Today, I’m refraining from posting my typical drivel and instead will leave you with this image of veterans from the War Between the States. The practice we know today as Memorial Day (the remembrance part, not the obscene excuse for 25 percent off bedsheets part) started in 1868 as Decoration Day, ordered by the commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, the veterans’ organization for Union Civil War veterans, for the purpose of decorating the graves of the nation’s veterans both of that war and those that preceded it.
Over time, it has merged with Confederate Memorial Day (which started in 1866) to become the tradition we know today.
American Civil War veterans, all with GAR badges, being shown modern M1 rifles and Browning machine guns on Veteran’s Day at the Minnesota State Fair circa, 1940’s. The veteran holding the rifle with the bayonet affixed was Henry Mack, an African-American Civil War veteran who lived to be 108 years old before passing away in 1945. Click to big up. More on Mack’s fascinating story here.
Four Confederate Veterans of the American Civil War, the man on the left can be seen wearing the southern version of the Medal of Honor, the Southern Cross of Honor, ca. 1922
Please use any extra time you normally spent reading this blog that you now have to spare and put it towards the reverent respect of all those who have served our great country and paid a price we can’t begin to repay.
