Friendship Cemetery: birthplace of Memorial Day

  • Published
  • By Airman John Day
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  Memorial Day is a day of remembrance, to celebrate and honor fallen service members of the U.S. Military, past and present, who have paid for this country's freedom with their lives. As a federal holiday, many businesses are closed, government employees get the day off and on military installations, non-essential organizations do not operate.

Understanding the reasons why the citizens of this nation hang the flag outside their doors, or why cemeteries are filled with flowers and flags every last Monday in May, helps bring America back to its origins.

"The flowerbed on graves has always been done, that's nothing new," said Rufus Ward, a Columbus native and local historian. "A lot of different celebrations occurring around the end of the Civil War that people talk about, that's Memorial Day."

Waterloo, N.Y. is counted as the official birthplace of Memorial Day, however, many other places lay claim to its origin. In Mississippi, many believe the origin lies in Columbus, Miss., "The Friendly City."

During the Civil War, Columbus was a hospital town where wounded soldiers, both Confederate troops and Union prisoners of war, were taken. The town had a cemetery that the denizens of Columbus know today as Friendship Cemetery. After the war, on April 25, 1866, four women from Columbus decided to celebrate this day, originally called Decoration Day, by decorating the graves of confederate soldiers with flowers.

One of the women, Augsta Sykes, whose husband and brother-in-law had been killed in the war, posed the question, "How can we expect the Northern states to honor Confederate graves if we don't honor the Union graves here?" This brought about the change to adorn both Confederate and Union graves with flowers.

"They put flowers on all the soldiers' graves, including the Union graves," said Ward. "This Columbus tradition was picked up and sent nationwide."

A New York Times reporter took the aforementioned story north. The article praised the act as a way to heal the wounds of the nation, and even prompted a poem written by Francis Miles Finch, a judge in New York that referenced the events of April 25, 1866 at Columbus. This poem is called "The Blue and the Gray" and is sometimes recited at Memorial Day ceremonies.

A common Memorial Day tradition is the altered raising of the flag. The flag is quickly raised to the top of the staff and then slowly lowered to the half-staff position, where it stays until noon. It is then raised to full-staff for the rest of the day. The half-staff position is a symbol to honor men and women who gave their lives in service of their country. At noon, the full-staff position signifies the resolve of the living who continue to fight in place of the fallen to not let their sacrifices be in vain.

"At the cemetery, one side of the graves had a Confederate flag and the other side had an American flag," said Ward. "The statement said, 'With the war being over, everyone is an American.'"

Though the exact birthplace and origin of Memorial Day may be disputed, the fact remains, it stands to honor and remember America's fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen.