The surprising Georgia origins of Memorial Day

“The idea for an annual commemoration to go to the graveyard and decorate the graves came out of Columbus, Georgia,” said Gardiner.

“The Ladies Memorial Association there came up with the idea and sent letters out to dozens of cities. And those letters are still in those newspapers, in those archives.” he said.

But when the letters went out in March of 1866 some cities were confused on the date, leading to the debate of where the holiday originated.

“So for example, Columbus, Mississippi, commemorated on the 25th of April, 1866,” he said. “Whereas the Columbus, Georgia, idea was for everybody to start on the 26th, 1866. And in Newnan, Georgia, the ladies actually commemorated on April 9, 1866.”

Despite the scattered dates, the tradition continued for a few more years, eventually traveling to Northern states.

“A lot of the ladies ended up decorating graves, both of dead Confederates as well as dead Union soldiers that were buried in the same cemetery. And that kind of touched the hearts of a lot of people up north,” said Gardiner.

Word spread about the annual observations, and in 1868 John Logan, the commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, moved the date to May.

“General John Logan laid out May 30th as the day in which everyone across the country should commemorate,” Gardiner said.

More than a century later, after several states adopted that tradition, it became a federal holiday.

“So there’s a real evolution to this story, and it’s not like we can tie it to one person at one time,” Gardiner said. “There’s a whole lot of parts that come together to make this story, this narrative, fill out.”