May 25, 2020
The unofficial start of summer. Burgers and barbecues. A day to
honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. On this episode of the
Resistance Library Podcast, Dan and Sam discuss Memorial
Day.
The history of Memorial Day is one of controversy, and many don't
know the true origins of this American holiday.
In 1966, President Lyndon Baines Johnson declared there to be
an
“official”
first celebration of Memorial Day. The resolution stated that the
first Memorial Day was in 1866, in Waterloo, New York, celebrated
at the behest of druggist Henry C. Welles and county clerk John B.
Murray. This
“official”
foundation story of Memorial Day has largely been discredited as a
myth. 25 towns currently claim to be the birthplace of Memorial
Day.
More attested to as the first Memorial Day celebration in the North
is the May 5, 1868, proclamation by General John A. Logan calling
for a nationwide
“Decoration
Day.” He simply adopted the previously existing ceremonies of the
American South and transplanted them to the Northern States. The
first Memorial Day celebrated in the North took place on May 30,
1868. It is said that the date was chosen because it did not align
with any particular battle, thus neither side could be seen as
engaging in triumphalism.
The new holiday spread like wildfire throughout the Northern
states. In the first year of the official Memorial Day, 27 states
observed ceremonies in 127 cemeteries. This ballooned to 336
cemeteries by the next year. In 1871, Michigan became the first
state after the original 27 to make it an official holiday. By
1890, it was an official holiday in every Northern state. The
popularity of the holiday led to the reinterment of almost 300,000
Northern war dead in national cemeteries.
A new American mythology arose because of the celebration of this
new holiday. For example, German and Irish Americans who had
participated in the war were considered to be
“Americans
by blood” due to their sacrifice. There were honest and open
discussions of wartime atrocities. The purpose of these discussions
was to provide context for the war and what was gained as well as
what was lost, not merely sulking around in unpleasant
memories.
You can read Sam’s full article
“Memorial
Day: The Forgotten History of America’s Memorial Day and What It
Commemorates” in Ammo.com’s Resistance Library.
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