The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-06-04
THOUGHTS INSPIRED
BY MEMORIAL DAY
One Brother Wearing the Blue
and Another the Gray, Fall
Fighting for the Cause They
Espoused. Origin Of the Day.

BIZ "GenerGl StomesoalI'
I never pass decoration week and
Decoration Day without it bringing
many tender memories to me, and
at which time / shed many, many
silent tears for the nations dead,
who died on the field of battle in
any of our patriotic wars for the adj
vancement of liberty and freedom,
which the stars and stripes vouch-
safes to all people, and especially
do l shed very many tears for two
who were very dear to me who fell
on the battle field during the civil
war.
The occasion always carries me
back to the time when / was a very
small boy. when enc morning in ear
ly spring two youths just entering
into early manhood, babe us children
and father and mother good bye and
rode away to join the armies of the
civil war, but they rode in different
directions as it afterward came to
light and neither ever returned.
/ am indebted for what I give
here to the late Hon. John Amber
Smith who was member of Con-
gress from Virginia just after the
war. and the late Col. Lee Crandall
for many years editor and owner of
the National View. Washington, D.
c., and who was a colonel under
General Thomas J. Jackson known
as old Stonewall."
why and how the 30th day of
May was selected as Decoration
Day. came about and had it's origin
through the fundamentally of two
little girls who lived near Bay View
Cemetery on the Potomac, Washing
ton, D. c., and whose names were
Theresa and Eva May, their father
being Rev. j. G. May chaplain in
the Union Army. Eve was the
younger of the two. and could not
say Therera plain saying Thirty"
instead, and the little girls were out
one day in early spring gathering
wild flowers, and when Mrs. May
their mother asked them on their
return home what they were going
to do with so many flowers, Eva
spoke up and said: Thirty and 1
are going to put them on the 'sojers'
graves" And so their mother went
with them to the cemetery, and gave
them full reign as TO what graves
they should put them on, and child
like which is Christlike, they were
not respecters of persons and all
were remembered-it was from this
simple act of two little girls by the
name of May, that Decoration Day
was handed down to posterity, and
the 30th day of the month of May
selected.
Thus it was that Col. Crandall
who was with one of the young men
when be fell, who rode away from
home never to return, had the dis
tinction of being the first Confeder-
ate officer to decorate a Union SOL
diers grave in public after the war;
and it came about in this way: Near
Mount Vernon at Bay View Gene
terry, Col. Crandall and Hon. John
Amber Smith then a member of
Congress from Virginia, and by the
way an officer in the Union Army
in the march with Sherman to
the sea. and who saw the other
young man fall with his face to the
front in Georgia. 1t was just two
years after the close of the civil war,
that these two gentlemen met at the
cemetery and side by side decorated
the graves of the blue and gray, all
that May day.
1t was while l was employed in
Washington. d. c., in 1889. on May
30th,at the Bay View Cemetery, and
in the presence of Hon. Frank Hat
ton of the Washington Post and
Belva Lockwood, the famous woman
lawyer, that these two gentlemen
made me acquainted with this bit of
history. Belva Lockwood still has
a law Office in Washington, D. c.;
but Frank Hatton, and my two good
friends have gone 10 join the boys
in the army of the great beyond.
Two Loving Brothers
had two loving brothers gay.
Both bold hearted. brave and true;
And while one of them wore the grey.
The other one wore the blue
Marched with Stonewall and his men.
And joined his fate with Lee.
The other marched with Sherman
Triumphantly to the sea.
Both fought for what they thought was right