Memorial Day history and homage

Backyard barbecues, picnics in the park and the three-day weekend often obscure the true meaning of Memorial Day.

How the day became a holiday is equally equivocal.

As with many holidays, historians attribute its origins to small groups of people celebrating on their own.

Women in the South decorated soldiers' graves. And liberated slaves celebrated in Hampton Park right here in Charleston. According to a College of Charleston history professor, Hampton Park was once a prison camp for Union soldiers, some of whom died in captivity and were buried in a mass grave.

At the war's end, members of black churches reburied the men individually. On May 1, 1865 thousands gathered to consecrate the site

This celebration of liberation at the site of Union soldiers' graves is purportedly one of the earliest observances of a day honoring veterans who died in service.

However, President Lyndon Johnson in 1966 named Waterloo, N.Y., as the birthplace of the holiday for originally recognizing Memorial Day in 1866.

The official beginning came from Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, the national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, who ordered in 1868 that the day be recognized on May 30. Flowers were placed on Union soldiers' graves at Arlington National Cemetery.

Logan's executive order said it was a day to remember those who died "during the late rebellion."

"Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in chains, and their deaths the tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms," the order states.

After World War I, the holiday became a day to recognize all who died in war. South Carolina, like some other Southern states, has its own Confederate Memorial Day on May 10.

In Johnson's proclamation for Waterloo, he reminded the nation of a 1950 act by Congress, which called upon the "people of the United States to observe each Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace."

And the holiday was celebrated May 30 until Congress passed the Uniform Holiday Act of 1971 making it a three-day weekend that people view as the unofficial start of summer.

There have been efforts to reclaim the holiday, moving its observance to its true day and also a national remembrance asking everyone to bow their heads in a moment of silence at 3 p.m. to remember the more than one million people who have died for their country.

Reach Jessica Johnson at 745-5860 or jjohnson@post andcourier.com.