Editing Memorial Day (section)

== Precedents in the North ==
[[File:John A. Logan (general).jpg|thumb|upright|General [[John A. Logan]], who in 1868 issued a proclamation calling for a national "Decoration Day"]]

=== Gettysburg, Pennsylvania ===
The 1863 cemetery dedication at [[Gettysburg, Pennsylvania]], included a ceremony of commemoration at the graves of dead soldiers. Some have therefore claimed that President [[Abraham Lincoln]] was the founder of Memorial Day.<ref>"Lincoln's Message to Today", Trenton (NJ) ''Evening Times'', May 30, 1913.</ref> However, Chicago journalist Lloyd Lewis tried to make the case that it was Lincoln's funeral that spurred the soldiers' grave decorating that followed.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Myths after Lincoln |last=Lloyd |first=Lewis |publisher=Press of the Readers Club |date=1941 |location=New York |pages=309–310 |isbn=}}{{ISBN missing}}</ref>

=== Boalsburg, Pennsylvania ===
On July 4, 1864, ladies decorated soldiers' graves according to local historians in [[Boalsburg, Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.civilwarcenter.olemiss.edu/memorial_day.shtml |title=Sophie Keller Hall, in The Story of Our Regiment: A History of the 148th Pennsylvania Vols., ed. J.W. Muffly (Des Moines: The Kenyon Printing & Mfg. Co., 1904), quoted in editor's note, p. 45 |publisher=Civilwarcenter.olemiss.edu |access-date=May 28, 2012 |archive-date=May 31, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531181236/http://www.civilwarcenter.olemiss.edu/memorial_day.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> Boalsburg promotes itself as the birthplace of Memorial Day.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.boalsburg.com/ |title=Boalsburg, PA, birthplace of Memorial Day |website=Boalsburg.com |date=March 26, 1997 |access-date=May 28, 2012 |archive-date=March 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304034210/http://www.boalsburg.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref> However, no published reference to this event has been found earlier than the printing of the History of the 148th Pennsylvania Volunteers in 1904.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The story of our Regiment : a history of the 148th Pennsylvania Vols.|last=Muffly, J. W. (Joseph Wendel)|date=1904|page=45|publisher=Butternut and Blue|isbn=0935523391|oclc=33463683}}</ref> In a footnote to a story about her brother, Mrs. Sophie (Keller) Hall described how she and Emma Hunter decorated the grave of Emma's father, Reuben Hunter, and then the graves of all soldiers in the cemetery. The original story did not account for Reuben Hunter's death occurring two months later on September 19, 1864. It also did not mention Mrs. Elizabeth Myers as one of the original participants. A bronze statue of all three women gazing upon Reuben Hunter's grave now stands near the entrance to the Boalsburg Cemetery. Although July 4, 1864, was a Monday, the town now claims that the original decoration was on one of the Sundays in October 1864.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/literary-cultural-heritage-map-pa/feature-articles/boalsburg-and-origin-memorial-day |title=Boalsburg and the Origin of Memorial Day |last=Flynn |first=Michael |date=2010 |website=Pennsylvania Center for the Book |access-date=October 30, 2019 |archive-date=August 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190830163845/https://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/literary-cultural-heritage-map-pa/feature-articles/boalsburg-and-origin-memorial-day |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== National Decoration Day ===
{{Quote box
 |quote  = ... Let us then gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of Springtime; let us raise above them the dear [[United States flag|old flag]] they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as a sacred charge upon a Nation's gratitude—the soldiers' and sailors' widow and orphan.
 |author = —[[John A. Logan]] 
 |source = May 5, 1868<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woodman |first=Wlliam |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jgACAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA346 |title=Common School Education and Teachers World |date=1891 |publisher=Bemis Publishing Company |pages=346 |language=en |chapter=Decoration Day Exercise}}</ref>
 |width  = 33%
 |align  = right
}}

On May 5, 1868, General [[John A. Logan]] issued a proclamation calling for "Decoration Day" to be observed annually and nationwide; he was commander-in-chief of the [[Grand Army of the Republic]] (GAR), an organization of and for Union Civil War veterans founded in [[Decatur, Illinois]].<ref name="JabbourJabbour2010">{{cite book |first1=Alan |last1=Jabbour |first2=Karen Singer |last2=Jabbour |title=Decoration Day in the Mountains: Traditions of Cemetery Decoration in the Southern Appalachians |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zoiJU8N_M8UC&pg=PA125 |access-date=May 28, 2012 |date=2010 |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-3397-1 |page=125 }}</ref> With his proclamation, Logan adopted the Memorial Day practice that had begun in the Southern states two years earlier.<ref name="Bellware 2014" /><ref name="Jones 2015" /><ref name="auto">{{Cite journal |last1=Gardiner |first1=Richard |last2=Jones |first2=P. Michael |last3=Bellware |first3=Daniel |url=https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3685&context=bibliography_faculty |title=The Emergence and Evolution of Memorial Day |journal=Journal of America's Military Past |volume=43–2 |issue=137 |date=Spring–Summer 2018 |pages=19–37 |access-date=May 25, 2020 |archive-date=October 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027055058/https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3685&context=bibliography_faculty |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hUEOAAAAIAAJ&q=%22for+the+Union+men+of+the+nation+to+follow+the+example+of+the+people+of+the+South%22&pg=PA246 |title=General John Logan, Quoted By His Wife |via=Google Books |access-date=April 7, 2014 |date=1913 |last=Logan |first=Mrs. John A. |archive-date=May 31, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531181240/https://books.google.com/books?id=hUEOAAAAIAAJ&q=%22for+the+Union+men+of+the+nation+to+follow+the+example+of+the+people+of+the+South%22&pg=PA246#v=snippet&q=%22for%20the%20Union%20men%20of%20the%20nation%20to%20follow%20the%20example%20of%20the%20people%20of%20the%20South%22&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[http://thesouthern.com/news/local/a-complicated-journey-the-story-of-logan-and-memorial-day/article_57e2de05-b9b1-5237-b933-0d43fb8492d7.html "A Complicated Journey: The Story of Logan and Memorial Day"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170907075339/http://thesouthern.com/news/local/a-complicated-journey-the-story-of-logan-and-memorial-day/article_57e2de05-b9b1-5237-b933-0d43fb8492d7.html |date=September 7, 2017 }} Tom English, ''The Southern Illinoisan'', May 22, 2015</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Halstead |first=Marilyn |url=http://thesouthern.com/news/local/did-logan-start-memorial-day-logan-museum-director-invites-visitors/article_4a737820-3cfe-57b8-bafd-02c2d127d0f8.html |title=Did Logan Start Memorial Day? Logan Museum Director Invites Visitors to Decide |website=TheSouthern.com |access-date=May 26, 2018 |archive-date=May 27, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180527023147/http://thesouthern.com/news/local/did-logan-start-memorial-day-logan-museum-director-invites-visitors/article_4a737820-3cfe-57b8-bafd-02c2d127d0f8.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://wtop.com/holidays/2018/05/the-forgotten-history-of-memorial-day/ |title=The forgotten history of Memorial Day |date=May 25, 2018 |website=WTOP.com |access-date=September 17, 2018 |archive-date=September 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180918012239/https://wtop.com/holidays/2018/05/the-forgotten-history-of-memorial-day/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The northern states quickly adopted the holiday. In 1868, memorial events were held in 183 cemeteries in 27 states, and 336 in 1869.<ref name="Blight 2001">{{cite book |last=Blight |first=David W. |date=2001 |title=Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3R-yvmpYaqAC |publisher=Harvard U.P. |isbn=978-0674022096 }}</ref>{{Rp|99–100}} One author claims that the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of any particular battle.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Hennig |last1=Cohen |first2=Tristram Potter |last2=Coffin |title=The Folklore of American Holidays |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rhzXAAAAMAAJ |date=1991 |publisher=Gale Research |page=215 |isbn=978-0810376021 }}</ref> Logan's wife noted that the date was chosen because it was the optimal date for flowers to be in bloom in the North.<ref name="auto" /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/photos-and-video/video/weekly-address-honoring-fallen#transcript |title=Barack Obama, Weekly Address |format=transcript |date=May 29, 2010 |via=[[NARA|National Archives]] |website=[[Whitehouse.gov]] |access-date=April 7, 2014 |archive-date=May 31, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210531154222/https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/photos-and-video/video/weekly-address-honoring-fallen#transcript |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== 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>

=== Waterloo proclamation ===
On May 26, 1966, President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] designated an "official" birthplace of the holiday by signing the presidential proclamation naming [[Waterloo (village), New York|Waterloo, New York]], as the holder of the title. This action followed House Concurrent Resolution 587, in which the 89th Congress had officially recognized that the patriotic tradition of observing Memorial Day had begun one hundred years prior in Waterloo, New York.<ref>{{cite web |title=Presidential Proclamation 3727 |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-3727-prayer-for-peace-memorial-day-1966 |last=Johnson |first=Lyndon |access-date=May 27, 2013 |archive-date=June 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200612193953/https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-3727-prayer-for-peace-memorial-day-1966 |url-status=live }}</ref> The legitimacy of this claim has been called into question by several scholars.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.syracuse.com/living/2019/05/the-origin-of-memorial-day-is-waterloos-claim-to-fame-the-result-of-a-simple-newspaper-typo.html |title=The origin of Memorial Day: Is Waterloo's claim to fame the result of a simple newspaper typo? |website=Syracuse.com |date=May 24, 2019 |access-date=June 3, 2021 |archive-date=June 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210603231556/https://www.syracuse.com/living/2019/05/the-origin-of-memorial-day-is-waterloos-claim-to-fame-the-result-of-a-simple-newspaper-typo.html |url-status=live }}</ref>