Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1920 — DAY BELONGS TO THE NATION [ARTICLE]

DAY BELONGS TO THE NATION

3hnce 1868 the Ceremony of Decorating the Graves of the Heroes Has Been Observed. Memorial day;' or Decoration day, as it was at first called, is said to have really originated with some southern women, In Columbus, Miss., soon after the Civil war. In caring for the graves of their loved ones who had fallen only a few months before, they strewed flowers not only on the graves of the Confederate but also on-those of northern soldiers who had fallen in the same battles. Three years after the war Gen. John A. Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued an order in which he named May 30, 1868, “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country, and whose bodies lies In almost every city, village or hamlet churchyard in the land.” The day Is now a legal holiday in practically all states of the Union, although all of them do not celebrate May 30, the date being earlier In some parts of the South. In the South there is also a separate memorial for the soldiers of the “Lost Cause,” and this is called “Confederate Memorial day.” In Louisiana it is celebrated on the birthday of Jefferson Davis (June 3), who was the first and only president of the short-lived Confederacy.