Decoration Day, forerunner of Memorial Day | History in an Hour

When I was a child, writes Kat Smutz, Memorial Day meant planning for a great weekend.? It was always the weekend my father?s family gathered for their yearly family reunion at the same little country church in the mountains of Western North Carolina.? We always referred to it as Decoration Day.? It made sense.? We all brought flowers to lay on the graves of family members who were buried in the large cemetery adjacent to the church.

It was years later that I realized the reason behind the family gathering at that particular spot.? When I began doing the family tree, I discovered that my great-great grandmother was the first person to be buried there in the middle of the 19thcentury.? The area was still a wilderness then, and the nearby town of Hayesville hadn?t been officially established yet.? Not far away lies the grave of her son, Joseph David Thaddeus Byers.? It was my father?s stories about him, David Thad, a cavalryman in the Confederate Army, who would spark my passion for history.? David Thad?s seven sisters all married Civil War soldiers, as did most of his cousins.? Many of them are also buried at Union Hill along with others from the surrounding area who served.

According to my father, Decoration Day began just around the end of the American Civil War.? He told me that the practice of bringing flowers to the graves of departed loved ones had been around for centuries, probably having evolved out of the practices of various cultures around the world who bring food and other items to gravesites.? But placing flowers on the graves of soldiers began when two ladies (Southern ladies, of course) were visiting the graves of their loved ones and cleaning, as was done in those days.? Even people with servants didn?t send them out to maintain the graves of loved ones.? It had to be done by family.? Tombs in New Orleans, even before the war, were always whitewashed by family members.? Even the wealthiest and highest ranking members of New Orleans society rolled up their sleeves and cared for their dearly departed themselves.

Union Soldiers

As these ladies were placing flowers upon the graves of Confederate Civil War soldiers, they noticed that the graves of Union soldiers buried nearby were barren.? It was not uncommon for the dead from a Civil War battlefield to be buried in the same area, even though the areas for one side of that conflict were segregated from the other.? The ladies realized that the families of the young men under those headstones were too far from their families to be sent home for burial, much less for family to visit and care for their graves.? Many might not even know where their son, husband, father, nephew or cousin was buried.

This touched the hearts of the women who thought of how they would feel if it were their family who was buried so far away with no one to tend his grave and lay flowers in remembrance.? That, according to my father, was how Decoration Day began.? The ladies took it upon themselves to clean the graves of all the Civil War dead in the cemetery and to bring flowers.? The practice spread, and eventually expanded to include all those who have died in the service of our country.

Red Poppies

In May 1868, Memorial Day was declared an official day to honor all those who died in service to their country and as a means of healing the still-fresh wounds of the American Civil War. ?In 1915, during the First World War, the poem ?In Flanders Fields? inspired a woman named Moina Michael to begin wearing red poppies in tribute to dead service men and women from the United States.? The practice has since spread all over the world, becoming a symbol of respect and recognition to all those who serve their countries, as well as a means of raising funds not only for members of the military, but for their widows and children as well.

No one knows when Decoration Day became Memorial Day, it was a gradual process, just as no one knows for certain exactly how or where it began.? The important thing, as US President Lyndon Johnson pointed out in 1966, is the spirit of remembrance and reconciliation the holiday promotes.

My family no longer meets yearly at the little country church for a reunion every Memorial Day weekend.? But family members do visit Union Hill Cemetery near Hayesville, NC, and decorate the graves of our family members with an abundance of flowers.? I?m sure that my great-grand mother, my great-grandfather and his brothers-in-law and cousins who served and are also buried at Union Hill will not be forgotten.

I won?t be able to join them this year.? But like the ladies on that long ago day who chose to remember all those who had laid down their lives for what they believed in, I will attend a Memorial Day service at a small cemetery here in Maine.? There will be a retired Air Force Major directing the proceedings, along with a flag bearer, a trumpeter, and anyone who chooses to attend.? Any veterans among the attendees will be recognized and those veterans buried in the cemetery will have a small American flag marking their final resting place.

I do not know anyone who is laid to rest at this cemetery nor am I related to any of them that I am aware of.? But like those ladies all those years ago, I will remember those who have served on behalf of their loved ones, just as there will be people who are honoring my loved ones who served.? In honoring them, we honor those who still serve and who stand between us and those who would take away our right to honor our dead.

The American Civil War nearly tore the United States apart before it was even a real nation.? But it taught an invaluable lesson about the importance of those who stand up to fight for what they believe is right.? In the wake of the tragedy of the Civil War, a holiday was born that has spread across the world, unifying us all with an awareness of the importance of those who wear the uniforms of the military.

Kat Smutz
Kat is the author of American Civil War: History In An Hour

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