The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1930-05-16
GENERAL ORDERS NO. II
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GENERAL ORDERS NO. II
Headquarters Grand Army of the Re-
public,
Adjutant Generals Office,
446 14th Street, Washington, D. c.
May 5, 1868.
General Orders, No. II.
7. The sOth day of May, 1868, is
designated for the purpose of strewing
with flowers, or otherwise decorating,
the graves of comrades who died in
defence of their country during the
late rebellion, and whose bodies now
lie in almost every city, village, hamlet
and churchyard in the land. In this
observance, no form OF ceremony is
prescribed, but posts and comrades
will, in their own way, arrange such
fitting services and testimonials of re-
spect as circumstances may permit.
We are organized. comrades. as our
regulations tell us, for the purpose
among other things, "of preserving and
strengthening those kind and fraternai
feelings which have bound together the
soldiers, sailors and marines, who unit
ed together to suppress the late rebel
lion" What can aid more to assure
this result than by cherishing tenderly
the memory OF our heroic dead, who
made their breasts a barricade between
our country and its foes. Their soldier
lives were the reveille of freedom to a
race in chains, and their deaths the
tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms.
We should guard their graves with sa-
cred vigilance. All that the consecrat-
ed wealth and taste of the nation can
add to their adornment and security, is
but a fitting tribute to the memory of
her slain defenders Let no wanton foot
tread rudely ON such hallowed grounds.
nj Mt he invite the coming
and going of reverent visitors and fond
mourners. Let no vandalism of avarice
or neglect, no ravages of time, testify
to the present or to the coming genera
tions that we have forgotten, as peo-
pie, the cost of a free and undivided
republic.
If other eyes grow dull, and other
hands slack, and other hearts grow
cold in the solemn trust. ours shall
keep 1T well, as long as the light and
warmth of life remain to us.
Let us, then, at the time appointed,
gather around their sacred remains,
and garland the passionless mounos
above them with the choicest flowers
of springtimR; let US raise above them
the dear old flag they saved from dis
honor; let us, in this solemn presence.
renew our pledges to aid and assist
those whom they have left among us
sacred charge upon IdliOI Sidli~
tude-the soldiers widow and orphan.
II. 1t is the purpose OF the COM
mander-in- chief to inaugurate this OBJ
servance, with the hope that it will be
kept up from year to year, while q
survivor of the war remains to honor
the memory OF his departed comrades.
He earnestly desires the public press to
call attention to this order, and lend
dts friendly aid in bringing it to the
notice Of comrades in all parts of the
country in time for Simultaneous COM
pliance Herewith.
III. Department commanders will use
every effort to make this order effec-
tive.
BY order OF John A. Logan,
Chief.
Ohciai: n. p. Chapman,
Adjutant General.
As a result of this order formal
exercises were held at Arlington, Va.
Cater the site Of the present Airing
ton National cemetery on May 30,
1868, the principal ceremony being the
decoration with flags and flowers of
the monument to the unknown
Dead" memorial that had been
erected to the memory of 2,111 I'M
identified dead found on the fields of
Bull Run and the route to Rappahan-
mock. The principal address was de-
livered by James A. Garfield, twelve
years later elected President Of the
United States. AS yet the term
Memorial day, or Decoration day, had
not been linked with the observance,
and his address, afterward printed
in pamphlet form in Cleveland, Ohio,
was simply entitled: "Oration Of
Hon. James A. Garfield, delivered at
Arlington, Va, May 80, 1885, on the
Occasion of Strewing Flowers on the
Graves of Union Soldiers"
The idea spread rapidly and at the
ceremonies held by the G. A. r. in
Monument cemetery in Philadelphia
on May 20, 1875, 1t was recorded that
"the annual floral decoration Of the
graves of our dead soldiers has be-
come a national custom" For It was
doing much to heal the wounds Of the
war and, in uniting to honor their
dead, the North and the South were
forgetting the bitterness of few
short years before. One of the most
significant bits of evidence of this
occurred in Brooklyn when on the
eve of May 30, 1877, a great throng
assembled in the Academy of Music
to hear the chief orator of the day
Judge Roger A. Pryor, formerly brig
adler general In the Confederate army.
u