-type observance was in Charleston, South Carolina on May 1, 1865. During the war, Union soldiers who were prisoners of war had been held at the Charleston Race Course; at least 257 Union prisoners died there and were hastily buried in unmarked graves.^[5]

Freedmen (freed slaves) knew of the Union dead and decided to honor them. Together with teachers and missionaries, blacks in Charleston organized a May Day ceremony covered by the New York Tribune and other national papers. Years later, it came to be called the "First Decoration Day" in the North. Beforehand the freedmen had cleaned up and landscaped the burial ground, building an enclosure and an arch labeled, "Martyrs of the Race Course." Nearly ten thousand people, mostly freedmen, gathered on May 1 to commemorate the dead. Involved were 3,000 schoolchildren newly enrolled in freedmen's schools, mutual aid societies, Union troops, and black ministers and white northern missionaries. Most brought flowers to lay on the burial field. Today the site is used as Hampton Park.^[6]

The historian David W. Blight described the day:

"This was the first Memorial Day. African Americans invented Memorial Day in Charleston, South Carolina. What you have there is black Americans recently freed from slavery announcing to the world with their flowers, their feet, and their songs what the War had been about. What they basically were creating was the Independence Day of a Second American Revolution.”^[7]

God Bless America. Love it or Leave it. If you live here you Pledge to the Flag. If you live here you fly the flag. If you live here respect this country as the best in the World like it is.

If you live here you Pay Tribute on Monday to the Men and Women who have given their lives, limbs, hearts and souls for America and what it stands for.

No matter where you are in the states do not let anyone for any reason stop you from Praying and or flying our Flag.

To all of our Veterans and Current Military People of all branches. We are with you on Memorial Day and thank you for your service. WE LOVE YOU ALL and God Bless You and Your Families.

Well said and AMEN!

OBAMA does not look at our flag or place his hand over his heart tell me why?

going tomorrow to visit ex father in law at ft logan,just to remember what gave us our rights.