One of the first Decoration Days was held in Columbus, Mississippi, on April 25, 1866, by women who decorated graves of Confederate soldiers who perished at the Battle of Shiloh who perished at the Battle of Shiloh, with flowers.
On May 5, 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War, the tradition of placing flowers on veterans' graves was continued by the establishment of Decoration Day by an organization of former Union veterans, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR).
General Ulysses S. Grant presided over the first large observance of the day, when a crows of about 5,000 people gathered at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on May 30, 1873. The orphaned children of soldiers and sailors killed during the war placed flowers and small American flags atop both Union and Confederate graves throughout the whole cemetery.
This tradition continues to this day.
Until World War I, Civil War soldiers were the only ones so honored on this day. Now, all American military who died are honored.
--Old Secesh
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