Confederate Memorial Day Dates Back to Civil War, Survives to This Day

Growing up in Ohio, I never heard of Confederate Memorial Day. I actually stumbled upon it while reading a Washington Post article on a Confederate cemetery in Virginia.

Confederate Memorial Day is also accompanied by Confederate Decoration Day in Tennessee and Confederate Heroes Day in Texas. Several Southern states still recognize it as a day set aside to honor those who died fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War. However, the holiday is actually celebrated on various dates.

Alabama observes Confederate Memorial Day on the fourth Monday in April, marking the surrender of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston to Union General William Sherman on April 26, 1865. Mississippi celebrates on the very last Monday of the same month, while both Florida and Georgia mark the day on April 26.

Arkansas celebrates on January 19 as a state holiday shared with Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. It also marks the anniversary of Robert E. Lee's birth.

Jefferson Davis' birthday is remembered on June 3 and also observed as Confederate Memorial Day in Kentucky and Louisiana. On May 10, North Carolina observes the holiday, also commemorating the death of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson in 1863 and the capture of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, two years later. South Carolina celebrates on the same date.

The Pennsylvania Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans commemorates the day on the second Saturday in May. Texas observes two dates. While the state marks Confederate Memorial Day on April 26, it observes Confederate Heroes Day, linked to the birthdays of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, on January 19 each year.

The Commonwealth of Virginia observes both the Federal holiday known as Memorial Day and Confederate Memorial Day on the last Monday in May. Tennessee has set aside June 3.

According to the May 1893 issue of Confederate Veterans, the widow of C. J. Williams of Columbus, Georgia, began the custom of decorating soldiers' graves with flowers. Serving as colonel of the First Georgia Regulars of the Army of Virginia, Williams died of a disease in 1862. His widow and daughter made daily visits to his Georgia grave, frequently decorating it with flowers. The little girl often pulled weeds from unmarked soldiers' graves in the cemetery, then covered them with flowers. When she died, her bereaved mother took over care of the graves. As she pondered the thousands of solders' graves throughout the South, she came up with the idea of setting apart a day each year to remember those who had lost their lives during the Civil War.

In 1868, Mrs. Williams made an appeal in the Columbus Times, urging the "ladies of the South" to support this effort. She suggested April 26 as the date of each annual observance. She also wrote to the Soldiers' Aid Societies in each Southern state and lived to see her plan adopted throughout the South. When she died in 1874, she was buried with military honors.

The Federal holiday we currently celebrate on the last Monday of May actually evolved from the practice of honoring Confederate dead. General John A. Logan, Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, was so impressed with the manner in which the South honored its fallen soldiers that he pressed to have a special day named on which to honor Union dead.

After observing battlefield graves all around Richmond decorated by friends and families of Confederate soldiers, Logan declared that a holiday known as Decoration Day would be observed throughout the nation on May 30 each year. Folklore says this date was selected to make sure flowers would be blooming across the country. The first official observance of the holiday was in 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery.

Several towns have claimed to be the birthplace of Decoration Day. It was first celebrated in 1866 in Macon, Georgia; Columbus, Georgia; and Richmond, Virginia. A total of 25 cities, some in the North, have claimed to be the birthplace of the holiday. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed Waterloo, New York to be the official birthplace. Congress and the President changed the name of the holiday to "Memorial Day" in 1971 and shifted the day of observance to the last Monday in May.

In December 2000, Congress passed the National Moment of Remembrance Act and created a related White House commission. Its mandate was to promote the values of Memorial Day by acts of remembrance throughout the year and to encourage Americans to show their gratitude by giving back to their nation.