The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-07-02
TERMS ARE NOT SYNONYMOUS.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEMORIAL
AND DECORATION DAY.

And DECORATION DAY.
The Former Refers to the Grand
Army OF the Republic Services,
ANA the latter TO the United Com
fcderatc Veterans Services Over
! the Graves of Deceased Comrades.
The Two Days Discussed.
Pine Crest villa Maitland. Fla. July l.
IL seems almost impossible to make even
prominent military men and distinguished
writer's understand that Memorial day is
not Decoration day. 1 was astounded to
see Mrs John A. Logan, whose gallant
husband, as commander-in-chief of the
/ Grand Army of the Republic, established
! by general order, Memorial day, refer to
it recently as Decoration day. Other
Northern writer's fan into the same error,
while Southern writer's call the Decora-
ton day Of the Confederate soldiers Me-
mortal day Each has its own official des-
| ignauon, and they cannot be made inter-
chanseable terms.
To the credit of the patriotic women of
Columbus Ga, under the lead Of Mrs.
| Mary Ann Williams, and Miss Ellis,
/ t4ltttNi 141lRi VI 4hcys IAOSNNil Ems TIC
South can claim precedence for her Dec
Grafton day. on March Y, 1886, Mrs. Will
Jams wrote and published in the Columbus
! Daily Times the announcement that the
patriotic ladies Of that city were orna-
mendng and improving the section of the
cemetery devoted to soldiers graves and
| desired to SET apart April 26 of each year
| as Decoration day, on which suitable
| services should be held and the graves
| of Confederate soldiers covered with the
! beautiful and fragrant flowers of spring.
She appealed to the patriotic women Of
| the South, from the Potomac to the Rio
| Graude, to join in this pleasant and sa-
| cred duty, SO chat in every town, city or
! hamlet where the Confederate soldiers
! rested in their hOnored graves, on the 26th
Of April their memories and heroic deeds
should be properly and universally honor
ca.
Mrs. Williams was a lifelong patriot,
| having, ia 1916 as the daughter of Maj.
| John f. Howard, of Columbus, presented
a beautiful flag to Col. Henry r. Jack
| sons regiment of Mexican war volun-
| teers. Later on after that was ended,
She married Maj. Charles j. Williams
| of this regiment, who had been a cadet
| at West Point Military Academy Cn 1880,
| but did not graduate. Col. (also GEM
| Williams became a prominent man, both
1 in civil and military affairs and died in
| 1862 as commander of the First Georgia
Regulars. This noble woman not only Sc
| cured the establishment of "Wayside
/ Homes" for travelling soldiers, but sent her
| only son. Charles Howard Williams, IA
! years Old, 10 the war. The legislature of
! Georgia in 1866, approaching the work
! which Mrs. Williams and her Ladies' Me-
mortal Association were doing to care
! for soldiers graves and remove scat
| tered bodies to more appropriate places of
/ interment, voted $1,000 to that sacred pur-
| pose Such was the devotion and patriotic
! zeal of the woman who established Deco
| ration day and dying, in 1874, left behind
! her a blessed memory.
| Il was not until May 5, 1868, when Com
mauder-in-Chief John A. Logan, in Gen
| eral order No. Il, dated at "Headquar-
/ tiers Grand Army Of the Republic, Wash
| iugton, d. c." set apart May 80 of each
| succeeding year, as public Memorial
| day for the purpose of strewing flowers
| end otherwise decorating the graves Of
/ Union soldiers. His purpose was to haV e
| the day kept sacred to this service so long
as a Union soldier survived to thus honor
! his departed comrades The national en-
| campment indorsed Gen. Logan's order,
and provided that when the date came
on Sunday the Saturday preceding should
( be observed, except where a legal holiday
/ was made of the Monday following by
| state legislatures. The observance OF the
day and date were made obligatory, and
only the graves of Union soldiers were
! to be decorated. In 1882 the national en-
/ campmeut meeting in Baltimore, called
/ attention to the use of Decoration day for
Memorial day, and condemned the prac-
| tice.
As April &c has been found too early in
| some sections of the South to procure
| sufficient flowers for the occasion, Deco
| ration day has not been confined to that
] data Il originally inlended by the found