Memorial Day - When did it start?

What are the origins of Memorial Day in the USA? The Civil War ended in the spring of 1865 and claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history. It was the underlying reason for the establishment of what is today’s Memorial Day. The Civil War required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries. Arlington House, (The Robert E. Lee Memorial, shown above) is located in Arlington National Cemetery just outside downtown Washington D.C. The land was once a 1,100 acre plantation owned by George Washington Parke Custis. His only surviving child, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, married Robert E. Lee in 1831. For thirty years prior to the Civil War, the Lee family lived at Arlington. Robert E. Lee was the Commander of the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. This is, in part, why the property was chosen to become a national cemetery and the final resting place for many Union soldiers.

Some records show that one of the earliest Memorial Day commemoration was organized by a group of freed slaves in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. However, in 1966 the U.S. federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day. Waterloo first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866 and was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags. 

Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9th, 1865 at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War, President Lincoln was assassinated a few days later on April 15, 1865 and never attended an official Memorial Day Remembrance. 

Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia