For many, many years, even into the fifties, it was not celebrated in the South. It wasn't a school holiday nor a banking holiday. Nor did state or local government employees get the day off.
Only the in the past fifty years has Memorial Day become a truly national holiday.
Turning it into the same mutually respected date of remembrance happened as part of the campaign to put away rancor and make peace in all respects between the combatants and their families.
Actually, it was begun by women in the South who put flowers on the graves of ALL the dead, Confederate and Union. When asked by a Union officer why they did that, they said they hoped that some women in the North might be doing the same for some of the dead Confederates buried in the North. It was originally called 'Decoration Day'.
It wasn't called 'Memorial Day' until after WW I, and IIRC, wasn't made a Federal holiday until after WWII.
“Memorial Day was originally founded to celebrate the Union dead.
For many, many years, even into the fifties, it was not celebrated in the South. It wasn’t a school holiday nor a banking holiday. Nor did state or local government employees get the day off.
Only the in the past fifty years has Memorial Day become a truly national holiday.”
This is the second time tonite, the first being at church, that I’ve seen this fallacy. The southern states had their own date for decoration, they’d been doing it as long or longer than the North.