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Reflecting this weekend on the vast sacrifices the people of our military have made for our liberty, one is naturally left with a sense of awe and gratitude. It’s not a new feeling. Long before it was called Memorial Day, there was a duty to remember and honor. In 1978 Joann Stevens wrote in the Washington Post: The area where the Lincoln Memorial now stands was a vast, wildlife-inhabited stream called Tiber Creek and the U.S. Treasury remained only half completed when Gen. John A Logan, commander of the Grand
Army of the Republic, directed Union veterans to carry out Order No.11. The order reached GAR headquaters at 446 14th St. on May 5, 1868: “The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies lie in almost every city, village and hamlet church yard in the land.” When Logan ordered what he viewed as an ancient and beautiful rite of respect for the dead, little did he dream that Decoration Day, now known as Memorial Day, would become one of America’s most cherished traditions.
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