Confederate Memorial Day has been observed in North Carolina and throughout the South on different days and under various names since 1866. In that first year after the close of the Civil War, communities across the South hosted ceremonies at grave sites, on courthouse lawns, and at state capitols. That was the beginning of an annual tradition observed with memorial addresses by dignitaries, band concerts, the laying of wreaths and flowers, picnics, and community meals. Through the years, some southern states began to neglect this custom, but in many places it has continued.

In North Carolina 10 May, the date of the death of Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, was originally named by the members of the Wake County Ladies' Memorial Association as the day of remembrance. On that first Confederate Memorial Day, the citizens of Wake County secretly made their way to Raleigh's Oakwood Cemetery, since the Reconstruction military governor had threatened to shoot anyone who gathered for such a purpose. Nevertheless, Raleigh citizens assembled then, as they have every year since, to honor North Carolinians who wore the Confederate uniform.

To my mind as fine a tribute ever paid the soldiers of the South was written by Frank Wilkeson (a federal opponent) at the Wilderness:
"I saw many dead Confederates during this advance. They were poorly clad. Their blankets were in rolls, hanging diagonally from the left shoulder to the right side, where the ends were tied with a string or strap. Their canvass haversacks contained plenty of corn-meal and some bacon. I saw no coffee, no sugar, no hard bread in any of the Confederate knapsacks I looked into. But there was tobacco in plugs on almost all the dead Confederates. Their arms were not as good as ours. They were poorly shod. The direful poverty of the Confederacy was plainly indicated by its dead soldiers. But they fought? Yes , like men of purely American blood." The emboldned text is mine.

A state holiday here in SC as well.

On the Rock Island (IL) Arsenal is a large National Cemetery, in a separate section are the graves of about 2,000 Confederates who died while in the POW camp on RIA. Every year on Memorial Day there's a big ceremony at the National Cemetery and then a smaller one at the Confederate section.

https://www.cem.va.gov/CEM/cems/nchp/rockisland.asp

https://www.facebook.com/events/755816877961175/

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sigmund,

Yep. I'm enjoying the day off. Went shooting.

Flew my Stars and Bars today in remembrance. The actual stars and bars, not the battle flag. Also talked to my oldest son about why we remember and a couple stories about his ancestors that fought.