We Did It, They Hid It: How Memorial Day Was Stripped Of Its African American Roots

[heaven05]

17. I would like a link to

confirm your statements please.....I know that the Ft. Pillow Massacre was known of, the 54 Regiment from Massachusetts was known of and how the bodies of the black soldiers killed at Ft, Wagner, S.C. were abused and, along with their white commander were shoved into a unmarked mass grave where they were urinated and spit upon....,.by the end of the civil war over 179,000 black soldiers had served the union cause with 50,000 having died of wounds, disease and infection. One of the unofficial starts of this memorial day holiday was created by former slaves who dug up mass graves of black soldiers who died in the union cause and gave them a proper burual and parade...the the military and others started remembering the soldiers who died in the union cause 5 May 1865---Gen. John Logan gave out gerneral order no.11 to decorate the graves of honored civil war dead and strewing of flowers. That was the formal day origin.

Yet IT CANNOT be denied that former black slaves honoring the black civil war dead were an important origin before it dawned on 'others' to honor the Union war dead. Basically that was the origin of our american holiday.