Editing Memorial Day (section)

=== State holiday ===
[[File:1870DecorationDayStPaulMNphotoCharlesZimmerman.jpg|thumb|upright|The 1870 Decoration Day parade in [[St. Paul, Minnesota]]]]
In 1873, New York made Decoration Day an official state holiday and by 1890, every northern state had followed suit.<ref name=":0" /> There was no standard program for the ceremonies, but they were typically sponsored by the [[Women's Relief Corps]], the women's auxiliary of the [[Grand Army of the Republic|Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)]], which had 100,000 members. By 1870, the remains of nearly 300,000 Union dead had been reinterred in 73 national cemeteries, located near major battlefields and thus mainly in the South. The most famous are [[Gettysburg National Cemetery]] in Pennsylvania and [[Arlington National Cemetery]], near Washington, D.C.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cem.va.gov/cem/pdf/IS1_Jan_2011.pdf |title=Interments in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) National Cemeteries |date=January 2011 |location=Washington, DC |publisher=National Cemetery Administration – Department of Veterans Affairs VA-NCA-IS-1 |quote=After the Civil War, search and recovery teams visited hundreds of battlefields, churchyards, plantations and other locations seeking wartime interments that were made in haste. By 1870, the remains of nearly 300,000 Civil War dead were reinterred in 73 national cemeteries. |access-date=June 1, 2014 |archive-date=May 13, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170513170040/https://www.cem.va.gov/CEM/pdf/IS1_Jan_2011.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>