My Great Great-Grandpa. He served under Thomas
at Chickamauga (Turchin’s Brigade). My wife’s
great grandfather served under Sherman at Vicksburg.
For Memorial (originally Decoration) Day. Photo is ©
Decoration Day was the day that we Union descendants and relatives remembered those who gave their lives in defense of the Union and ended slavery.
Congress stole this day from us (the G.A.R. and then The S.U.V.C.W.) in the mid-1960s. A few years ago, the congressionally-created and mandated “White House Commission on Remembrance” omitted the Civil War from its website.
This was the list at the “White House
Commission on Remembrance.” Notice
any wars missing? Like the one that
killed MORE Americans than all these
other wars COMBINED?
Confederate Memorial Day, also known as Confederate Decoration Day (Tennessee) and Confederate Heroes Day (Texas), is an official holiday and/or observance day in the U.S. South as a day to honor those who died fighting for the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Eleven states officially observe Confederate Memorial Day: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Please, with both Wikipedia entries, notice how much pro-Confederate scrubbing of both pages has taken place. Not enough to steal Union Memorial Day, they steal the very NOTION of Memorial Day for their twisted “Lost Cause.”
American dead at Gettysburg. Only one side is now remembered.
How unfair is it that the Union dead are pissed on, but the Confederate dead are officially lionized?
How incredibly hateful to the memory of our honored dead? (Never mind. Drink your beer and drive your boat.)
The first flag of Secession — from the Library of Congress
click to enlarge
Detail
How sad and twisted is the history of the aftermath of that bloody war. What could not be attained on the battlefields has now been accomplished in the cloak rooms of our legislatures.
See full post HERE: “WH Commission on Remembrance
Forgets Civil War on Memorial Day“ and here “So Who IS the
White House Commission on Remembrance?“
I guess it’s OK if you’re a Dixiecrat who took over the “Republican” party and pretend that its still Republican. Wikipedia:
The preferred name for the holiday gradually changed from “Decoration Day” to “Memorial Day”, which was first used in 1882. It did not become more common until after World War II, and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967. On June 28, 1968, the Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend. The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971. After some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply, all 50 states adopted Congress’ change of date within a few years.
Re-Risen?
Memorial Day endures as a holiday which most businesses observe because it marks the unofficial beginning of summer. The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) advocate returning to the original date, although the significance of the date is tenuous. The VFW stated in a 2002 Memorial Day Address:
Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed a lot to the general public’s nonchalant observance of Memorial Day.
Starting in 1987 Hawaii’s Senator Daniel Inouye, a World War II veteran, introduced a measure to return Memorial Day to its traditional date. Inouye continued introducing the resolution until his death in 2012.
But I guess the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and the Veterans of Foreign Wars don’t count in this, right?
We have given the lie to Abraham Lincoln’s immortal words:
We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here….
We have already forgotten.
And it is ALSO the VFW. While we’re concerned about the latest VA scandal (they go back to the Revolutionary War), we might start by trying to ACTUALLY remember. Which is what “memorial” means, after all.
The leitmotif runs from Antietam through Flanders and Bastogne to Saigon. And beyond.
The United States Confederate Postal Service stamp sheet
Courage.
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A writer, published author, novelist, literary critic and political observer for a quarter of a quarter-century more than a quarter-century, Hart Williams has lived in the American West for his entire life. Having grown up in Wyoming, Kansas and New Mexico, a survivor of Texas and a veteran of Hollywood, Mr. Williams currently lives in Oregon, along with an astonishing amount of pollen. He has a lively blog His Vorpal Sword. This is cross-posted from his blog.
A writer, published author, novelist, literary critic and political observer for a quarter of a quarter-century more than a quarter-century, Hart Williams has lived in the American West for his entire life. Having grown up in Wyoming, Kansas and New Mexico, a survivor of Texas and a veteran of Hollywood, Mr. Williams currently lives in Oregon, along with an astonishing amount of pollen. He has a lively blog, His Vorpal Sword (no spaces) dot com.