Decoration Day - May 30, 2026 A Remembrance Day

To-day, May 30th is Decoration Day, a day to step-out and make a short trip to the burial place of any war dead soldier.

Decoration Day, these days more notably known as Memorial Day, was first officially observed following the American Civil War on May 30, 1868. May 30th was selected as a day of remembrance to go to the burial grounds and decorate with flowers those Union Soldier graves who died in service during the Civil War -- and of course, May 30th is also a time we can find flowers in bloom. This day May 30th was mainly picked as uniquely significant since no Civil War Battle was fought on that day. Decoration Day was first officially held by proclamation on May 30, 1868, this order by Gen. John A. Logan, then Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). The GAR is the influential former major Civil War Veterans organization and veterans rights advocate group formed immediately following the Civil War.

Note: After World War I Decoration Day's (aka Memorial Day) purpose was officially expanded to honor all American service members who died in any war. And in 1971 this day of remembrance officially became the last Monday in May (as changed by law passed by Congress in 1968) to thus provide for a long holiday weekend that “we the people” use to now generally forget our fallen war dead.

Claims today that some Southern States did first so honor deceased Civil War Soldiers at times before May 30,1868 are certainly true, but those activities were done in former USA states that were not then officially re-admitted to the Union. Southern state re-admission to the United States began with Tennessee in July 1866 and ended with Georgia's re-admission in January 1870. It took some time for Southern State authorities to accept the concepts formed, written, and cited in the U.S. Constitution Fourteenth Amendment (aka Amendment XIV – “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”). Claims today by semi-knowledgeable people that the South first honored and officially remembered fallen Civil War Soldiers are at best nebulous and at worst disingenuous (aka far-fetched revisionist lies). The war death memorials of Union Soldiers was a certain ongoing activity throughout the 1861-1865 active war period and immediately after that war, many of these Union Civil War Soldier memorials were significantly attended by hundreds of common citizens and more notable folks.

Take a refreshing look at a post written in 2008 (re-posted in 2025) concerning Lieutenant William “Willie” Bacon of Utica, New York, late of the 26th Infantry Regiment, New York State Volunteers, Willie mortally wounded-in-action 13 Dec 1862 fighting during the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg --

Click HERE

(Note: also posted to Facebook)