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Memorial Day origin and the Blue and the Gray
The article recounts how Memorial Day began from Confederate graves decoration by Southern women in Columbus Mississippi and how the poem The Blue and the Gray by Francis Miles Finch helped ease postwar bitterness. It notes the Grand Army of the Republic as early keepers of the custom and reflects on Memorial Day evolving into a national observance honoring all American soldiers across wars.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Elmo Scott Watson
Columbus
Miss
North
John A. Logan
Ithaca
N. Y
Francis Miles Winch
Winch
Chauncey M. Depew
Grand Army of the Republic
Decatur
B. J. Stephenson
W. J. Rutledge
Fourteenth Illinois Infantry
New York