FLORIDA: Memorial Day Had Origin in Civil War
ORLANDO — The Memorial Day we celebrate this year is very different from the first Memorial Day over 150 years ago honoring the Civil War dead. It was not even about all those who died in that conflict; instead, it was about those who served in the United States Army and Navy.
The Confederate dead were honored by their own communities on their own unofficial memorial days.
This changed when men and women from all states, including the former Confederate states, sacrificed their lives for the “United” States in the many wars of the 20th and now 21st centuries.
When Memorial Day began, no one on either side could have envisioned this future. The survivors of America’s deadliest war were still burying hundreds of thousands of dead. No one is certain how many American died during the war but the official count is 620,000 dead.
Comparing the current U.S. population with that of the 1860 population, the same level of casualties in a war today would generate 6 million dead.
Even more tragic, most of these men were buried far from their families, many in unmarked or shallow graves. After the war, the U.S. government and formerly Confederate communities gathered the known and the unknown dead for burial. When they did so, each side memorialized their dead separately.
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When Memorial Day began, no one on either side could have envisioned this future. The survivors of America’s deadliest war were still burying hundreds of thousands of dead. No one is certain how many American died during the war but the official count is 620,000 dead. Comparing the current U.S. population with that of the 1860 population, the same level of casualties in a war today would generate 6 million dead.
Even more tragic, most of these men were buried far from their families, many in unmarked or shallow graves. After the war, the U.S. government and formerly Confederate communities gathered the known and the unknown dead for burial. When they did so, each side memorialized their dead separately.
