Memorial Day: Remembering those who gave their all
National Cemetery Administration
U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs
https://www.cem.va.gov/
The commemoration of Decoration Day, or, as it increasingly became known, Memorial Day, continued through the late 19th and early 20th century as an informal patriotic holiday. After World War I, the event was expanded to honor those who died in all American wars. The 20th-century appearance of tablets with Logan's G.O. 11 promoted this association.
The duties of the Woman's Relief Corps (WRC), the GAR auxiliary organization chartered in 1883, eventually included collecting flowers to make wreaths and bouquets, and decorating graves of the unknowns. The WRC sought to reaffirm Logan's patriotic Memorial Day message by issuing cast-iron tablets with a bas-relief portrait of Logan above the text of his G.O. 11.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the organization donated these to states for placement in prominent locations — state houses, courthouses, and schools. In a fiftieth anniversary publication, WRC reported that by 1933 its chapters had already placed thirty-five "General Logan Bronze Tablets" across the country. More were donated after that date. The tablets are found at Wood National Cemetery, Wis., and Andersonville National Cemetery, Ga.
The U.S. Army placed its own version of the Memorial Day Act tablets at most of the national cemeteries it developed between the world wars in urban areas, including at Baltimore, Md., and Long Island, N.Y. These were among 28 tablets that Levering Brothers Inc. produced in York County, Pa. in 1939. The design replicates the dimensions and appearance of iron tablets cast with the Gettysburg Address that the Army installed in all existing national cemeteries in 1909 as a centennial project to honor President Abraham Lincoln.
The Memorial Day Act and Gettysburg Address tablets complement a handful of official issuances the Army had installed in the late 19th century to orient visitors to the origin and rules of the relatively new cemeteries. These include Civil War-era bronze shields originally placed on inverted cannon "monuments" about 1873; and in 1881-82, cast-iron tablets with the General Orders No. 80 of 1875 and the National Cemeteries Act of 1867, as well as lines of verse from the "Bivouac of the Dead."
The federal government continued to recognize Memorial Day through legislative actions. "The Congressional joint resolution approved May 11, 1950 has requested the President to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe each Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace and designating a period during each such day when the people of the United States might unite in such supplication."
A congressional resolution in 1966 officially recognized a century of Memorial Day events held on May 30 in Waterloo, N.Y., officially proclaimed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Thus the federal government declared this location as the "birthplace" of Memorial Day. Shortly after that, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, legislation enacted in 1968 — effective in 1971 — designated Memorial Day a national holiday and moved it from May 30 to the last Monday in May.
Most recently, to reiterate that the sacrifices of America's fallen heroes are never forgotten, in December 2000, the National Moment of Remembrance Act (PL 106-579) established the White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance.
The commission's message to U.S. citizenry is to give "back to their country, which provides them so much freedom and opportunity" by encouraging Memorial Day activities.
The commission also endorsed a National Moment of Remembrance at 3 p.m. local time each Memorial Day, a minute of silence for those who have died in service to the nation.