Monday, May 25th, our nation will mark the 135th anniversary of the first official observation of the holiday we now call Memorial Day.
We should hold to the true meaning of the day and not just see it as another three-day weekend.
Memorial Day was established by General John A. Logan’s Order No. 11 of the Grand Army of the Republic dated May 5, 1868. Logan’s order captures the essence of the holiday: “The 30th day of May 1868 is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers and otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion (The Civil War), and whose bodies lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.” Logan’s order in fact ratified a practice that was already widespread, both in the North and the South, in the years immediately following the Civil War.
Memorial Day, despite the festive cook-outs, is meant to be a solemn time, serving as
a reflective time for those who have fought and survived some war somewhere in time past, and to ensure that those who follow will not forget the sacrifice of those who fought and died in defense of their country and its principles.
An account of a Minnesota unit during the Civil War helps us to understand the significance of Memorial Day.
On July 2, 1863, Major Dan Sickles, Commanding Officer of the Corps of the Army of the Potomac, held the Union left along Cemetery Ridge south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Dissatisfied with his position, he made an unauthorized movement to higher ground along the Emmitsburg Pike to his front. In so doing, he created a gap between his corps and Major General Winfield Scott Hancock’s II Corps on his right. Before the mistake could be corrected, Sickles’ two under-strength divisions were struck by General James Longstreet’s veteran 1 Corp of Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in an attack that ultimately threatened the entire Union position on Cemetery Ridge. Union commanders including Hancock rushed reinforcements to plug the gap, but at a critical juncture, the only available troops were eight companies - 267 men- of the 1st Minnesota Volunteers. Pointing to the Alabamans’ battle flags, Hancock shouted to the regiment’s colonel, “Do you see those colors? Take them!”
As the Minnesota’s colonel later related, “Every man realized in an instant what that order meant - death or wounds to us all; the sacrifice of the regiment to gain a few minutes of time and save the position, and probably the battlefield - and every man saw and accepted the necessity for the sacrifice.”
st. james plaindealer —
