Confederate
Memorial Day. a day set aside in
the South to pay tribute to those who served with the Confederate forces
during the American Civil War. The founder of the Federal Memorial
Day, Gen. John A. Logan (Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of
the Republic), was so impressed with the way the South honored their
dead with a special day, he became convinced that such a day must be created
to honor Union dead. The battlefield graves all around Richmond could be
seen "marked with little white flags, faded wreaths of laurel" where family
and friends of Confederate soldiers had placed them. Logan
is reported to have been "deeply touched" and said "it was most fittting;
that the ancients, especially the Greeks, had honored their dead,
particularly their heroes, by chaplets of laurel and flowers, and that
he intended to issue an order designating a day for decorating the grave
of every soldier in this land, and if he could he would have made it a
holiday." This of course was done at a later date, thus our National Memorial
Day.
The Confederate Memorial Day is observed on April 26 in Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, and Mississippi; on May 10 in North Carolina and South Carolina;
on May 30 in Virginia; and on June 3 in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Tennessee.
May 30th, 1873.
"For Confederate descendants today, aside from
our European and South American compatriots, our "national identity"
is now the United States of America.
While our national flag is the "Stars and
Stripes", the flag representing a significant part of our national origin
is the "Stars and Bars" and all the rest of the national flags of the Confederacy.
Let them all keep flyin, forever and in
peace."
Author is unknown to
me
Next
- "The Youngest of The Brave"
{Back
To Dixie}
Home