Decoration Day

known as ‘“‘ Memorial Day” in the Southern States. The custom that led up to it originated in the South before the close of the Civil War. Early in the spring of each year the Southern women were in the habit of decorating the graves of their Vol. V.—14 dead soldiers with flowers, and thus an unwritten law fixed May 30 as the day of observance. Similar observances had been inaugurated in the North with no especial unanimity. May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, then commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, i ued an order fixing May 30 of that year for strewing with flowers the graves of dead soldiers. There has been no Federal legislation regarding Decoration Day, but many States have made it a legal holiday. 213