Originally aired on May 31, 1996 - In part 92 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson says that controversy exists over who initially celebrated a Confederate Memorial Day. Today, only eight Southern states recognize it.
#92 – Confederate Memorial Day
On Memorial Day, Americans honor the dead of past wars. It is the one day in the year for remembering young men and women who loved their country more than they loved their lives. Such sacrifices of the past are the legacies of the present; but as one might expect, many Northern and Southern survivors of the Civil War established then (and maintain now) different memorial days.
Controversy exists over who initially celebrated a Confederate Memorial Day. Women in Columbus, Georgia, and in Jackson and Vicksburg, Mississippi, all lay claim to having decorated soldiers’ graves in the spring of 1866 and thereby establishing the custom. In all likelihood, a number of communities honored their dead independently in the first spring after the war.
For the next fifty years, more and more Southern communities established Memorial Day commemorations. The United Daughters of the Confederacy were most instrumental in the movement. Observance dates varied by locale. In the Deep South, April 26 became the accepted date because it was the anniversary of the surrender of General Joseph Johnston and what was left of the Confederate Army of Tennessee. In the Carolinas, May 10 became the honored day, for on that date General “Stonewall” Jackson had died and President Jefferson Davis two years later had been captured. Virginia and other Southern states had still different times for marking Memorial Day.
The nature of the celebrations took different forms. Sometimes there were parades, with much music and too much oratory; sometimes the ceremony was more religious, with hymns taking emotions to the peak; always the climactic ritual was the placing of greenery or flowers on the graves of Confederate soldiers.
These ceremonies, one author explained, “both honored the fallen soldiers and allowed survivors to mourn, thereby distancing themselves from the cause but still expressing hope for its, and their, eventual vindication”. As such vindication developed in the closing years of the 19th Century, Memorial Day became less somber and more festive. Some Southern towns even invited Union veterans to participate with former Confederates. This intermingling between former enemies went far in healing the wounds of the nation’s bloodiest war.
As the veterans passed way and interest faded during the 20th Century, Confederate Memorial Day became less important in Southern life and culture. Two world wars, and deep American involvement therein, sapped attention away from the events of the 1860s. Southern communities began abandoning their tributes to Johnny Rebs of another age.
Today only eight Southern states still recognize Confederate Memorial Day, and not all of them close state offices on the day in question. The observance dates stretch from April to June 3 (the latter date the birthday of Jefferson Davis). Alabama and Mississippi have joined their Northern sisters and mark the fourth Monday in May as the day to honor the dead of the Civil War.
Many things are said in the United States on memorial days. One of the most timeless statements came in 1868, when James A. Garfield spoke in Arlington Cemetery. The former Union general and future president started at the thousands of soldier-graves and then declared:
“We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke; but we do know they summoned up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. For love of country they accepted death. That act resolved all doubts and make immortal their patriotism and their virtue.”
