Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
I hope Connie doesn't mind but I moved part of her post to here to
get it away from the Slave Trade thread.
Posted on Sunday, January 12, 2003 - 12:47 pm: by Connie
"Even more significantly black Charlestonians celebrated the first Decoration Day in America on April 14 at Fort Sumter itself. The entire story is a tear-jerker and I encourage you to read it. “The ‘First Decoration Day’ as this event came to be recognized in some circles in the North, involved an estimated ten thousand people, most of them black former slaves.” [ibid page 69] These black Americans turned the Race Course, a former POW enclosure into a cemetery memorializing the Union soldiers who had died there. Former slaves and freedmen, erected markers, brought flowers, ministers of all the black churches gave eulogies, scriptures were read or recited, black children sang America, The Star-Spangled Banner, We’ll Rally ‘Round the Flag. There was a picnic, speeches, bands, and shared joy; in short all the elements of modern Decoration Day celebrations."
April 14th,1865 celebrates the day Gen. Anderson raised the grand ole flag back to it place
at Fort Sumter.
I think the following a more interesting and fitting beginning of
Memorial Day
From "A Womans Doctor's Civil War-Ester Hill Hawks' Diary",Edited by Gerald Schwartz pgs. 137,138
Charleston, May 30th, 1865
Our May Day Festival!
We have planned for the dedication of the bleak spot where so many hundred of our soldiers were covered in long trenches:in heaps-four short rows containing 249 of our men, the dead of less than a week. These were white soldiers-prisoners of war. The colored
men have built a fence about the spot a free offering, and a fine monument is to be erected as soon as we have sufficient means.The cloudless sky and hot sun of an August morning was over us as the school children formed the procession and marched from the Morris St. School, the Club House on the race-course where the opening ceremoniesare to be held. We rode slowly up King St. to the race course.There is was thronged with vehicles of every description and pedestrians of of all ages, from the baby in arms to the white hairs of bent old age.All faces wore the sweetest smiles and nearly every hand bore bunches or baskets laden with beautiful flowers.
On reaching the place, found the grounds already covered with a large
concourse of peple. Among others I noticed Col. Gurney Post Commandant,& wife_General Hartwell-Gol. Beecher & wife_Judge Coolery & wife and several other "distinguished guests". Mr. Redpath is the animating spirit of the occasion. At 10 A.M. he got the procession formed, the school children in advance. As they
passed under the flag which was stretched across the Street which led to the soldiers graves-with their clean bright faces, neat clothes and hands laden with flowers, all singing"My Country 'tis of thee" it was a beautiful sight. As they entered the little enclosure where our poor soldiers lay, every voice was hushed and with quiet
reverent steps they marched around the yard depositing their floral offerings on the new made graves-and Mr. RedPath says the ground all about was covered. It was one of the most touching sights I ever witnessed! Mothers whose loved ones lie here_would
that your heartws might all be gladened by the sight of this beautiful tribute_to the memory of your precious dead. Would you not bless the black hands which have decked them with flowers_and the noble men whose gratuitous labor has built about their resting place a protection from the rude hands of the thoughtless or jeering! God bless them all and grant to their hearts the prayer of a live time, that freedon which is the inheritance of every child of earth!
The cerimonies in the yard consisted in singing appropriate hymns by the choir of the Baptist Church-prayer by a colored clergyman-and reading of appropiate passages of scripture, none but colored people officiating. It was very impressive and solemn-....."."The children danced and played about just as children will at such times and were all very happy. I saw no quarriling or unpleasant feeling anywhere. By 2 P.M. the speaking and eating was over, thus ending the impressive ceremonies of the first Decoration Days..."
---from the footnotes.....".The events herein described constitued the first Memorial Day observance, thought the Grand Army of the republic did not officially proclaim Decoration Day until 1868. Some credit the Drs. Hawks with having 'conceived. proposed and practiced' the custon of decorating the graves of Union Civil war veterans. Charles H. Coe, "The late Dr. John Milton Hawks," Daytona Beach Observer, August 30, 1941."
(spelling and punctuations are unchanged from the book)
Chuck in Il.
Charles, I don't mind you moving it all. Now may I ask why that Memorial Day is more fitting? Is it because the country didn't embrace the first one even though it was widely reported at the time it was held?
The first event was held by black Americans, the second of course was held by white Americans. You have to ask why one is given the title and the other is shoved under the rug of memory? At least I need to ask. Oh heck, I'll bet it is because the white folk were just smart enough to pick the right date.
Found this article on the web and tried to remember if there had ever been a thread on this board about it.
Guess there was and I was glad to have found it again. I think the more recent article is a bit more clear than the original, so here it is.
"After Charleston, South Carolina was evacuated in February 1865 near the end of the Civil War, most of the people remaining among the ruins of the city were thousands of blacks. During the final eight months of the war, Charleston had been bombarded by Union batteries and gunboats, and much of its magnificent architecture lay in ruin. Also during the final months of war the Confederates had converted the Planters' Race Course (a horse track) into a prison in which some 257 Union soldiers had died and were thrown into a mass grave behind the grandstand.
In April, more than twenty black carpenters and laborers went to the gravesite, reinterred the bodies in proper graves, built a tall fence around the cemetery enclosure one hundred yards long, and built an archway over an entrance. On the archway they inscribed the words, "Martyrs of the Race Course." And with great organization, on May 1, 1865, the black folk of Charleston, in cooperation with white missionaries, teachers, and Union troops, conducted an extraordinary parade of approximately ten thousand people. It began with three thousand black school children (now enrolled in freedmen's schools) marching around the Planters' Race Course with armloads of roses and singing "John Brown's Body." Then followed the black women of Charleston, and then the men. They were in turn followed by members of Union regiments and various white abolitionists such as James Redpath. The crowd gathered in the graveyard; five black preachers read from Scripture, and a black children's choir sang "America," "We Rally Around the Flag," the "Star-spangled Banner," and several spirituals. Then the solemn occasion broke up into an afternoon of speeches, picnics, and drilling troops on the infield of the old planters' horseracing track.
This was the first Memorial Day. Black Charlestonians had given birth to an American tradition. By their labor, their words, their songs, and their solemn parade of roses and lilacs and marching feet on their former masters' race course, they had created the Independence Day of the Second American Revolution.
To this day hardly anyone in Charleston, or elsewhere, even remembers this story. Quite remarkably, it all but vanished from memory. But in spite of all the other towns in American that claim to be the site of the first Memorial Day (all claiming spring, 1866), African Americans and Charleston deserve pride of place."
By David W. Blight.
Sincerely,
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
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