Memorial
Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan,
national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic,
and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the
graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.
The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in
1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South
refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days
until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just
those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died
fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the
last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of
1971 (P.L. 90 - 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal
holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate
day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26
in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South
Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis' birthday) in Louisiana and
Tennessee.
My Dad was in WWII. I remember one story only that he told about that war. I was just a little girl but will never forget what he told me. He was on the front lines fighting. Down on his belly shooting, gun fire going back and forth, and out of nowhere General Patton came and stood beside him amidst all the fire back and forth and said to him, "Good shooting son."
My Dad did receive a Purple Heart from that war. He was shot in the leg. I don't know the details of that though.
