DECORATION DAY

DECORATION DAY, or MEMORIAL DAY , one day in the spring of each year, set apart as a legal holiday in most of the states of the American Union, to do honor to those who fought on either side in the War of Secession. Out of an expression of love and grief by bereaved women of the South- the strewing of wild flowers on the graves of their soldier dead one certain day each year- has grown a nation wide and beautiful custom. Since 1899 the celebration of the day has been extended to include the honored dead of the Spanish American War.

 General John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, in 1868 designated the thirtieth day of May as the day on which the graves of dead Union soldiers should be decorated, and this date is now universally observed throughout the Northern states. April 26 is appointed as Memorial Day in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; in North and South Carolina the day set apart is May 10; the second Friday in May is ob sered in Tennessee and in Louisiana. Jefferson Davis's birthday, June 3, is also that state's Memorial Day. Decoration Day is now a day of dignified addresses, exercises, parades, and military salutes, as well as strewing of flowers, and planting of shrubs. 

References:

2. WORLD BOOK VOL. III