Show n en we honor the hero eroes rs urs U of two iwo wars wa E MORIAL day as ail it was christened by its ais sponsors the grand army decoration day as the people at large persist in calling A lt although chosen b by the survivors ot it the war for or the union as a season in which to honor the memory of our count rys defenders comes to td us from the southland it was the women of the south who instituted the custom of placing flowers upon the graves ot of not only their own defenders none the less heroes because they died for a mistaken idea and a lost cause but also upon the mounds that marked the resting places of union soldiers realizing tho the beauty and significance ol of this conception the northern people did not long delay in following the example set by the south in inthe 0 the mouth month of may 1868 gen john A logan then commander of the grand army of the republic issued an order for the observance by that organization of may 30 as memorial day IL a day to be set apart to the memory of the soldiers and sailors who tell fell in the war of the rebellion this particular day was chosen because it was the date of the discharge of the last soldier of the civil war it Is now a legal holiday in all the states except ten until ten years ago it was tor those born since the civil war to realize the full significance that attaches to the day that we observe so generally rally it Is true they can gather from rom history all the events of that great struggle in which brother fought against brother and son against father but they can form no adequate conception of the consternation that pervaded the north when the capital itself was threatened they cannot grasp tho the import of the victory of antietam of the second bull run of the battle of wr fair oaks of the wilderness of the fiercely contested battle and the decisive one of the war of gettysburg in which men were engaged and scores of other battles in which the blood of heroes stained the soil boll of the south in that titanic struggle between the states when more than once the fate of the nation trembled in the balance although so many years have passed since the war of the rebellion the american people are not oblivious of the debt which they owe to the men who fought suffered and died that the he nation might live the recurrence of memorial day with its beautiful and pathetic ceremonies conjures up visions of 0 those dark days of the past when our soldiers in the south were receiving their baptism of blood and fire and their friends at home were waiting in dread expectancy for news from the front and when it Is recalled that thero there were four long years of this warfare those who have appeared upon the stage of life since the then may be able t to form an idea of the magnitude of what la is conceded to be the greatest war in n history while memorial day has been scrupulously pulou sly observed in the north for the last 40 years within the last ten years it has been invested with ditl a now new and solemn it will be e a reminder that since the close ol oi the rebellion the country has haa again been shaken with the throes of war wai a conflict in which some of its best blood wis was sprinkled upon the attar altar ot ol patriotism As AA the veterans of 61 as to pay homage to their doad comrade i and the muffled drum an and d lilliq life sound a requiem over the heroes who met death on southern battlefields and in southern prisons I 1 there will be mourning also for th the patriots of 98 the young men who with courage and valor equal to that of their sires fell by spanish shot and shell that an oppressed people might be free when the charleta chaplets cha pleta are and the garlands are woven for those who have ll listened ted to the last tattoo they will also be laid upon another generation of american soldiers As the rites of the day are being observed in city town and hamlet the solemnity of the occasion will be ba brightened by the knowledge that this tha country Is thoroughly reunited no sectional feeling nor bitter me memories memorie morle will now or evermore arise to mar tha harmony of the occasion the enmity that was felt by a great portion of th the e south against its conquerors has been beel entirely dissipated and yet it waa not the conquering guns of the north ern hosts that swept away sectional ism and removed the animosities en gendered by that strife but rather the cannon that thundered from the fleets of spain and the vol leys that rattled from spanish mau sers that welded together in one har bar conlous nation the north and south when the call to arms re sounded through the land in 1898 the states south of the potomac vied with the north and the west in responding tc the summons to maintain the honor ol of the flag against a foreign foe and the first victim of that war was a son ol oi north carolina tho the south with tile th rest of the country can claim the vie tors laurel even while her tears be dew tha th cypress that marks her he be rea memorial day will never lose its sig and interest tho the ranks ol 01 the grand army are becoming de plated with each succeeding year there will soon be but a corporals corporale guard of the members left tor for they are being mustered out at a rapid rate through age disability and death but the graves of those who died fighting for the hag flag will not be neg lecter memorial day will continue to be a day of ot remembrance the sons of veterans will keep alive the patriotic flame when their sires are no longer able to march to the post room and the cemetery then too the spanish war veterans will see to it that the memories of their fallen comrades are kept green |