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| Boston Memorial Day. |
Memorial Days are not what they used to be. Before the traditions of picnics, fireworks,
and discount retail sales, the holiday served as a profound moment to
contemplate history as well as contemporary events. The overwhelming carnage of the American
Civil War forced citizens of the 1860s to cope with the unthinkable
ramifications the conflict presented. One
of the first “Decoration Days” occurred in 1864 Boalsburg, PA when three local
ladies placed flowers upon the graves of those killed in the ongoing struggle
for a vast future. Yet, postwar tributes
to military dead revealed not only patriotism and pageantry but also political ambition.
Such rituals emerged at a time when parades and graveside
ceremonies played a major role in inciting partisan discourse. On such occasions, citizens who shared
similar political and cultural views amid Reconstruction could congregate to
further instill political ideology—whether they were condemning civil rights
laws in the South or touting the triumph of Union in the North. For ex-rebels, politics was a means to keep
the defeated Confederacy ideologically alive, and postwar Southerners mastered
it with a sense of urgency and a dedication to fallen combatants. Northerners were also quick to tout the
supremacy and losses of their cause. The
May 30, 1877 edition of Altoona, Pennsylvania's Evening
Mirror noted a solemnity over the city as “the half-masted flag floated
gently in the breeze, speaking the language of sadness more fervently than
words.” This loss was entirely necessary
to ensure “the suppression of the rebellion” and the survival of democratic
government.
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| Chicago Decoration Day. |
Many of the living continually designated the costs of war
as part of a greater calling, aspiring to the “unfinished work” Lincoln proclaimed
in the Gettysburg Address. Veterans
demanded that Memorial Days serve as foundations for civic literacy and
historical appreciation. In this sense,
commemoration through monument dedications and parades was a symbolic
connection between the living and the dead.
Veterans felt an imperative obligation to their deceased comrades but also
used monuments to keep alive their own achievements as veterans and engaged
citizens. By the 1910s, most old
animosities between North and South faded as aged Civil War veterans gathered
for reunions and continued to neglect the unkept promises of civil rights for
emancipated slaves.
Following the Spanish American War and the First World War,
Memorial Day evolved into a far less divisive tradition of honoring fallen veterans
from all conflicts. This pattern grew to
unparalleled heights during and after WWII.
The May 31, 1945 edition of the Altoona
Mirror remarked, “Throughout the city there was a universal suspension of
business and the people at large joined in the most notable observance of
Memorial Day that has been experienced here for a whole generation.” The immediacy of loss and sacrifice consumed
Americans, necessitating mass displays of commitment to the national
effort. Seventy years after the end of
that global conflict, citizens should mark Memorial Days not only as moments of
remembrance but also vivid reminders of the horrid costs of warfare.
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| Commemorating America's fallen in the segregated Arlington, 1943. |
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