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The Living Remember Those Who
Died in Wars
By Rad Dewey ThirdAge Staff Put the graves as close as possible to the house, General Montgomery C. Meigs ordered. And so it came to pass that General Robert E. Lee's family home, Arlington House, became America's most solemn shrine to its war dead. Gen. Lee had left the home with his family after assuming command of the army of the Confederate states. Meigs had a long-standing dislike of Lee from their days in the U.S. Army, and was only too pleased to seize the property for a graveyard, now Arlington National Cemetery. With burials on the grounds so close to Arlington House, the family would never want to occupy the property again. (Ironically Gen. Meigs' son, First Lt. John Rodgers Meigs, would eventually be interred at Arlington.) On this Memorial Day, a new president will commemorate the nation's war dead by laying a wreath on The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington. Some suggest the modern Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, developed from a custom among women of the former Confederate states, who put flowers on the graves of the war dead every May 31. Others say it arose because Henry C. Welles, a druggist in Waterloo, N.Y., suggested a community commemoration of the Civil War dead. According to the U.S. Memorial Day organization, the first Memorial Day was declared in 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic. Early Memorial Day observances were usually highlighted by memorable orations like Oliver Wendell Holmes' famous 1884 speech, "In Our Youth Our Hearts Were Touched With Fire ..." It was not until the end of World War I that all the country observed a day of "national mourning" on the same date. In 1968 the day was set to fall on the last Monday in May, creating a three-day weekend. At the turn of the century, it was common to exchange Memorial Day postcards. Today, you can update the custom with these e-postcards. If you fly a U.S. flag on Memorial Day, remember to display the flag at half-staff during the morning hours. At noon, all flags should be raised back to full-staff. |
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