The mirror., 1919-05-29
ORIGIN OF MEMORIAL DAY
Mrs John A. Logan Tells How Annual Ceremony Was
Inaugurated by Her Husband
Selected

company US. The colonel insisted
upon my taking my two children
with US, although both were very
small, my little boy, John A. Lo-
gan. Jr.. mere baby. However.
he regarded the trip in the light
of an historic pilgrimage and felt
that the children should see some
of the battlefelds over which dis.
tinguished generals had led their
armies.
1T was a cold. bleak day on
which we arrived in Richmond,
and the hotel was desolate place
of refuge. 1t afforded one of the
evidences of the privations which
the people of the Confederacy had
suffered. These evidences were
very plentiful throughout the city,
as we later discovered. The We
hicle which Colonel Wilson found
for our conveyance for the drive
to the backgrounds nearby was a
wretched carriage drawn by two
miserably poor horses. The driver
was the picture of detection, and
the small boy who served as foot.
man was no better, and he shivered
from head to foot with the cold.
AS we drove over the battle
fields we observed colored people
picking up the bullets and pieces
of shell, shrapnel, minnie balls,
bits of broken cannon and other
iron material. Foundries had set
a price on this product, and it af-
forded quite livelihood for time
to the poor about fortified cities
and battlefields.
I'VE visited the churchyards
and cemeteries at Richmond and
Petersburg incde historic through
the struggle which - taken place
in and around those cities. : There
we're a great many burial grounds
in those neighborhoods, because
the globes, which were land grants
from England to the Episcopal
church in America, bad still existed
as church grants at the time of the
Civil War, and were used as burial
grounds for the citizens and SOL
diers.
I'm the burying ground near
Petersburg we saw many, hundreds
of graves of Confederate soldiers,
and they nearly all bore a small,
faded flag, and the dark, withered
wreaths and remains of their floral
decoration of nearly a year before.
These mournful mementoes of the
bygone tragedy of the South
touched me deeply, and on our re-
turn home from the tour of the
battle6elds I-told my husband of
this tribute of the Southern men
and women to the soldier dead.
General Logan reciprocated
my feeling as to the fitness of the
sentiment expressed. He said that
it was revival of the ancient GUS
tom, for the people of ages past in
old countries had performed the
rite of decorating the graves of
their dead heroes with flowers. He
considered the matter for a time,
and then said he did not see why
it might not be revived in the case
of the fallen Union soldiers.
General Logan, who was then
commander in chief of the Grand
Army of the Republic, decided
that he would issue an order for
the decoration of the soldiers
graves on the following 30th of
May. Sending for General Chip
man, adjutant general of the Grand
Army of the Republic, he dictated
order No. II for the first decora-
ton of Union soldiers graves which
ever took place in the United States.
That order is now read at ev-
cry Decoration Day ceremony
which takes place over the graves
of Union soldiers who fought in :
the Civil War;"