Memorial Day is commemorated as the day we pay homage to the many service members who risked and ultimately lost their lives fighting on behalf of the United States. It is an opportunity to pause and reflect upon the cost of freedom.
It is a day to remember not only their sacrifice, but the enduring bonds of family, community, and patriotism that live on in their absence. It’s a day for reflecting on the devotion and the diversity of those who serve and a re-dedication by the living to our nation’s values: respect, the dignity of our fellow citizens, and selfless service to liberty.
One version of how Memorial Day got started goes back to 1866 when four women were placing spring flowers on the graves of Confederate soldiers at Friendship Cemetery in Columbus, Mississippi. They noticed that the nearby graves of Union soldiers were barren and felt these enemies, in a war that divided not only a nation but also families and left some 750,000 dead, also deserved respect and flowers.
Their gesture, memorialized by F.M. Finch’s poem “The Blue and the Gray” in The Atlantic Monthly in 1867, was one of numerous expressions of remembrance around the country after the Civil War that would ultimately give rise to the establishment of Memorial Day.
John A. Logan, a senator from Illinois and former U.S. Army general during the Civil War, advocated for the government to create a national day of remembrance for fallen Civil War soldiers. On May 5, 1868, he formally established Memorial Day as a Decoration Day urging the nation to decorate and remember the graves of the war dead. Memorial Day has since expanded to honor all U.S. military personnel who have died in service.
Two veterans from the Civil War are buried at West Parish Garden Cemetery in Andover.
Charles Henry Grant was born in 1845 in Andover and at the age of 16 he joined the 10th New Hampshire Regiment. On Dec. 12, 1861, his unit was knee deep in the Battle of Fredericksburg, one of the bloodiest defeats the Union faced in which they lost over 12,000 men, while the Confederates lost 5,000. He escaped with his life but was later captured and imprisoned at the notorious Salisbury prison in North Carolina where he spent seven months.
Henry Flint Chandler was 29 years old and a member of Company E 59th Massachusetts Infantry, with which he earned the Medal of Honor, one of 1,523 given to members who served during the Civil War. After being wounded during a bayonet charge, he declined an order to go to the rear and stayed in the battle and manned temporary fortifications of piled materials called breastworks.
Here are a few stories of people who paid the ultimate price for our freedom:
Sgt. Peter Bryan and Pvt. Thomas Plunkett were members of the 21st Massachusetts Volunteers who carried the flag of their regiment during the Battle of Fredericksburg and were killed while defending it.
While Bryan was carrying the national colors of his unit, a shell burst in front of him, shredding off his arms and planting shrapnel deep in his chest. Somehow, he still managed to keep the colors from falling until they were taken up by Plunkett. Their blood stains the flag on display at the Massachusetts Statehouse.
Crispus Attucks was an American whaler, sailor, and stevedore of African and Native American descent who is traditionally regarded as the first person killed in the Boston Massacre, and as a result the first American killed in the American Revolution.
Edith Ayres and Helen Burnett Wood, two Army nurses who served during World War I, were killed by shrapnel when a naval gun exploded while they were traveling by Navy ship to Europe. They were Red Cross nurses who were inducted into the Army, serving without rank or commission, since women’s status as soldiers was not yet settled.
Anthony Marchione was the last American service member killed in combat in World War II. He’d just turned 21 and was killed by renegade Japanese fighter pilots three days after the Aug. 15 ceasefire between the Allies and Japan went into effect.
Charles McMahon and Darwin Lee Judge were the last two United States servicemen killed in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The two men, both U.S. Marines, were killed in a rocket attack one day before the Fall of Saigon.
The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America started the hashtag campaign, #GoSilent for Memorial Day. They’ve asked citizens to take just one minute to reflect and honor fallen friends, family members and acquaintances lost in America’s wars.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur said, “The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“Memorial Day,” by Curtis Hendel
This one day a year has come at last,
To honor and remember those who have passed.
But our dead that we honor are set far apart,
For they served their country in body and heart.
Today we honor those who gave their all, In the horrors of combat is where they did fall.
They have all served their country, far and near,
Her people, ideals, and freedoms held dear.
So say not to me “Happy Memorial Day,”
It’s our fallen we honor this late day in May.
It was never meant to be for lakes, boats, and grill,
But to honor those passed who have paid freedom’s bill.
So look up at the pole and see the Stars and Stripes,
Pause for just a moment to dismiss your own gripes.
Pray for our loved ones who died here or at war,
And thank God for those who stood to settle the score.
P.S.: Thanks to Danny O’Neil, assistant superintendent at West Parish Garden Cemetery, for providing the histories of the two Civil War veterans.
Dr. William Kolbe, an Andover resident, is a retired high school and college teacher and former Peace Corps volunteer in Tonga and El Salvador. He can be reached at bila.kolbe9@gmail.com.