Evening star., 1923-03-24

10 the Editor Of he star.
Mildred Lewis Rutherford. the his
torian general Of the United Daueh-
ters OF Confederacy, seems to have
acquired a mass OF misinformati"n
on many subjects concerning the civil
war. not the least of which is her
disposition to distort history and re-
fer To this greatest OF all wars as
the War between the States
Abraham Lincoln established the
title Of that struggle for all time.
Never but once in all his writings
and utterances did he call it anEt hing
but the WAR OF the Rebellion In
his Gettysburg address he spoke OF
il as "A Great Civil War In all my
reading l have noted but this ono
execution. If Lincoln ever used this
term in any other place / would be
glad to know it. So | say. dispite the
peeved United Daughters of Confed-
eracy, the War Between the States.
will never become the official title
of the great war.
And now permit me TO again cor
rect the "corrector" in the statement
which she made in The Star OF Tues
day evening. March 20. Miss Ruther-
ford saws Memorial day is strictly
Of southern origin and was observed
first in Columbus, Ga, April %, 1866,
nv an act of the Georgia Legislature.
Other states quickly foiioWed TINS
observation. being IN each southern
state according 10 the floral season
in the spring.
"Petersburc. Va. May 26. 1868, was
obscrytng this celebration under Miss
Nora Davidson's direction. when Gen.
and Mrs. John y. Logan were visitors
i'll that city
"Mrs. LOgan's Suggestion"
This misinformed historian goes on
70 state that Gen. and Mrs. Logan
MI u -
ing of flowers upon the graves of the
dead soldiers Of the south that Mrs.
Logan suggested to her husband that
It would be we'll to inauRurate some
thing Of the kind for the heroes OF
the north She also states that when
Gen. Logan became communicating
chief of the Grand Army of the Re
public he issued the order that the
graves in all ma tfonal cemeteries *
should be decorated with flowers IN
Nav. and she adds. This was the
origin of Decoration day, and Mrs.
Logan has the honor of suggesting
that"
To begin with corrections. Gen.
John A. Logan was first elected com :
mander-in chief January 10, 1863,
the second national encampment held
| in Philadelphia. Pa, so he was al
ready commander-in-ch chief on that
date, May &c. 1868. Also. on May 20
1865 when he was supposed to have
rials In Petersburg, Va. his general
| order No II. establishing May 80;
IIs6S as Memorial day. "designated
for the purpose of strewing with
| flowers or otherwise decorating the
graves of comrades who died in de-
fense of their country during the
late rebellion, and whose bodies now
, lie in almost every city, village, nam
LEI and church yard in the land" was
exactly twenty-one days old. That
disposes of two errors of fact: Gen.
Logan was already commander IN
chief and had already issued his IA
nous Memorial day order on May 10
1853.
National Cemeteries.
Also Gen. Logan did not issue an
order that "All the graves in all ma
tfonal cemeteries should be decorated
with flowers in May" he did not men
ton national cemeteries in his beau
tiful order, No. IL. The order begins
with the exact words which i have
quoted in the foregoing paragraph
namely Decorating the graves OF
all comrades who died in defense of
the country during the late rebellion.
Also the day was not designated as
/ Decoration day" in general orders
No. IL or any other general orders
chief. 1t has always been known in
| the north af Memorial day"
! The suggestion that Memorial day
I is strictly "of southern origin" is
amusing in the light of history.
Flower memorials for the dead are as
| old as recorded history and presum
ably very much more ancient than
that, but at this time 1 will not enter
further into the story of flower me-