Via ABMC:
This year marks the 150th anniversary of Memorial Day. While remembrance of America’s war dead took place prior to 1868, it wasn’t until the post-Civil War era that this national commemoration fully emerged. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, a former Union officer, can be credited with popularizing this practice. As a commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, an influential organization of Union veterans, Logan issued a decree standardizing a tradition already found in a number of places: “The 30th of May, 1868 is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in the defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land”. Today, Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is America’s annual rite to commemorate our war dead. Across the nation Americans participate in ceremonies to honor the fallen, or reflect upon their sacrifices in a more private setting.
Burial practices for the American military have evolved over time. Prior to the Civil War, the War Department created cemeteries to serve military installations, including the West Point Cemetery on the campus of the U.S. Military Academy, which dates to 1817. On the battlefield there was no standardized system to identify, bury, and mark the fallen in individual graves. Disease prevention dictated speedy burials. After the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), the federal government recovered the remains of 750 unidentified soldiers in and around Mexico City, and buried them under a obelisk in what is now Mexico City National Cemetery. This practice of a single monument and a mass grave dates back through ancient times. Only the bodies of those whose families had considerable means were likely to find their way home from distant battlefields.
The advent of the Civil War brought with it vast numbers of war dead. Never before in American history had so many fallen in battle. Thousands of soldiers lay buried across a wide swath of the United States. Nudged along by such activists as Clara Barton and her cadre of supporters, the government reviewed letters from thousands of women, part of letter-writing campaigns to find lost loved ones and their places of burial. The greater literacy of the era made such an initiative possible. In 1862 the United States assumed the responsibility of creating national cemeteries for fallen Union servicemen, and when possible burying them in individual graves with a marker labeled with their name and other identifying information. The Office of the Quartermaster General became responsible for the construction and administration of national cemeteries. Those at Arlington and Gettysburg are the most famous, but many others were built near battlefields across the country. This was a significant development for the American military. In the absence of other arrangements, the federal government assumed responsibility for the burial of fallen U.S. soldiers, sailors and marines, and for the maintenance of their graves.[…]
Perhaps the most consistent Memorial Day practice remains decorating individual graves, now frequently with a miniature flag. This reflects both the grand sweep and the intensely personal aspect of Memorial Day. The nation as a whole designates a single day to honor all of its fallen service members. Yet each gravesite being decorated represents a single person who answered the call of duty, and died while doing so. In this sense Memorial Day is both national and personal. On this day above all others, let no remembrance be unshared and let no one grieve alone.
HT: Huck Funn