Memorial Day for Bard's Hall contest

Some history and present events connected with Memorial Day.

Remembrance

The 157th observance of Memorial Day is the last Monday of May. This year the date is May 26, 2025.

The National Memorial Day Concert on PBS is scheduled for 8 P.M. Sunday May 25, 2025.

Memorial Day is a scheduled time to remember and regret, the deaths during war, of members of the USA military. The original Decoration day was begun as a day of remembrance for Union soldiers. Now encouraged remembrance is extended to all military, who died in wars, fought by USA armed forces members.

Many bodies of the dead reside in National Cemetaries across the USA. There are 171 National Cemetaries under different management across the nation. One Hundred fifty-six are managed by the Veterans Administration. The National Park service manages fourteen. The last two are managed by the Department of the Army.

The largest is Arlington National Cemetary in Arlington County. Virginia. Arlington Cemetary is one of the burial places managed by the Department of the Army. The other is The Soldiers and Airman’s Home National Cemetery in Washington D.C.

Arlington is the largest cemetary within the national system. Arlington cemetary is listed on the National Register of Historic places in the USA.

There are different sections to the cemetary. A few noted ones are for military killed in the “War on Terrorism”, Chaplin's Hill for Jewish, Protestants, and Catholic military chaplains, and another is a Spanish-American war nurses section.

There are approximately 700,000 burial sites at Arlington cemetary. People buried there are from the civil war and every war to the present time in which USA citizens participated.

The history based story of the cemetary was established, May 13, 1864. The land was previously owned by Geneal Robert E. Lee.

George Washington’s wife Martha had a son by her first marriage. Her first husband died of an infection in1757. George and Martha raised her son, as George Washington Parke Curtis.

George Washinton Parke Curtis had a daughter, Mary Anne, who married Robert E. Lee. In June of 1831. George Washington Parke Curtis was overseer of Arlington House construction. Arlington House was built by slave labor on the Lee Plantation for Mary Anne and Robert E.

When Virginia succeeded from the Union, Lee became Commander of the Army of Confederate states. When Lee joined the war, Mary was left to tend the Arlington Estate. Her well-founded fears, that the Union Army would over run the estate, caused her to abandon the home and flee to her sisters more secure location.The Union Government took advantage of the situation to keep Robert E. Lee away from the property.

A settlement, for freed slaves, was started on a part of the property by the Union government. The settlement called Freedman’s Village gave the newly freed slaves help with land to plant into crops and supplied homes and some education for them.

Back taxes were assessed for the land. When the land went up for sale, for back taxes, Mary sent a representative to pay the $92.07. However, the agent she sent was prevented from making the payment, by the Union Government.

Congress allotted money to buy land to bury soldiers killed in the Civil war. Arlington was purchased for that purpose for $26,800. Freeman’s Village became a part of a military reservation. The government permanently closed the village in 1887. The reason for closing the village was improper use of forest acreage by the residents of the village.

Eventually George Washington Curtis sued the government for the land. The lawsuit went to the Supreme Court The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Curtis. Curtis subsequently sold the land back to the government for $150.000.

Over the years more and more of the land has been used for burial. There are trees on the forested part of the tract that are 250 to 300 years old. In 2010 a mismanagement controversy, over how the land was being used, brought into focus the way environmental and preservation was being handled by managers of the cemetary. An investigation showed burial mismanagement as well as environmental problems. It seems a tricky situation between freeing up land for burials and saving ancient trees.

In 2025 President Trump’s administration caused deletions in the lists of notable graves, on the website, www,arlingtoncemetary.mil. Lists deleted were of notable graves of female service members, Hispanic, and black notable graves.

History links to the Freeman’s village have also been removed due to government pressures. However, some links still remain of politicians, sportsman, and people from other nations. The website declares that at some point all the links will return when updating of language required by government is accomplished.

The website offers historical facts that give descriptions of historical events. It also gives information about who can be buried in Arlington and other helpful information to families who have suffered loss of a family members.

An interesting new fact, on the website, talks about the horses and carriages that can now be used for special funerals or special occasions or for special occasion funerals.

The American Battlements Monuments Commission maintains 26 American military cemeteries and monuments outside the USA.

On May 30,1929, President Herbert Hoover conducted the first Memorial Day Service at the Arlington National Cemetery. It was once called Decoration Day. Since then, organizations volunteering and donating flags for each grave in National Cemetaries has become a part of Memorial Day celebrations. On Christmas, wreaths are also donated to decorate graves. A special wreath is placed on the grave of the unknown soldier on Memorial Day.

PBS has been doing a Memorial Day Concert for 35 years, The concert features well known musical artists and stories about individual heroism by armed forces individuals, during specific warfare moments.

Because it is the dawning of summer, Memorial Day is a day of picnics, fireworks and celebrations.

Thousands of deaths are represented by these grave sites. People lost and missed.

Word Count by WDC = 981