Ending in 1865, the Civil War was the most deadliest of combat for the United States requiring the need to build federally funded cemeteries for the lives lost. Thus, starting in the spring of the 1860s, families began holding tributes to the multitude of fallen soldiers by praying and decorating their grave-stones with flowers. It isn't clear how this tradition originated. One such account states that a group of formerly enslaved citizens of Charleston, South Carolina commemorated their fallen a mere month after the Confederacy surrendered. However, a year later, the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the birthplace of Memorial Day with their celebration on May 5th, 1866, when businesses closed so that families could attend to the honoring of their fallen by decorating their gravestones with flags and flowers.
Two years later, May 5th, 1868, the leader of the Northern Civil War veterans, General John A Logan, called for a day in the latter part of May to be a National Day of Remembrance, when flowers are in full bloom. He referred to this day as "Decoration Day" as it did not refer to any specific battle, but was in remembrance of all those lost.
“The 30th of May, 1868, is 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 churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed.
General James Garfield made the first speech of Memorial at Arlington Cemetery on that day when 5000 attended and decorated the gravestones of their lost loved one. By 1890, each of the Northern states had made Decoration Day an official holiday. However, the Southern states held separate days of remembrance, which changed after World War 1.
Later, after the end of World War 1, known as the Great War, when 8.5 million soldiers died from wounds of battle and disease, the need for Memorial Day increased. Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a brigade surgeon serving with the Allied artillery unit, noticed the presence of wild red poppies springing up in a field in Flanders, Belgium shortly after the second battle of Ypres. In this particular battle, the German army used lethal Chlorine gas for the first time in the war. The massacre and wounded was massive and affected McCrae deeply and personally, including the loss of his dear friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer. As McCrae noticed the growing red poppies, he penned the poem, "In Flanders Field":
The poem was published in Punch magazine in late 1915 and proceeded to be shared at countless Memorial Day celebrations. John McCrae lost his life to pneumonia and meningitis in January 2018. In November 2018, a few days before the signing of Armistice Day (No Apostrophe Needed: Veterans Day #veteransday #armisticeday #novembereleventh), former University of Georgia professor and Young Woman's Christian Association (YWCA) war volunteer, Moina Michael read "In Flanders Field" and was moved by the remembrance of the loss of that day. This memory inspired her to pen her own poem, "We Shall Keep Faith" and she began always wearing a red poppy in remembrance of the lives lost. Michael began sewing silk red poppies entwined about a victory torch for commeration for herself and her friends. Likewise, in France, a woman named Anna Guerin also was a champion for the symbolism of the red poppy. Her speech at the veteran's group, American Legion, caused them to take the red poppy as their symbol (minus the torch) and also instilled National Poppy Day in late May.
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