Reeder Custom Guns - Memorial Day

The history of Memorial Day is the subject of a longstanding academic smackdown, with dozens of cities and towns claiming to be the holiday’s birthplace.

The backstory: Scholars agree that in 1868, three years after the Civil War’s end, Union Army General John A. Logan established a national holiday “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country.” What’s disputed is where he got the idea.

Among the contenders:

* Columbus, Ga., where a Confederate widow who regularly decorated her husband’s grave wrote a widely published letter to the editor in 1866 calling for “a day to be set apart annually” for Southerners to observe this “sad but pleasant duty.”

* Columbus, Miss., where a small group of women gathered in 1866 to place flowers on the graves of both Confederate and Union soldiers, a gesture of reconciliation.

* Charleston, S.C., where African-American residents honored slain Union soldiers in a May Day ceremony in 1865.

* Waterloo, N.Y., where villagers marched “to the strains of martial music” in an 1866 parade to decorate soldiers’ graves.* (In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo the birthplace of Memorial Day, though most scholars disagree.)

There are even dueling Memorial Day research centers. One, at the University of Mississippi, supports the view that “so widespread was the impulse to honor the war dead that observances occurred spontaneously in several locations.”

The other, at Columbus State University in Georgia, makes a persuasive case that the Confederate widow’s letter to the editor got the ball rolling.

“We examine every claim in our [2014] book, and the vast majority are just disprovable myths,” Richard Gardiner of the Columbus State Center for Memorial Day Research told Axios.

Literary bonus: Francis Miles Finch, a Northerner and Yale grad, was so touched by the Mississippi women who had decorated both Union and Confederate graves that he wrote a poem, “The Blue and the Gray,” that was published in The Atlantic in 1867. Its message — of a nation knitting together over the brave sacrifices of its soldiers — is one that resonates today.

taken from https://www.axios.com/memorial-day-the-tangled-backstory-0c75e9f8-9234-4cca-ac39-3f6231...

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By the flow of the inland river,
Whence the fleets of iron have fled,
Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver,
Asleep are the ranks of the dead:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Under the one, the Blue,
Under the other, the Gray
These in the robings of glory,
Those in the gloom of defeat,
All with the battle-blood gory,
In the dusk of eternity meet:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgement-day
Under the laurel, the Blue,
Under the willow, the Gray.

From the silence of sorrowful hours
The desolate mourners go,
Lovingly laden with flowers
Alike for the friend and the foe;
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgement-day;
Under the roses, the Blue,
Under the lilies, the Gray.

So with an equal splendor,
The morning sun-rays fall,
With a touch impartially tender,
On the blossoms blooming for all:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Broidered with gold, the Blue,
Mellowed with gold, the Gray.

So, when the summer calleth,
On forest and field of grain,
With an equal murmur falleth
The cooling drip of the rain:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment -day,
Wet with the rain, the Blue
Wet with the rain, the Gray.

Sadly, but not with upbraiding,
The generous deed was done,
In the storm of the years that are fading
No braver battle was won:
Under the sod adn the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Under the blossoms, the Blue,
Under the garlands, the Gray

No more shall the war cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red;
They banish our anger forever
When they laurel the graves of our dead!
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day,
Love and tears for the Blue,
Tears and love for the Gray.

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North and South but liberal and republican. If this cannot be mended then this poem will be needed again.

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- No text -

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republicans like McCain was. The republicans in the states with those liberal republicans should have their butts kicked for voting them back in every time.

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Did some bunch of liberals sneak into Montana and take it over while I wasn't looking?
Oregon has been co-opted partly, Washington state west of Cle Ullam, and Boisie Idaho hints of the liberal disease. you can forget Colo up and down I 25

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because of the large amount of Liberals moving in there.

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Californica.

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into Cody and Jackson Hole was solid gays. Downtown Flag is all liberal as is the mayor and her underlings.

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Places like Missoula, Bozo, Jackson "Hole" and a few others generally vote democratic. But since they are the more populated counties they tend to sway the state elections. John Tester in MT has never won his own county and tpically only wins a few counties. But because of their population he has stayed a Senator. Oh and the NA reservations as he promises more money. Which is funny because I know the county he comes from and most cant stand him.

https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/montana/

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they are looking to leave as the Californicators have invaded Bozo and the drugs have invaded Missoula. Neighborhoods that I KNOW, are no longer family friendly and the families are moving out. Even the University of Montana there, which used to be growing every year, is down 30% in the last few years and they have gotten a bad reputation for violence and drugs.

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Memorial Day

The Blue and the Gray

Still apropos today. The schism needs to be narrowed, nott

Should be liberal and conservative, sorry.

yeah, unfortunately there are several liberal

liberals

Some locals call Bozeman "Bozeangeles"

Half of the city council in Missoula are from

John Linebaugh told me lots of liberals have moved

If you look at the voting history

I have a lot of friends still in Missoula and Bozo,