The History of Memorial Day

Why did Americans start decorating soldiers' graves?

The Civil War killed more than 620,000 Americans, about 2 percent of the population at the time ^[4]. The National Park Service puts the toll at more than 622,000 ^[2]. Almost every community had graves to tend, and many of the dead lay far from home.

During and after the war, towns in both the North and the South held spring "decoration days," when people gathered at cemeteries to lay flowers on soldiers' graves ^[1]. Placing flowers on graves is an old custom, but the Park Service dates the modern observance to the years right after this war ^[2]. These were local events, organized by women's groups, veterans and townspeople, years before any government set a date. The war itself is covered in why the Civil War started, and the wider period in our Civil War and Reconstruction era guide.

Where did Memorial Day begin?

No single town can prove it held the first Memorial Day; the record shows many local ceremonies that grew into one national day. Here the line between tradition and record matters most.

Waterloo, New York has the official title. Druggist Henry Carter Welles proposed a day to honor the Civil War dead, and John Boyce Murray, the Seneca County clerk, led the first celebration on May 5, 1866 ^[3]. Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller recognized Waterloo as the birthplace on March 7, 1966, and Congress followed in May 1966 with House Concurrent Resolution 587, which President Lyndon B. Johnson endorsed ^[2]. The Park Service adds a caution: some argue Waterloo's first observance came in 1868, not 1866.

Charleston, South Carolina has an earlier record. On May 1, 1865, weeks after the war's end, a ceremony was held at a cemetery where 257 Union dead were buried ^[1]. The Park Service, citing historian David Blight's book Race and Reunion, says newly freed African Americans had reburied those 257 Union soldiers and that thousands attended ^[2].

Southern towns have their own claims. Columbus, Mississippi, decorated both Union and Confederate graves on April 25, 1866, an act that inspired the poem "The Blue and the Gray," published in 1867. Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, points to October 1864, and Carbondale, Illinois, and Petersburg, Virginia, also claim to be first ^[2]. In Columbus, Georgia, the Ladies Memorial Association decorated Confederate graves on April 26, 1866, and its secretary, Mary Ann Williams, called for an annual day. The National Archives also notes that Sue Langdon Adams of Jackson, Mississippi, decorated unmarked Union graves in 1865 ^[3].

Claim	Date	What the sources show
Boalsburg, Pa.	October 1864	Local claim of grave decorating; earliest date offered
Charleston, S.C.	May 1, 1865	Freedpeople honored 257 Union dead, as Blight describes it
Columbus, Miss.	April 25, 1866	Graves of both armies decorated
Columbus, Ga.	April 26, 1866	Confederate graves; call for a yearly day
Waterloo, N.Y.	May 5, 1866	Officially recognized as "birthplace" in 1966
Arlington, Va.	May 30, 1868	First national Decoration Day

Waterloo's title is a recognition by Congress, not a finding by historians that it came first.

What did General Logan's order say?

On May 5, 1868, John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, a Union veterans' organization, issued General Orders No. 11, which the VA calls the "Memorial Day Act" ^[1]. It set aside May 30, 1868, for "strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country," and hoped the custom would be kept up each year "while a survivor of the war remains" ^[3].

The idea did not start with Logan alone. In 1867 Martha G. Kimball wrote to him from Philadelphia, suggesting that Union graves be honored as Southern women honored theirs ^[3]. The date itself was chosen so that "the choicest flowers of springtime" would be in bloom across the country, according to the VA's cemetery historians ^[1].

The first national Decoration Day at Arlington

The main ceremony on May 30, 1868, was held at Arlington National Cemetery, on the former estate of Robert E. Lee. General and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant attended, Representative James A. Garfield of Ohio spoke, and about 5,000 people came ^[2]. About 11,250 Union and 350 Confederate soldiers were buried there, more than half of them unknown, and children from the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphan Asylum helped decorate the graves ^[1]. Grand Army members in 17 states reportedly held observances the same day ^[3].

How did Decoration Day become Memorial Day?

States made the day official one by one. New York recognized it first, in 1873, and all the other Union states had done so by 1890; the former Confederate states kept their own memorial days on dates from April to June ^[1].

The broader change came with the First World War. The VA says that after it the holiday expanded to honor Americans who died in all wars, not just the Civil War ^[1]. The Park Service adds that the South largely joined the national observance only then ^[2]. The National Archives points to the veterans' groups that grew out of those wars, including the American Legion after World War I ^[3]. Some Southern states still hold separate Confederate memorial days ^[2].

The name changed slowly. "Memorial Day" was first used in 1882, became common after World War II, and was made the official name by Congress in 1967 ^[2].

Why is Memorial Day on the last Monday in May?

For a century the date was May 30. The Uniform Monday Holiday Act, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on June 28, 1968, took effect on January 1, 1971 ^[3]. It moved Memorial Day from May 30 to the last Monday in May ^[1], creating the three-day weekend Americans know today.

Not everyone welcomed the change. Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii introduced a bill to return the holiday to May 30 in every Congress from 1987 until his death in 2012 ^[2]. The worry was older than the Monday law: the Park Service quotes an 1869 New York Times warning that "joy" was overtaking solemnity, and historian James McPherson's verdict that "commemoration gave way to celebration." The same move to Mondays shaped other holidays in our American holidays series, from Labor Day to Juneteenth.

What is the National Moment of Remembrance?

The National Moment of Remembrance asks Americans to pause for one minute at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day. President Bill Clinton signed the National Moment of Remembrance Act on December 28, 2000 ^[2]. The law, Public Law 106-579, calls for that minute of silence each year ^[1]. It gives the holiday a fixed point of remembrance within the long weekend.

How is Memorial Day different from Veterans Day?

Memorial Day mourns those who died in military service; Veterans Day honors everyone who served. The VA calls Memorial Day the nation's foremost annual day to mourn and honor deceased service members ^[1]. Veterans Day, on November 11, celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans ^[4].

The two holidays have different roots. Veterans Day began as Armistice Day, marking the end of World War I in 1918; Congress renamed it Veterans Day in 1954, after President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the change on May 26 of that year ^[5]. The same 1968 Monday law moved Veterans Day to the fourth Monday of October from 1971 to 1977, before it was permanently changed back to November 11. Memorial Day stayed on its Monday. Our November 11 page collects other events tied to that date, and the war behind it is explained in why World War I started.