Gen. John 'Blackjack' Logan, Founder of
For those who are interested in this full story please e-mail me. It is too long to post here. But here is alittle on it.
No one is certain about the first Memorial Day. Some
say the holiday began when Confederate women placed
flowers on the graves of Union and Confederate
soldiers following the Civil War at Boalsberg, Pa., or
(in January 1866) at Columbus, Ga.
One source claims that the first Memorial Day service
was held at Belle Island, a Union burial ground on the
St. James River in Virginia, on May 30, 1866, with
speeches by the mayor and school superintendent, the
singing of hymns and the decoration of the graves with
flowers.
It wasn't until 1966 that the federal government
recognized Waterloo, N.Y., as the birthplace of
Memorial Day when the town set aside May 5, 1865, to
honor the war dead.
Memorial Day officially came into being, however, when
Gen. John "Blackjack" Logan, commander of the GAR
(Grand Army of the Republic) issued General Order No.
11, establishing Decoration Day, as it was then
called, as a national holiday. Logan, a U.S. senator
and Civil War general, today is recognized as the
founder of Memorial Day.
Born in Murphysboro, Ill., on Feb. 9, 1826, John
Alexander Logan was the eldest of the 11 children of
John Logan, a Scotch-Irish immigrant from Northern
Ireland and a prominent local physician. Sent by his
father to the Shiloh Academy in Shiloh, Ill., in 1840,
Logan excelled in oratory, a skill that would serve
him well later on.
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