The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-06-01

LIVING COMRADES HONORING DEAD
The Wearers of the Blue Decorate the
Grayes of Their Deceased Comrades
in Arms.
Memorial Day this year has new
significance. 1t commentaries the
dead of the Spanish war, the heroes
for whom buildings are still draped
and crepe worn. 1t rs just a year
since the soldiers began falling under
the Spanish shells, and though the
war casualties were famously small,
the loss, trifiing as it is in the annals
of history, is keenly felt And to
Memorial Day, 1899, there is an added
significance
The custom of strewing flowers
upon the graves of the dead is as old
as the human race, yet it remained
for the American people to inaugu-
rate a Decoration Day. Thirty two
years ago a day was set apart as an
annual holiday for the trimming of the
graves of soldiers, and the day has
grown in Importance with the years.
Though the north is generally cred
tied with initiating the custom, it was
actually the south that was first to
have Decoration Day.
The idea originated with Prof. An
drew Washburn, of Hyde Park, Mass,
and later of Denver, Col He had
served in the Union army, but went
south just after the war as an educa-
tor, and was engaged in Richmond,
Va, together with half a dozen other
eastern teachers in those trying times.
They were sad days, for Richmond
was in trouble and poverty, and the
most popular little trip was to Belle
Isle, just above the city in the James
river, the site Of the famous Confed-
crate prison. 1t told a heart-rending
story of death-did Belle Isle in those
days-for there were long rows of
irregular graves. and on one of these
trips III the spring the northern
school teachers took with them a
quantity of wild flowers which they
gathered en- route to scatter over the
graves. They were assisted by many
of the children of Richmond.
The following May, 1866, Prof
Washburn suggested to his assistants
that they choose irregular day for the
pilgrimage to Belle Isle, to decorate
the graves of fallen soldiers. and May
30th was the day decided upon.
Many children were invited and
told to bring as many flowers as they
could. On the evening of May goth
the teachers met in Mrs. Washburn's
kitchen and there made up the flow
ers into wreaths and punches.
The next day was rainy, true to
later Decoration Day records, but,
nevertheless, the.party headed by the
mayor of the city, went to Belle Isle
bearing the flowers. They planted
cross among the mounds and then
went from headboard to headboard
mailing a wreath on each one.
At the close they all sung war
hymn, and while they were singing
the clouds parted overhead and a
beam of sunlight came through upon
them. A clergyman who had accom-
panied them offered up a prayer, and
with that the ceremony ended. That
was the first Decoration Day.
The following year, 1867, the ladies
of Richmond decorated the Confeder-
ate graves in Hollywood cemetery,
and similar beautiful commemora-
tion took place in North Carolina and
elsewhere in the south.
The next year the Grand Army of
the Republic took up the subject and
Gen. John A. Logan sent forth gen.
eral order designating the 30th of May
for the decoration of the graves of
the brave soldiers who has fallen in
the war.
L hC iuOSU SllUliuslhsGlC SUdJtS were
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Ohio
and Pennsylvania; New York and
New Jersey responded literally.
Kentucky and Tennessee showed
wide observance of Decoration Day,
and the cemeteries in Virginia at Ar
lington, Culpepper and Yorktown
bloomed like rose garden. No state
but tried to do something.
To-day no soldiers tomb in the
United States is knowingly left un-
decorated on Memorial Day. The
government has eighteen national
cemeteries which it guards with spe-
cial care. Here 300,0 900 of our soldiers
lay, but not a grave was slighted on
Tuesday, for Decoration Day was
observed this year as it has not been
for twenty-five years.
"Step by step our ranks are thinning.
One by one they pass away,
Here the loyal blue are falling,
Yonder fall the vanquished gray;
And the solemn bells are tolling
Dust to dust and clay to clay.
Tuesday was Memorial Day. The
storm of Monday was followed by a
oh fo.oA11l