The arguments over “who, what, where and why,” seem only to serve to shift the focus from the purpose of the day to less serious topics. Perhaps that is because shining a spotlight on “who,” journalists, historians and others can avoid making it obvious that they have lost sight of “why.” Sadly, there is ample evidence to support this.

In 1868, Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued General Order No. 11 designating May 30 as a memorial day “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land,” asserts one publication.

In 1971, federal law changed the observance of the holiday to the last Monday in May and extended the honor to all soldiers who died in American wars. Over the 51 years since that change was made, it has been steadily gaining critics who want the day or remembrance returned to Sunday, as Logan had originally intended.

In 2010, the American Legion wrote a resolution calling for returning Memorial Day to May 30, so as to make it the somber holiday it was intended to be and not a reason to enjoy a three-day weekend, Newsweek magazine stated in an article Thursday.

Maj. Gen. John Alexander Logan was a “political general” who began his military career as colonel of an Illinois regiment. Recognized for his natural military ability, Logan quickly rose to the rank of general. By the end of the war, he commanded a Union Army. He became the co-founder of the first national veterans organization, the Grand Army of the Republic, and later helped establish Decoration Day, a national day of remembrance for Civil War dead that eventually became the basis for Memorial Day. (Library of Congress photo)

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, of Hawaii, in 1999, introduced a bill to return Memorial Day to May 30 for the same reason, according to Newsweek. Inouye told Congress that Americans no longer use Memorial Day to honor Americans’ sacrifices in combat, but a day to celebrate “the beginning of summer,” adding, “In our effort to accommodate many Americans by making the last Monday in May, Memorial Day, we have lost sight of the significance of this day to our nation.”

Inouye understood the solemnity of Memorial Day more than most Congressmembers did.

Inouye was a Japanese-American who witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Later, as a lieutenant in Company E, 44d Regimental Combat Team, U.S. Army, for action in San Terenzo, Italy, on April 25, 1945, Inouye received the Congressional Medal of Honor. The 442d was composed of soldiers of Japanese ancestry and became one of the most decorated military units in U.S. history. For his combat heroism, which cost him his right arm, Inouye was awarded the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart with Cluster. The U.S. Senate’s website page for Inouye says in 2013, Inouye was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, becoming the first — and to date, only — senator to receive both the Medal of Freedom and the Medal of Honor.

As Brian Clark Howard and Sydney Combs wrote for National Geographic magazine: “For many Americans, Memorial Day signifies the start of the summer season, as well as a much-needed long weekend filled with activities like sporting events and barbecues. But that wasn’t the original purpose of the day — and its evolution over the years has been rife with controversy.”

Part of that can be traced to countless magazines and websites, such as PBS, which states in part: “Memorial Day is a day for remembrance of those who have died in service to our country. It was first widely observed on May 30, 1868, to commemorate the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers, by proclamation of Gen. John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of former Union sailors and soldiers.”

That is not an accurate statement.

A closer look at the history will reveal that Logan did not declare a proclamation; as commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, he did not have authority to issue an official national proclamation. Rather, the date comes from Logan’s General Orders Number 11, which was issued to the GAR departments of the states in which Civil War veterans had organized GAR posts.

The Library of Congress published the same misunderstanding on its website when it posted: “In 1868, Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued General Order Number 11 designating May 30 as a memorial day ‘for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land.'”

Article II of Logan’s General Orders No. 11, issued from the Headquarters Grand Army of the Republic, Washington, D.C., dated May 5, 1868, states:

“II. It is the purpose of the commander in chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades. He earnestly desires the public press to call attention to this order, and lend its friendly aid in bringing it to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance therewith.”

The order was intended, as suggested in Article II, only for members of the GAR, as supported in Article III of the same order: “III. Department commanders will use every effort to make this order effective. By Command of — John A. Logan, Commander in Chief.”

As National Geographic states, “However, some critics have complained that the holiday has drifted too far toward frivolous fun and should be restored to a more respectful observance.”

David W. Blight, writing for the Zinn Education project in 2011, in his article “The First Decoration Day,” probably came closer to Logan’s internal sentiment than anyone else:

“War kills people and destroys human creation; but as though mocking war’s devastation, flowers inevitably bloom through its ruins.”

Blight’s article, at https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/the-first-decoration-day/, discusses Charleston, South Carolina, at the end of the Civil War, which was the capitol of the first state to secede from the Union in 1861. There, in 1864, the Confederates converted a race track into an outdoor prison, where no less than 257 Union prisoners died of exposure and disease, and were buried in a mass grave behind the grandstand. Some 28 black workmen, Blight wrote, went to the site, re-buried the Union dead properly, and built a fence around the cemetery, upon which they inscribed the words: “Martyrs of the Race Course.” The inscription gave complete light and meaning to the reasons the Union soldiers had sacrificed their lives. On May 1, 1865, 10,000 black Charleston residents, missionaries and teachers, followed by contingents of Union infantry, paraded around the graves, with children leading. The children were followed by several hundred black women with baskets of flowers, wreaths and crosses, Blight wrote.

Another example — the Library of Congress quoted document sources when it published its Memorial Day post that reported Southern women decorated the graves of soldiers even before the Civil War’s end.

“Records show that by 1865, Mississippi, Virginia, and South Carolina all had precedents for Memorial Day,” the LOC stated. “Songs in the Duke University collection Historic American Sheet Music include hymns published in the South such as these two from 1867: ‘Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping,’ dedicated to ‘The Ladies of the South Who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead,’ and ‘Memorial Flowers,’ dedicated ‘To the Memory of Our Dead Heroes.'”

The article goes on to say that when a women’s memorial association in Columbus, Mississippi, decorated the graves of both Confederate and Union soldiers on April 25, 1866, this act of generosity and reconciliation prompted an editorial piece, published by Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune, and a poem by Francis Miles Finch, “The Blue and the Grey,” published in the Atlantic Monthly. The practice of strewing flowers on soldiers’ graves soon became popular throughout the reunited nation.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs states that local springtime tributes to the Civil War dead already had been held in various places. One of the first occurred in Columbus, Miss., April 25, 1866, when a group of women visited a cemetery to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen in battle at Shiloh. Nearby were the graves of Union soldiers, neglected because they were the enemy. Disturbed at the sight of the bare graves, the women placed some of their flowers on those graves as well. Today, cities in the North and the South claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day in 1866. Both Macon and Columbus, Ga., claim the title, as well as Richmond, Va.

Perhaps who initiated Memorial Day is unimportant. It is safe to argue that John A. Logan would not have cared who received credit; that was not the motive behind his General Orders No. 11.

Perhaps what matters is found in the Journal of the Annual Encampment of the Department of Michigan, Grand Army of the Republic, Vol. 33, as to why Americans should pause to remember those who fell in defense of freedom:

‘“What did these men accomplish?’ Far more than intended or expected. Not many of them personal fame, glory, wealth, power, for themselves, but all these for the country they helped save, making it in freedom, unity, honor, power, intelligence, prosperity, and attractiveness what it never had been and probably would not have been, at least for many generations, but for the results accomplished by these men whose graves we decorate and whose costly sacrifice and sufferings we honor.”

Sources:

— Fink, Jenni, “Origin of Memorial Day: What Memorial Day Means and How It Got Started.” May 31, 2021. Newsweek, May 26, 2022. https://www.newsweek.com/memorial-day-origin-meaning-history-facts-1595964

— Howard, Brian Clark and Combs, Sydney, “The facts behind Memorial Day’s controversial history: No one is sure how the holiday started, and people debate how it should be celebrated, but it still honors those who lost their lives in service of their country.” National Geographic, May 24, 2022. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/memorial-day-1?loggedin=true.

— Library of Congress, “Today in History — May 30.” https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/may-30/

— Journal of the Annual Encampment of the Department of Michigan, Grand Army of the Republic, Vol. 33. Grand Army of the Republic. Department of Michigan, 1909. https://books.google.com/books?id=E2sTAQAAMAAJ&dq=E.R.+Stiles+Post%2C+174%2C+Hancock%2C+Michigan%2C+GAR&q=174#v=onepage&q=decorations&f=false. P. 90

— U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, “Celebrating America’s Freedoms.” Local springtime tributes to the Civil War dead already had been held in various places.

— U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration, “Memorial Day Order.” https://www.cem.va.gov/history/memdayorder.asp

— PBS. “The History of Memorial Day.” https://www.pbs.org/national-memorial-day-concert/memorial-day/history/

— U.S. Senate, “Daniel K. Inouye: A Featured Biography,” https://www.senate.gov/senators/FeaturedBios/Featured_Bio_Inouye.htm