dagblog - Comments for "On Hallowed Ground: A Memorial Day look at Cemeteries"

Thanks, DD. It was hard to

Ramona — Tue, 31 May 2011 02:27:04 +0000

Thanks, DD. It was hard to choose which pictures to use. I've somehow lost two of the pictures I was going to use. They're beautiful female figures and I guess they didn't want to appear in public because they're nowhere to be seen.

This is just a beautiful

Richard Day — Mon, 30 May 2011 20:50:58 +0000

In reply to On Hallowed Ground: A Memorial Day look at Cemeteries

This is just a beautiful presentation.

Thank you!

I have no doubt the women

rmrd0000 — Mon, 30 May 2011 15:07:09 +0000

In reply to Interesting. I read

I have no doubt the women originated the idea.

Blight's book is a treasure

rmrd0000 — Mon, 30 May 2011 15:01:04 +0000

In reply to Yes, I learned about the

Blight's book is a treasure

Interesting. I read

Ramona — Mon, 30 May 2011 13:21:37 +0000

In reply to Yale University Professor

Interesting. I read somewhere that it was actually black women who started the movement to bury the soldiers properly. I agree that the day was originally set aside to honor servicemen and women, and the emphasis is still there, but it has evolved into a day of remembrance for all who've died.

I watched the Memorial Day concert on PBS last night. Incredibly moving. Hooray for PBS. (I'm waiting for the day when we're remembering those lost in long-past wars only.)

Yes, I learned about the

AmericanDreamer — Mon, 30 May 2011 13:20:16 +0000

In reply to Yale University Professor

Yes, I learned about the origins of Memorial Day and shared that with my wife Friday night as I happen to be in the course of reading Blight's book Race and Reunion. As you note, it was originally called Decoration Day and was celebrated on many different days in many different states until eventually it became the national holiday it is today.

Reading Blight's book has also prompted me to order a collection of the writings of Frederick Douglass. Our family heard a reading of his famous July 4th speech in DC a couple of years ago. My appreciation of his role, apparent heavy influence on Lincoln's thought even though they met only 3 times FTF, and sheer skill and intelligence as an orator continues to grow.

Yale University Professor

rmrd0000 — Mon, 30 May 2011 13:07:03 +0000

In reply to On Hallowed Ground: A Memorial Day look at Cemeteries

Yale University Professor David Blight has fund evidence that former Black slaves in South Carolina organized the first "Memorial Day' in 1865, three years before the nationally declared celebration. The event took place at a former prisoner of war camp in Charleston,South Carolina that imprisoned Union soldiers. Many Union soldiers died in the camp and were not properly buried.

Former Black slaves came to the prison camp after the South had surrendered and buried the soldiers properly. A ceremony honoring the Union soldier's was held after the burial.

He came across the papers documenting the event in a folder labeled "First Decoration Day"

Blight noted:

Following the Confederate surrender ending the Civil War, blacks went to the place where hundreds of prisoners had been buried, many in mass graves.

“Blacks, many of them recently freed slaves, buried the soldiers properly. They put up a fence around the area and painted it. More than 260 were buried there. We don’t know the names. We don’t know the race,” Blight told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Following the burials, there was a ceremony.
Blight found more information about the rites in old newspapers and magazines such as Harper’s Weekly. Several large newspapers from the North would send reporters into the South to cover the war and its aftermath, with some writing narratives with great detail, Blight said.

“At 9 a.m. on May 1, a procession stepped off, led by 3,000 black schoolchildren carrying arm loads of roses and singing. The children were followed by several hundred black women with baskets of flowers, wreaths and crosses. Then came black men marching in cadence, followed by contingents of Union infantry and other black and white citizens," Blight said. “As many as possible gathered in the cemetery enclosure; a children’s' choir sang 'We'll Rally Around the Flag,' 'The Star-Spangled Banner' and several spirituals before several black ministers read from scripture. This was their way of saying what the war meant to me and what America means to me. They were now freed men and women.”

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/news/moving_america_news/28874/1

The day is not about sales or picnics, but honoring those who gave their lives in service to the United States of America.