Decoration Day

2009-05-25T15:29:00.014-05:00

"In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row"

-Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

On the 5th of May 1868, General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, Executes General Orders No. 11 in Washington, DC Declaring the 30th of May Decoration Day. As specified by the Commander's orders Decoration Day is hereby designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land.

We are organized, comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose among other things, "of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers, sailors, and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion." What can aid more to assure this result than cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foes? Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in chains, and their deaths the tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms.

We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders. Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.

If other eyes grow dull, other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain to us.

As we remember those who have fallen, let us take a moment to honor those who continue to show their devotion and faith to country. These soldiers fight for freedom, liberty and the hope that we may all one day live in a world free from the acts of tyranny.

We Keep the Faith

0h! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.

We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.

Moina Michael November 1918
-a chorus response to In Flanders Fields

Military Taps Buglers at Arlington National Cemetery

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Decoration Day