River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1909-05-27

although chosen by the survivors OF
the war for the union as season In
which to honor the memory OF our
country's defenders, comes to us from
the southland. 1t was the women OF
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 for
a mistaken idea and lost cause-Dut
also upon the mounds that marked the
resting places of union soldiers.
Realizing the 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-
gan, then commander of the Grand
Army of the Republic, issued an order
for the observance by that organiza-
ton of May 80 as Memorial day-a
day to be set apart to the memory of
the soldiers and sailors who fell in the
war of the rebellion. This particular
day was chosen because it was the
date of the discharge of the last sol
der of the civil war. It is now legal
holiday in all the states except ten.
Until ten years ago it was difficult
for those born since the civil war to
realize the full significance that at
taches to the day that we observe so
generally. 1t is true they can gather
from history all the events of that
great struggle in which brother fought
against brother and son against ia
Their, but they can form no adequate
conception of the CONSERVATION that
pervaded the north when the capital
itself was threatened. They cannot
grasp the import of the victory of An
tietam; 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 100000 men were
engaged and scores of other battles
in which the blood of heroes stained
the soil of the south in that 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 are 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 it's 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
hot f1.in OF
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 ap-
peared upon the stage of life since
then may be able to form an idea of
the magnitude of what is conceded to
be the greatest war in history.
While Memorial day has been scru-
pulously observed in the north for the
last 40 years, within the last ten
years it has been invested with a
new and solemn significance. 1t will
be reminder that since the close OF
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 veterans of 81 as
semble to pay homage to their dead
comrades, and the muffied drum and
wailing fife sound requiem over the
heroes who met death on southern
battlefields and in southern prisons,
there will be mourning also for the
patriots of '98-the young men who,
with courage and Valor equal TO that