Annually on the last Monday in May, Americans honor the men and women who lost their lives in military service defending the United States. Most Americans have the day off from work. Many participate in parades, visit war memorials, or say a prayer at the grave of a relative.
One of the most important places for such commemoration is Arlington National Cemetery*, the final resting place for U.S. military personnel from all major American conflicts since the U.S. War of Independence. The cemetery is located in the area opposite Washington, DC, in Northern Virginia, across the Potomac River, which cuts through the capital.
More than 400,000 active-duty service members who died, veterans, and eligible family members are buried in the cemetery, which currently spans about 260 hectares and plans an expansion for 80,000 additional graves.
Two U.S. presidents are buried in this cemetery. William Howard Taft’s grave in section 30 is located under trees in a secluded spot off Schley Drive, one of the main roads. John F. Kennedy is buried in Section 45 at the base of the hill where Arlington House stands, a mansion built in the early 1800s. (All presidents are eligible for burial in the cemetery, but other presidents have been buried in the places they called home or on the grounds of their presidential libraries.)
Origins
Before it was a cemetery, the land was a property belonging to Mary Custis Lee, married to Robert E. Lee, Confederate Army general. The Lees lived for some time in Arlington House, located on the plantation grounds, which had been built decades earlier by enslaved people at the behest of a descendant of Martha Washington, wife of the first U.S. president.
The Lees abandoned the property at the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, and during the war, the Union Army seized it to defend Washington from Confederate soldiers.
Authorities turned the property into a national cemetery in 1864, when Civil War dead had completely filled nearby cemeteries, according to Tim Frank, historian at Arlington National Cemetery. Like other national cemeteries of the time, Arlington segregated the dead by race and rank. (It ended the practice 84 years later, when President Harry S. Truman ended segregation in the military forces.)
In the immediate post-Civil War era, many families did not want their deceased buried in Arlington: it signaled that the survivors could not afford to send their loved ones’ remains home for burial, said Frank.
Attitudes changed in 1868, when Civil War veterans established Decoration Day (May 30) at Arlington National Cemetery to honor the dead. President Ulysses S. Grant, who led the Union Army to victory in the Civil War, paid tribute at more than one Decoration Day ceremony.
“We really credit Decoration Day with making Arlington Cemetery our main national cemetery,” said Frank. “Thousands of people came to Arlington to decorate the graves with flowers. And then we began to see more and more generals and admirals, Medal of Honor winners, and dignitaries surprisingly requesting burial at Arlington.”
After World War I, Americans began honoring the dead from all U.S. wars on Decoration Day. And in 1971, Congress established Memorial Day (the last Monday in May) as a federal holiday to honor those who died while serving in the Armed Forces. In recent years, Arlington National Cemetery has hosted a solemn Memorial Day ceremony in which the president lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The tomb houses the remains of unknown American military service members killed in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. Inspired by similar memorials in France and Britain, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is the most visited grave in the cemetery, attracting millions of people annually.
Why do we celebrate Memorial Day?
Although many consider Memorial Day the unofficial start of summer, the holiday is more than just backyard barbecues and beach trips. In the U.S., there are several holidays and celebrations that honor the Armed Forces, including Memorial Day.
Originally called “Decoration Day,” Memorial Day dates back to the 1860s and honors those who died serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Although the origins of Memorial Day are uncertain, celebrations honoring the military began after the Civil War, which ended in 1865. In the following years, Americans paid tribute to soldiers by decorating their graves and saying prayers, according to the History Channel.
In 1868, General John Logan issued an official order designating May 30 as the day to remember those who died serving in the Civil War, according to usmemorialday.org. On the first Decoration Day, 20,000 graves at Arlington Cemetery were decorated, and future president James Garfield gave a speech, reports the History Channel.
New York was the first state to recognize Decoration Day as an official holiday in 1873, according to usmemorialday.org. In 1890, all Northern states recognized it. The Southern states, however, chose to honor those who died in the Civil War on separate days. This continued until after World War I.
After World War I, the focus of Memorial Day shifted to honoring American soldiers who died in any war, not just the Civil War.
For many years, Memorial Day was observed on May 30, until the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, enacted in 1971. The law changed the holiday’s date to the last Monday in May.
Source: ShareAmerica