Who started Memorial Day, and when?
Starting in 1868, General John Alexander Logan ordered May 30 to be the official day to decorate graves of those who died in battle during the Civil War and named it "Decoration Day". Most states adopted it as an official holiday and it became the last Monday in May starting in 1971 to allow the scheduling of Federal Holidays.
Although in May 1966 President Johnson officially named Waterloo, N.Y., as the birthplace of Memorial Day, it is impossible to actually trace it to one particular place or time. There is evidence that organized womens groups in the South were decorating Confederate graves before the end of the Civil War. Most likely many different groups and towns, feeling a need to honor the Civil War dead in some way, began to decorate the graves of their war dead. In many places it was originally referred to as Decoration Day. Q: When did Memorial Day become an official holiday? A: Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, to honor those soldiers who died during the Civil War. It was first observed on May 30, 1868 when flowers were placed on the graves of the Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. In 1873 New York was the first state to officially recognize the holiday; by 1890 all the no
