Happy Memorial Day and Decoration Day! Personal Relections

Happy Memorial Day Everyone!

Memorial Day means different things to different people- to some, it is the honoring of fallen soldiers, who died in service to their nation, like my distant relative James, who fought and died in the Civil War.

My grandfather passed this story on to me recently. On Jan. 27,1864, James was just a farmer, but he still went off to do his duty to keep our nation one nation, undivided, with liberty and justice for all. James enlisted in the 17th Infantry Regiment. He was mustered in on Feb. 11, 1864. His Company soon joined the regiment at Annapolis, MD on April 9, 1864- some of the worst battles of the Civil War were about to take place.

He fought in the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia, in May, 1864, and then fought in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia, which a vital crossroads which controlled the shortest route to the capitol of Virginia. It was here at Spotsylvania on May 12 that James was taken prisoner and shipped to the notorious Andersonville Confederate prison camp in Georgia. Some months later James died there of dysentery, and was buried in the National Cemetery, Andersonville, GA. He was only 40 years old.

His widow was left with 7 children- her Army pension was $8 a month, with $2 extra for each of her 6 minor children, until they reached the age of 16. James served our nation for 4 months and did his duty and died a true patriot. Thank you James, for all that you did.

To others, Memorial Day is a day to remember our roots and those who have gone before us. My grandfather remembers trips that he used to make a youth on Decoration Day (what Memorial Day used to be called) to visit their old family farm and the old cemetery too. Since the family had a poor section of the cemetery, they would all pitch-in and weed, cut the grass and put flowers on the graves. When they had done everything there, they would drive back to the old farm where they were raised and have a picnic and remember their family. When they were too old to do it together any more, some of the family continued the tradition.

Also on Memorial Day, it my grandfather's family tradition to take flowers to the graves of family members and remember them on this day, whether they died in war or not. It may be called Memorial Day now , but my grandfather is right- to all those who went before us and who raised us, they deserve our attention and respect and honor and thoughts too on Decoration Day.

Happy Memorial Day! Happy Decoration Day!