Memorial Day Origins

Note:  This was written on my wife's PC around Memorial Day and of course it is now posted much later.  I still hope you all enjoy.

 

On this Memorial Day weekend, I feel led to share a story of local lore that I hope you all will enjoy.  During the American Civil War, one of the multitudes of actions taking place occurred on June 9^th, 1864 just south of Petersburg, VA.  While most of the regular Confederate troops in Petersburg were facing east against advancing Union infantry, a column of Union cavalry approached Petersburg from the south along the Jerusalem Plank Road (modern US 301 or Crater Road).  The only troops available to stop this advance were literally personally armed citizens.  Only around 200 citizens were poised to stop or stall over 1,300 Union cavalry.  These citizens had the advantage of strong field fortifications as well as a single obsolete artillery piece while the Union cavalry had none.  These 200 citizens sustained losses, but gained valuable time to allow Confederate cavalry to drive the Union cavalry out of Petersburg.  This battle gained the title of “The Battle of Old Men and Young Boys” since they were the ones who fought the fight.

During the next few weeks while the armies pulled back from fighting, the local populace lionized their fallen citizens at nearby Blandford Cemetery.  Several funerals were held at the local churches with the burials taking place at the cemetery.  Less than ten days later, the troops returned and put Petersburg under the crosshairs of war for the next nine months.

When the armies left, they left behind their dead.  While the Union army had the Quartermaster Corps to remove the dead and established Military Cemeteries, the Confederates had no system to inter their dead.  So the ladies of Petersburg set out to collect all the remains of the fallen southern soldiers.  They kicked off their efforts on June 9^th, 1866, one year after the Battle of Old Men and Young Boys.  One of the men who attended the ceremony was Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, a Union general.  He observed the ceremony, called Remembrance Day and decided that the Union veterans deserved a ceremony of their own.  Logan was also in charge of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) and the largest veterans group in the U.S.  He lobbied and got the Memorial Day holiday observed on the last Monday in May.

By the way, the ladies got the funding going in 1870 or so to reinter the Confederate dead.  They believed that they would find 5,000 remains and the project would take a year.  25,000 remains and fifteen years later, the process was completed.  So the next phase was to restore Blandford Church as a monument to the Confederate dead.  They did so with the help of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s famous glass manufacturing company to create stained glass for all the windows of the church.  Every state that provided Confederate troops to the war effort was invited to sponsor a window.  The only one that did not was Kentucky, only because they were focusing on more local monuments.  The church stands to this day as only one of four buildings with all Tiffany stained glass windows in them.  This lovely church has personal significance to me because it was where my lovely bride and I were wed.  We couldn’t find a more beautiful or historic location to have our wedding.