| Show when we the I 1 heroes of two wars an day as it was christened by its sponsors the grand army decora tion day as the people at large persist in calling it although chosen by the survivors ot the war tor the union as a season in which to honor the memory of on country s defenders comes to us from the southland it was the women ot the south who instituted the custom of placing flowers upon the graves of not only their own defenders none the less heroes because they died foi a mistaken idea and a lost cause but also upon the mounds that marked the resting places of union soldiers realizing th beauty and significance of this conception the northern peo pie did not long delay in following the example set by the south in the month of may 1868 gen john A lo 10 gan then commander con mander of the grind army of the republic issued an order for the observance by that tion of may 30 as memorial day i day to be set apart to the memory ol 01 the soldiers and sailors who tell in the war of the rebellion this particular day was chosen because it was the date of the discharge of the last sol dier of the civil war it is now a legal holiday in all the states except ten until ten years ago it was difficult tor those born sinea the civil war to realize the full significance that at baches to the day that we observe generally it is true they can gather from history all the events ot that great struggle in which brother fought against brother and son against fa ther but they can form no adequate conception of the consternation that pervaded the coith when the capital itself was threatened they cannot grasp the import of the victory of an of the second bull run of the battle of fair oaks of the wilder ness 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 of the south in fiat 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 ire not oblivious of the debt which they owe to the men who fought suffered and died that the nation might live the recurrence of memorial day with its beautiful and pathetic ceremonies conjures up visions of 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 re called that there were four long years of this warfare those who have ai feared upon the stage ot 1 fe since then may be able to form an idea of the magnitude of what is conceded to be tha greatest war in history while memorial day has been ecru observed in the north for the last 40 years within the last ten years it has been invested with a new and solemn significance it will be a reminder that since the close ot the rebellion the country has again been shaken with the throes of war a conflict in which some of its best blood was sprinkled upon the altar of patriotism As the of 61 as to pay homage to their dead comrades and the muffled drum and wailing fife sound a requiem over the heroes who met death on southern battlefields and in southern prisons there will be mourning also for the patriots of 38 the young men who with courage and balor equal that of their sires fell by spanish shot and shell that an oppressed people might be free when the chaplets are twined and the garlands are woven tor those who have 1 to the last tattoo they will also be laid upon an other generation of american soldiers As the rites of the day are being observed in city town and hamlet the solemnity of the occasion ill be brightened by the knowledge that the country is thoroughly reunited no sectional il feeling nor bitter memories will now or evermore arise to mar the harmony of the occasion the enmity that was felt by a great portion of the south against its conquerors has been entirely dissipated and vet it was not the conquering gins 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 bar conious nation the north and south when the call to arms resounded through the land in 1898 the states south of the potomac vied with the north and the west in respond ng to the summons to the honor of the flag aga ast a foreign foe and the first victim of that war was a son of north carolina the south with the rest of the country can claim the vie tors laurel even while her tears bedew the cypress that marks her bereavement rea memorial day will never lose its s g n finance and interest the ranks of the grand army are becoming de plated with each succeeding year there will soon be but a corporal s guard of the members left for they are being mustered out at a rapid rate through age disability and death but the graves of those who d ed fighting tor the flag will not be neg lecter memorial day will continue to be a day of 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 comrade are kept green |
