The First Memorial Day

Despite the ruins of war in the city of Charleston, the
flowers were in full bloom. President Lincoln had been
shot only a couple of weeks earlier and with one-third
of all Union soldiers buried in unmarked graves, and an
equal number of Confederates, death was everywhere.

Charleston had seen more than its own share of death. The
city had been turned into rubble and all of this death
presented the country with the overwhelming burden of
memorialization. After the war there had been various
speeches and memorials but something special was about to
happen in Charleston.



In the final year of the war, the Confederates had turned
the planter's racecourse into an interment camp for Union
soldiers. The conditions were awful as the men were forced
to live without even tents for shelter. As they lie in the
open course, they were exposed to the whims of natures with
no protection against storms of the cold or heat. Many died
and the former slaves of Charleston could hear their
anguished cries during the night. So these newly freed
blacks insisted on a proper burial for the men once the war
had ended. At least 357 had died during this period and
their suffering called for some kind of memorialization. So
the first "Decoration Day" was born.

The former slaves, and their unionist allies in the town,
decided to hold the event at the racetrack, which had housed
the prisoners. In ten days they built a suitable enclosure
for the dead, painting the fences, repairing the damage,
landscaping, until the ground was ready for their day. The
workmen painted a sign at the entrance of the ground, which
proclaimed "Martyrs of the Race Course."

On May 1st, at nine o'clock in the morning, the procession
began. Three thousand black school children marched around
the course with flowers in their hand singing "John Browns
Body." They were followed by the women of the Patriotic
Association, a group formed to distribute clothing and food
to the newly freed slaves, who carried wreaths and crosses
for the men.


The official dedication of the event was carried forth by
the ministers of all the black churches of Charleston. They
read prayers and bible passages while giving birth to an
American tradition. By doing such they created meaning for
the war in a very public way, which was to be followed by
future generations. The grandstand saw over thirty speeches
from Union officials, abolitionist missionaries, while the
crowd listened to memorials for those who died under
captivity.

Picnics followed the speeches and that afternoon the Fifty-
Fourth Massachusetts and the Thirty-Fifth and 104th Colored
regiments, marched in double column around the graves. They
held drills on the infield in order to memorialize the
martyrs. People cried all over that day and the holiday,
which we call Memorial Day, was founded.

A New York Tribune correspondent called it "a procession of
friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States
never saw before.