We Remember Those Who Gave Their Lives on Memorial Day

We Remember Those Who Gave Their Lives on Memorial Day

Memorial Day is the day we remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

But honestly, we need to remember them every day.

The federal holiday’s origins stem from the Civil War, when the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a group of Union veterans, issued General Orders No. 11, known as the Memorial Day Act, in 1868.

However, the National Cemetery Administration traces the beginning to 1866 in Columbus, GA:

One early memorial day account occurred in Boalsburg, PA, where a trio of women decorated the graves of fallen soldiers in October 1864. Another was held in Charleston, SC, where Black freedmen and White “Northern abolitionist allies” hosted an enormous and historically significant program on May 1, 1865, at the “Martyrs of the Race Course” cemetery where 257 Union dead were buried.

The message conveyed by this largely Black assembly honoring U.S. troops on land previously occupied by wealthy White southerners expressed the same message as Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs when he appropriated the Robert E. Lee estate to become Arlington National Cemetery. Unlike that scenario, Charleston organizers could not have foreseen the temporary aspect of the racecourse site; the Army removed the dead to nearby Beaufort National Cemetery within a few years.

The idea of strewing the Civil War graves of soldiers — Union and Confederate — can be traced to Columbus, GA, whose city cemetery was in disarray. A Ladies Memorial Association formed to improve it, which included a media campaign. Secretary Mary Ann Williams’ letter was published first in the local newspaper on March 11, advocating “to set apart a certain day to be observed…and be handed down through time as a religious custom of the country, to wreathe the graves of our martyred dead with flowers.” Their chosen date was April 26, 1866.

However, the Mississippi city of Columbus (an ongoing source of historic confusion), held its event one day earlier than the Georgia association planned; thus it claims to being the first actual memorial day event. The Mississippi program was later immortalized in a popular poem by Francis Miles Finch, “The Blue and the Gray,” and national reporting — in contemporary terms — went viral. The April 25–26, 1866, memorial day events honoring Confederate and Union dead in the South was a step toward reconciliation that reverberated nationwide, though it was predictably uncomfortable for some northerners.

The holiday expanded to all fallen Americans who died in the line of duty.

Memorial Day was moved to the last Monday of May in 1968.

A Congressional report from 2020 said over 1.3 million American military personnel have perished since the Revolutionary War.

Statista’s graph shows how many died from 1775 to 2025:

• American Civil War: ~620,000 to 750,000 deaths (historians debate the exact figure)
• World War II: 405,399 deaths
• World War I: 116,516 deaths
• Vietnam War: 58,220 deaths
• Korean War: 36,574 deaths
• Revolutionary War: ~23,800 to 25,000 deaths
• War of 1812: ~2,260 to 20,000 deaths (figures vary by historical source)
• Mexican-American War: 13,283 deaths
• Global War on Terror (Iraq and Afghanistan): ~7,000+ deaths
• Spanish-American War: 2,446 deaths

Give thanks to these fallen heroes every single day.

Always thank a veteran when you meet them.

Always thank a veteran when you see them in public.

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