Memorial Day is traditionally for honoring deceased relatives and loved ones who served in the armed forces. Other cultures have a similar holiday, although with a broader aim of venerating ancestors, not only veterans. We as Americans have a peculiar focus on this specific national service, such that we have multiple holidays that commemorate soldiers, seamen, and airmen.
The first national Memorial Day was designated in 1868, in which Union and Confederate soldiers' graves were decorated in Arlington National Cemetery. Prior to this, local towns had their own ceremonies where graves were decorated with flowers and losses remembered. Remarkably, perhaps the very first of such "decoration days" was held by emancipated black citizens in Charleston, South Carolina, mere days after the conclusion of the Civil War.
I would like to note that we don't choose our ancestors. It is comforting and happy to memorialize our forefathers who served on the "right side" of various conflicts. As it happens, I only have one ancestor that I have confirmed to have served in the Civil War--as a Confederate soldier. My wife has several Union soldiers in her family tree, and perhaps even one Confederate (he was from Missouri so it was complicated). As fraught as that may seem, I have a relative who has ancestors from Germany in the early 20th century--foreign enemies of America in a couple of conflicts that are somewhat well known.
My point in all this is that Memorial Day need not be exclusively a day to "celebrate" the sacrifices of those who have come before. They should, at the very least, be remembered. We are not well served by history if we fail to recognize it, warts and all. We don't need to espouse the same views and perspectives that our forefathers held, just as we need not be beholden to beliefs and politics that we held even 5 years before. We would be doing ourselves a great disservice, however, if we did not remember where we came from.
I'll close with one recent discovery I made for my wife's 4th great grandfather, William R Owens. As best as I could tell, he was from Pennsylvania, born sometime around 1816, and then died sometime after 1860 after having 8 children in Ohio. The census listed him as "M.D." in 1860, but a farmer in 1850. That little nugget intrigued me, but I couldn't find any additional information about this man who seemed to be a doctor, until I went digging around in a history book for Warren County, Ohio. I had done some research on his children, doing my best to find where they ended up, which ended up providing the crucial link. His daughter married a prominent man in Warren County, and the local historian detailed a few items about their lives and their heritage, which included the heretofore little-known William Owens. As it turned out, he enlisted with the Union army to use his skills as a doctor. He ended up in the fortifications outside of Corinth, MS. At the strategic rail crossing there, the two sides vied for control. William Owens presumably served in one of the army hospitals hastily constructed in advance of the siege, where it appears he succumbed to some sort of disease. He was buried not far from the town of Corinth.
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| From http://www.americacivilwar.org/siege-of-corinth |
It's sometimes not pleasant to recover the lost fragments of the past, but the more we understand, the better we know how to move forward. Sometimes we find causes to celebrate. Sometimes we find shame. Ultimately, however, I believe we are enriched by a closer knowledge of the truth of our own history, holding within ourselves sometimes contradictory ideas. Isn't that, after all, what makes us human?
