Memorial Day 2025
May 1, 1865. Union soldiers given proper burial by the slaves they freed.
Memorial Day used to be on May 30th. Then Congress came in to help celebrate the day and shifted it all over the place by making it a Monday holiday. This was done to help federal workers and that’s fine with me, but it shows what congressional priorities are.
The Greeks and the Romans had Memorial Days too with Pericles holding one in Athens in 431 BC. The highlight was his somber speech that praised the sacrifice and valor of those killed in the Peloponnesian War.
2,456 years later, the man’s words ring true. His speech was so important that it is translated into most languages from the original Greek of antiquity. It ends:
Wherefore I do not now pity the parents of the dead who stand here; I would rather comfort them. You know that your dead have passed away amid manifold vicissitudes; and that they may be deemed fortunate who have gained their utmost honor, whether an honorable death like theirs, or an honorable sorrow like yours, and whose share of happiness has been so ordered that the term of their happiness is likewise the term of their life. I know how hard it is to make you feel this, when the good fortune of others will too often remind you of the gladness which once lightened your hearts.
And sorrow is felt at the want of those blessings, not which a man never knew, but which were a part of his life before they were taken from him. Some of you are of an age at which they may hope to have other children, and they ought to bear their sorrow better; not only will the children who may hereafter be born make them forget their own lost ones, but the city will be doubly a gainer. She will not be left desolate, and she will be safer. For a man’s counsel cannot have equal weight or worth, when he alone has no children to risk in the general danger.
To those of you who have passed their prime, I say: “Congratulate yourselves that you have been happy during the greater part of your days; remember that your life of sorrow will not last long, and be comforted by the glory of those who are gone. For the love of honor alone is ever young, and not riches, as some say, but honor is the delight of men when they are old and useless.”
To you who are the sons and brothers of the departed, I see that the struggle to emulate them will be an arduous one. For all men praise the dead, and, however preeminent your virtue may be, I do not say even to approach them, and avoid living their rivals and detractors, but when a man is out of the way, the honor and goodwill which he receives is unalloyed. And, if I am to speak of womanly virtues to those of you who will henceforth be widows, let me sum them up in one short admonition: To a woman not to show more weakness than is natural to her sex is a great glory, and not to be talked about for good or for evil among men.
I have paid the required tribute, in obedience to the law, making use of such fitting words as I had. The tribute of deeds has been paid in part; for the dead have them in deeds, and it remains only that their children should be maintained at the public charge until they are grown up: this is the solid prize with which, as with a garland, Athens crowns her sons living and dead, after a struggle like theirs. For where the rewards of virtue are greatest, there the noblest citizens are enlisted in the service of the state. And now, when you have duly lamented, every one his own dead, you may depart.
Civilization is based on ceremonial burial, which knits a broken people together at a time of great sorrow. Pericles likely knew many of those men and knew their sacrifices could not be repaid, but he also knew his country would do its best to provide for their widows and fatherless children.
Pericles likely inspired Lincoln’s words at Gettysburg. It is short and sweet.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
We memorized those words when I was in fourth grade. Now, I suppose, they tell the kids that Lincoln owned slaves, who magically freed themselves on Juneteenth after those white boys were distracted by a civil war.
Freed slaves saw it otherwise.
Slaves liberated by Union soldiers loved Lincoln and his soldiers. In Charleston, South Carolina, the Confederates had converted a racetrack into a prisoner of war camp. Conditions were awful and 237 Union soldiers died and were buried in a mass grave.
Upon liberation two dozen freed slaves disinterred them and gave them a proper burial. On May 1, 1865, they held a memorial to the fallen soldiers.
More than 150 years later, Olivia B. Waxman wrote:
About 10,000 people, mostly black residents, participated in the May 1 tribute, according to coverage back then in the Charleston Daily Courier and the New York Tribune. Starting at 9 a.m., about 3,000 black schoolchildren paraded around the race track holding roses and singing the Union song John Brown’s Body, and were followed by adults representing aid societies for freed black men and women. Black pastors delivered sermons and led attendees in prayer and in the singing of spirituals, and there were picnics. James Redpath, the white director of freedman’s education in the region, organized about 30 speeches by Union officers, missionaries and black ministers. Participants sang patriotic songs like America and We’ll Rally around the Flag and The Star-Spangled Banner. In the afternoon, three white and black Union regiments marched around the graves and staged a drill.
Other similar events were held across the nation, but it was not until 1868 that Memorial Day became an annual holiday.
General John A. Logan, the commander-in-chief of the Union veterans’ group known as the Grand Army of the Republic, picked May 30 as the date claiming there had been no civil war battles associated with that date.
More likely, flowers finally bloomed in all 37 states to lay atop those graves. But it was a fine choice as it comes when spring begins its inevitable transformation into fall.
On Memorial Day, old men still ride Harleys into DC to visit the Wall, a tribute to those who gave all. The memory of just who they were will fade to dust when the last of those Harley riders expires, just as the Union and Confederate soldiers did.
But we honor them even if we never met them because we know of the importance of the sacrifices they made.
Let the lesson of Memorial Day reflect Lincoln’s words: “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
That’s a burden we have so often failed to carry. Let this be the Memorial Day that inspires us to live better and work harder at preserving (some would say re-installing) the government of, by and for the people.
A poll would ruin the mood. Enjoy the day instead.
This a Veteran’s Day story until it turns into a Memorial Day story
Elliot Williams was my Father-in-law’s fishing buddy. When Elliot died I was able to attend his funeral. This was a privilege, because Elliot, who had a rough childhood in the small Southern town where I was born, was also Chief Boatswain Mate James E. Williams. Chief Williams was one of the most decorated sailors in the long history of the Navy. Those awards included the Medal of Honor. Such a funeral is a special event. I grew up thinking all towns had a National Cemetery. Of course that is not true and we will get to that later. The Cemetery is more than a century old and had been expanded. Chief Williams wish was to be buried in the original portion of cemetery, but his family was told there was no room. Space was found for this war hero. As my wife and I were waiting for the graveside portion of ceremony to begin, she said it looks like there is plenty of space here. I said turn around and read the sign. Now you read the sign.
"CIVIL WAR
UNION BURIALS
On each side of this marker lie the remains of approximately 2300
Union soldiers who died as prisoners in the Florence Prison Stockade, between
September 1864 and February 1865.
The Stockade was located across Cemetery Street on Stockade Road. Burials are in trenches indicated by stone markers at the end of each row showing the number of individuals placed there."
I believe that when so many who have served consider it an honor to rest here with the original occupants, it becomes a sign of healing we should never lose. This cemetery is a monument to healing.
Thank you, Mr Surber, for channeling Pericles and, especially, Lincoln today. Truly inspiring.