The Cost of a Free and Undivided Republic
Memorial Day Remembered
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Release Date: Memorial Day Weekend, 2026
The cost of a free and undivided republic
In the spring of 1918, a year after America had joined The Great War raging across Europe, a reporter sat down with Mary Simmerson Logan, the wife of John Alexander Logan, U.S. politician, Union General and second Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic. Mrs. Logan was seventy-nine by then, three decades a widow, still mourning the loss of her son, Major John Logan, Jr., during the Philippine-American War just eighteen years earlier.
The reporter asked Mrs. Logan to tell him about the beginnings and meaning of Memorial day, when America was, once more, paying the heavy cost of freedom.
“I cannot rest, and will not, so long as the strength is given me, for I know what sorrow and suffering is wrought upon the helpless of war,” she said.
It was in the spacious workroom at the top of her beautiful home in Washington that her visitor found her. It was not a sewing day, and instead of European work, Mrs. Logan was sitting at her desk absorbed in the perusal of letters, papers and books which related to the long past of her own life, to a war nearer home and to her participation in the events which made American history a crucial period of this country’s life, and it was of those things she was in the mood to talk.
“I have been thinking about what the coming Memorial day must mean to us all,” she said. “The survivors of the Civil war are rapidly passing off the stage of life, but those who yet remain from that time, and they who are following us, will see to it that homage is done to those who paid the price of a nation’s salvation. It is a duty we owe and it should never die.
“This year, as we strew with flowers the graves of those who died for a just cause, we cannot but think of the terrible cataclysm of suffering and death now overwhelming Europe, and the great range of memorial days which will be its heritage ere long.
“I prefer the name Memorial day to Decoration day, for although ours is a national holiday, it should not be forgotten that it is a day of national remembrance of the dead, and ought to be observed with seemly quietude and dignity. I have been very much pained these later years to note that many of the younger generation have lost all sight of the original meaning of the day, and that in some places it is celebrated by such diversions as horse racing and other riotous sports which seem to be a very prostitution of the main idea of the occasion.
“The Grand Army of the Republic has made strong protestations against the misuse of our national day of mourning for the soldiers who gave their lives for our country, and it is good to note that the Sons of Veterans who are now filling the places of their fathers, take a very serious view of their duty in consecrating this one day to sacred memory and affectionate tribute to our soldier dead, and are carrying out appropriate programs at the various grounds where soldiers of the Civil war lie buried.
“I can, too, say in all truth that Memorial day has brought forth a great harvest of worthily expressed sentiment, the occasion having inspired men and women to utterances of real eloquence, beautiful thoughts and true poetry, because the theme is worthy of the best that loyal hearts can feel and gifted tongues or pens express.”
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“Yes, Decoration day was the thought and institution of General Logan, and I recall every detail of every incident which led to its inauguration. It was in March 1868, that General Logan, redeeming a promise made during the election campaign of Grant and Colfax, made an engagement for himself and me to accompany his good friend, Col. Charles Wilson, editor of the Chicago Journal, upon a visit to the city of Richmond and the battlefields of Virginia. The colonel, who was a bachelor, was accompanied by his fiancé, Miss Farrer of Boston.
“General Logan was then in Congress, and matters of great importance were before the national legislature, and in consequence my husband could not accompany us. The colonel insisted upon my taking my two children with us, although both were very small, my boy, John A. Logan Jr., a mere baby. However, he regarded the trip in the light of an historic pilgrimage and felt that the children should see some of the battlefields over which distinguished generals had led their armies.
“It was a cold, bleak day on which we arrived in Richmond, and the hotel was a desolate place of refuge. It afforded one of the evidences of the privations which the people of the Confederacy had suffered. These evidences were very plentiful throughout the city, as we later discovered. The vehicle which Colonel Wilson found for our conveyance for the drive to the battlefields nearby was a wretched carriage drawn by two miserably poor horses. The driver was the picture of dejection, and the small boy who served as footman was no better, and he shivered from head to foot with the cold.
“As we drove over the battlefields, we observed colored people picking up the bullets and pieces of shell, shrapnel, minnie balls, bits of broken cannon and other iron material. Foundries had set a price on this product, and it afforded quite a livelihood for a time to the poor about fortified cites and battlefields.
“We visited the churchyards and cemeteries at Richmond and Petersburg made historic through the struggles which had taken place in and around those cities. There were a great many burial grounds in those neighborhoods, because the glebes, which were land grants from England to the Episcopal church in America, had still existed as church grants at the time of the Civil war, and were used as burial grounds for the citizens and soldiers.
“In the burying ground near Petersburg we saw many hundreds of graves of Confederate soldiers, and they nearly all bore a small, faded flag, and the dark, withered wreaths and remains of their floral decoration of nearly a year before. These mournful mementoes of the bygone tragedy of the South touched me deeply, and on our return home from the tour of the battlefields, I told my husband of this tribute to the Southern men and women to their soldier-dead.”
“General Logan reciprocated my feeling as to the fitness of the sentiment expressed. He said that it was a revival of the ancient custom, for the people of ages past in old countries had performed the rite of decorating the graves of their dead heroes with flowers. He considered the matter for a time, and then said he did not see why it might not be revived in the case of the fallen Union soldiers.
“General Logan, who was then commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, decided that he would issue an order for the decoration of the soldier’s graves on the following 30th of May. Sending for General Chipman, adjunct general of the Grand Army of the Republic, he dictated order No. 11 for the first decoration of Union soldiers’ graves which ever took place in the United States.
“That order is now read at every Decoration day ceremony which takes place over the graves of Union soldiers who fought in the Civil war. It is as follows” and Mrs. Logan picked up from the papers she had at hand and read:
Headquarters, Grand Army of the Republic, Adjnct General’s Office, 415 14th Street, Washington, D.C., May 5, 1868,
General Order No. 11
1. The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will, in their own way, arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.
We are organized, comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose, among other things, “of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers, sailors and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion.” What can we aid more to assure this result than by cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade against our country and its foes? Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in chains, and their deaths the tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms. We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance.
All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders. Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no vandalism or avarice or neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or coming generations that we have forgotten as people the cost of a free and undivided republic.
If other eyes grow dull, and other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of light remain to us.
Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledge to aid and assist those whom they have left among us, a sacred charge upon a nation’s gratitude – the soldier’s widow and orphan.
2. It is the purpose of the commander in chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades. He earnestly desires the public press to call attention to this order and lend its friendly aid in bringing it to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance therein.
3. Department commanders will use every effort to make this order effective.
By order of John A. Logan, Commander in Chief. N. P. Chipman, Adjunct General.
“The loyal people of the country took most kindly to the idea, and my husband’s anticipations were fully realized by the observance of the day in every state in the Union, the exercises being characterized by observances very much the same as those which take place today.
“After many inquiries and some discussion, it was decided that May 30 was probably the most appropriate day for the the universal observance of the ceremony in every state in the Union, and General Logan finally succeeded in making the day a national holiday.
“On Memorial day there is no distinction made between officers and men. Death, the great leveler, makes them all heroes alike, and plaudits and blossoms are distributed with equal generosity between the great generals and the privates.
“There are few now living who won great honors during the Civil war. All the great commanders of armies have passed away, and there are but few left who commanded corps, divisions, brigades or regiments. The patriotic organizations who have so faithfully preserved the memory of their fallen comrades, are also much depleted in membership. It is therefore, to the men of the younger generation we must look to keep green the memory of those who died to make our nation.” 1
Copyright 2026 Lori Olson White
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End Notes
1 “Origins of Memorial Day: Mrs. John A. Logan Tells How Annual Ceremony was Inaugurated by HerHusband, “The Messenger,” Drummond, OK, May 23, 1918, P. 2.
Lovely and meaningful words for today. Thank you
Thank you.