Your annual reminder that Memorial Day (né Decoration Day) is the best time of the year to commemorate the men and women who put the beat down on the Confederacy and slavery.

Just as John Logan, freedmen, and other Unionists intended when they established the day in the 1860s.

John Logan's explanation for why the Grand Army of the Republic was gonna do this whole Memorial Day thing in 1868.

The sentence that breaks it down: "Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in chains, and their death a tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms."

I gave tours about the history of Memorial Day at our nation's first national cemetery, which happens to be the resting place of John Logan.

Start off with him and his 1868 order formalizing the day. It's too perfect to not do so when the man's mausoleum is literally behind you.

However, I stress then and stress now that Logan and the Grand Army of the Republic FORMALIZED the holiday in 1868

Informally it had been going on since at least 1865. The most famous example being the freedpeople holding a ceremony in Charleston's race track.

Like when you had THAT many people killed in such a short amount of time (often far from home and without formal burial), there was bound to be spontaneous local memorial days that coalesced into a national Memorial Day as the country got its bearings after the Civil War.

Anyways, I'll spare y'all anymore of the historical particulars.

I did end every tour reminding people that defending liberty is a society wide effort that fails when the responsibility is shunted off to the military with a "thank you for service" and pat on the butt.

Also, we metaphorically danced on the grave of slavery and the Confederacy.