While accounts of the official origins of Memorial Day differ, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, on May 5, 1868, just three years after the Civil War ended, Major General John A. Logan announced that the U.S. needed a national day of remembrance for soldiers who had bravely given their lives in honor of their country. After dubbing it Decoration Day, Logan declared that the holiday was to be observed every year on May 30 as a time for the nation to … CONTINUE READING |