Event
The Reconstruction Era Origins of Memorial Day
Fee:
Free.Location: LAT/LONG: 39.000000, -77.000000
Meet Ranger Sobol by the equestrian statue of General John A. Logan.
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Description
Join ranger Tom Sobol at Logan Circle for a program on the Reconstruction Era origins of Memorial Day.
Many historians have identified a grassroots event in Charleston, South Carolina on May 1, 1865 as the first Memorial Day commemoration in the nation. Learn about how Black Charlestonians honored Union dead in the weeks after the fall of the Confederacy.
General John A. Logan, as commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1868, ordered that Decoration Day fall on May 30 as an annual holiday to honor the Union dead of the Civil War by "strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion".
Join the National Mall and Memorial Parks for a commemoration of Memorial Day at Logan Circle.
Reservation or Registration: No
Image Gallery
NPS Photo / Civil War Defenses of Washington