Editing Memorial Day (section)

=== Charleston, South Carolina ===
On May 1, 1865, in [[Charleston, South Carolina]], the recently freed Black population held a parade of 10,000 people to honor 257 dead Union soldiers. The soldiers had been buried in a mass grave at the Washington Race Course, having died at the Confederate prison camp located there. After the city fell, the freed Black population unearthed and properly buried the soldiers, placing flowers at their graves. The event was reported contemporaneously in the ''[[Charleston Daily Courier]]'' and the ''[[New-York Tribune]].''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Roos |first=Dave |title=One of the Earliest Memorial Day Ceremonies Was Held by Freed African Americans |url=https://www.history.com/news/memorial-day-civil-war-slavery-charleston |access-date=May 30, 2022 |website=History.com |date=May 24, 2019 |archive-date=May 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220530142431/https://www.history.com/news/memorial-day-civil-war-slavery-charleston |url-status=live }}</ref> Historian [[David Blight]] has called this commemoration the first Memorial Day. However, no direct link has been established between this event and General [[John A. Logan|John Logan]]'s 1868 proclamation for a national holiday.<ref>{{cite web |last=Blight |first=David W. |url=http://oyc.yale.edu/history/hist-119/lecture-19 |title=Lecture: To Appomattox and Beyond: The End of the War and a Search for Meanings, Overview |website=Oyc.Yale.edu |quote=Professor Blight closes his lecture with a description of the first Memorial Day, celebrated by African Americans in Charleston, SC 1865. |access-date=May 31, 2014 |archive-date=May 30, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140530094526/http://oyc.yale.edu/history/hist-119/lecture-19 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/us/many-claim-to-be-memorial-day-birthplace.html David Blight, cited by Campbell Robertson, "Birthplace of Memorial Day? That Depends Where You're From", ''The New York Times'', May 28, 2012] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170617112424/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/us/many-claim-to-be-memorial-day-birthplace.html |date=June 17, 2017 }} – Blight quote from 2nd web page: "He has called that the first Memorial Day, as it predated most of the other contenders, though he said he has no evidence that it led to General Logan's call for a national holiday."</ref><ref name="The Origins of Memorial Day" />