On May 30, 1924, The Jackson Times printed information about the observance of the Memorial Day holiday. The full-page feature included an explanation of the origins of the holiday as they were believed then and a renewed emphasis on the need to continue to honor the soldier of the Civil War who lost their lives in battle and in all the subsequent wars. The editors of The Jackson Times in 1924 highlighted an editorial about the holiday and accurately described Decoration Day as a “duty and a privilege.”

In honor of those lost in armed conflict in the name of and in defense of our freedoms, I include that editorial as a reminder to us of why we should and must celebrate Memorial Day.

Tributes Are Due to Fallen Heroes

Observance of Memorial Day Is Duty and Privilege of Americans.

Memorial Day, originated as a tribute to the fallen heroes of the Civil War, has come in these later years to mean much more than that, says a writer in The Detroit Free Press. The dwindling lines of the Old Guard representing the Grand Army of the Republic, will soon pass in last review before the inspector general, and the heroes of other, later wars will take their places.

It is well that we Americans keep in memory all our men who struggled in battle to keep Old Glory flying in the heavens. These men, heroes of the Spanish-American War and those of the World War conflict, now loom large on the national horizon, and to them, as well us to the remnant of the Old Guard that kept watch and ward along the Potomac and in the Mississippi Valley during the dark days of the Civil war, our solemn graciousness is due.

We can never do enough to show our appreciation of what they did in time of trial, and it is meet that we assemble each Memorial Day and give thanks to Almighty God for the victories won by these sons of the republic on so many ensanguined fields of war.

The blue-clad armies that met and conquered hosts of Lee in the sixties have their counterparts in the lads in khaki who stemmed the German flood of frightfulness in the Argonne, Belleau, and on other fields of gore, teaching the hitherto conquering hordes of the kaiser that the despised Yankee from across the brine was not visiting the Rhineland for picnic sport, but to terminate once for all the claims of an absolute monarchy that it ruled the world.

Memorial Day is the one day in all the year when the men and women of America can show more reverently, more sympathetically, more heartfelt appreciation and gratitude for our boys who in the World War as in all other conflicts in which the republic has been engaged, led the van, Causing victory to perch upon the banners’ of righteousness.

Bring flowers to garland the graves of America’s soldier dead.  What more appropriate? Tears for the dead, help for the living.  We must not forget the maimed and suffering, that legacy left by the frightfulness of the most ferocious and heartless war in the history of the world. 

The Jackson Times, Friday, May 30, 1924, Page 1

For generations that have not been forced to endure the sufferings and loss brought by total war, there is a tendency to forget and minimalize the pains of the past. Memorial Day provides each of us the opportunity to stop for one day out of the year to remember the many freedoms and rights won for us by the sacrificed blood of millions.

Celebrate Memorial Day by remembering those who gave their “last full measure of devotion” for your right to breathe free and celebrate.

© 2023 Stephen D. Bowling