May 24, 2009 by David Crumm

In the May 1865, the newspaper covered what Blight argues should be credited as the nation’s first memorial day observance, held on May 1, 1865. At that time, Charleston was largely in ruins and families were eager to rebuild their lives and their city. The photos on this page are Library of Congress images from the era. Two simply show scenes of wartime devastation in the city. But the photo at right here appears to show the land where the former Confederate prison camp stood (also the site of a pre-Civil War Race Course). The photo appears to show work beginning on raising the remains in April 1865 in preparation for the new cemetery that eventually would include a wall, an archway entrance and properly buried remains.

The Daily Courier coverage of that first memorial day, May 1, 1865, was headlined …

CHARLESTON, South Carolina—The ceremonies of the dedication of the ground where are buried two hundred and fifty-seven Union soldiers, took place in the presence of an immense gathering yesterday. Fully ten thousand persons were present, mostly of the colored population.
The ground had been previously laid out, the mounds of the graves newly raised, and a fine substantial fence erected around the enclosure by twenty-four colored men, “Friends of the Martyrs,” and members of the “Patriotic Association of Colored Men.” The exercises on the ground commenced with reading a Psalm, singing a hymn, followed by a prayer. The procession was formed shortly after nine o’clock, and made a beautiful appearance, nearly every one present bearing a handsome bouquet of flowers. The colored children, about twenty-eight hundred in number, marched first over the burial ground, strewing the graves with their flowers as the passed.

    After the children came the “Patriotic Association of Colored Men,” an association formed for the purpose of assisting in the distribution of the Freedmen’s supplies. These numbered about one hundred members. “The Mutual Aid Society,” an association formed for the purpose of burying poor colored people, about two hundred strong followed next. These were followed by the citizens generally, nearly all with boquets, which were also laid upon the graves. While standing around the graves the school children sung, “The Star Spangled Banner,” “America” and “Rally Rund the Flag,” and while marching, “John Brown’s Body, &c.” The graves at the close of the procession had all the appearance of a mass of roses. Among those present at the speaker’s stand inside the enclosure, were General Hartwell, Colonel Gurney, Colonel Beecher, Rev. Mr. Lowe, Mr. James Redpath and others.

The following letter from Admiral Dahlgren was received:
    Charleston, My 1st, 1865.
Mr. James Redpath, General Superintendent of Education, &c:
Dear Sir—I am much obliged by the invitation to be present at the dedication of the ground for the interment of Union soldiers, but regret the demands of my time will prevent particularly as I expect my mail steamer to-day.
The object must have the best wishes of every lover of his country. We should never forget the gallant men who have laid down their lives for a great cause, but always keep their memory green.
I am, very truly, yours,
J.A. DAHLGREN, Rear Admiral

    On the assembling of those within the enclosure around the speaker’s stand, Mr. James Redpath briefly announced the object of the gathering and the occasion.
    The assemblage was afterwards addressed by General Hartwell, Col. Beecher, Rev. Mr. Lowe, and several colored speakers, including Samuel Dickerson, Vanderhorst, Dart R. Duncan, Peter Miller, Magrath and others, about thirty in all.
During the exercises General Hartwell’s brigade, consisting of the 54th Massachusetts, 104th and 85th, colored regiments, appeared on the ground, and were reviewed by General Hartwell. They marched four abreast around the graves and afterwards went through all the evolutions of the manual.
Outside and behind the Race Course a picnic party was present with refreshments.
The crowds dispersed, and returned to their homes about dusk.

International Workers‘ Day, also known as Workers‘ Day, Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of labourer’s and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement which occurs every year on May Day (1 May), an ancient European spring festival.

• Definition: A citizen is a person who owes allegiance to a government and is entitled to its protection. 1
• Etymology: The term originates from the Latin word “
• civitas,” meaning “city,” and has evolved to represent a member of a state or country with legal rights and responsibilities. 1
• Contextual Uses:
• Legal: Refers to a person who is a member of a state or
•  country, often with specific rights and responsibilities. 1
• Social: Can denote a person who shows loyalty to their country and is willing to defend it. 1
• Community: A citizen may also refer to a member of a community or group sharing common interests. 1
• Examples:
• “As a citizen, you have the right to vote in elections.” 1
• “All citizens must abide by the laws of the land.” 1
• Alternative Terms: Other terms like “national,”
•  “resident,” and “inhabitant” can be used to describe similar concepts. 1
• These definitions and examples illustrate the diverse meanings and applications of the word “citizen” in various contexts.

Source: Merriam-Webster, Oxford English Dictionary, finesentence.com

0030 – Jesus of Nazareth was crucified.

0313 – Licinius unified the whole of the eastern empire under his own rule.

1250 – King Louis IX of France was ransomed for one million dollars.

1527 – Henry VIII and King Francis of France signed the treaty of Westminster.

1725 – Spain withdrew from Quadruple Alliance.

1789 – George Washington took office as first elected U.S. president.

1803 – The U.S. purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million.

1812 – Louisiana admitted as the 18th U.S. state.

1849 – The republican patriot and guerrilla leader Giuseppe Garabaldi repulsed a French attack on Rome.

1864 – Work began on the Dams along the Red River. The work would allow Union General Nathaniel Banks’ troops to sail over the rapids above Alexandria, Louisiana.

1889 – George Washington’s inauguration became the first U.S. national holiday.

1900 – Hawaii was organized as an official U.S. territory.

1900 – Casey Jones was killed while trying to save the runaway train “Cannonball Express.”

1930 – The Soviet Union proposed a military alliance with France and Great Britain.

1938 – Happy Rabbit appeared in the cartoon “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” This rabbit would later evolve into Bugs Bunny.

1939 – The first railroad car equipped with fluorescent lights was put into service. The train car was known as the “General Pershing Zephyr.”

1939 – Lou Gehrig played his last game with the New York Yankees.

1940 – Belle Martell was licensed in California by state boxing officials. She was the first American woman, prizefight referee.

1943 – The British submarine HMS Seraph dropped ‘the man who never was,’ a dead man the British planted with false invasion plans, into the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain.

1945 – Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide. They had been married for one day. One week later Germany surrendered unconditionally.

1945 – Arthur Godfrey began his CBS radio morning show “Arthur Godfrey Time.” It ran until this day in 1972.

1947 – The name of Boulder Dam, in Nevada, was changed back to Hoover Dam.

1948 – The Organization of American States (OAS) held its first meeting in Bogota, Colombia. The institution’s goal was to facilitate better relations between the member nations and to help prevent the spread of communism in the Western Hemisphere.

1952 – Mr. Potato Head became the first toy to be advertised on network television.

1953 – The British West Indian colonies agreed on the formation of the British Caribbean Federation that would eventually become a self-governing unit in the British Commonwealth.

1964 – The FCC ruled that all TV receivers should be equipped to receive both VHF and UHF channels.

1968 – U.S. Marines attacked a division of North Vietnamese in the village of Dai Do.

1970 – U.S. troops invaded Cambodia to disrupt North Vietnamese Army base areas. The announcement by U.S. President Nixon led to widespread protests.

1972 – The North Vietnamese launched an invasion of the South.

1973 – U.S. President Nixon announced resignation of Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and other top aides.

1975 – Communists North Vietnamese troops entered the Independence Palace of South Vietnam in Saigon. 11 Marines lifted off of the U.S. Embassy were the last soldiers to evacuate.

1980 – Terrorists seized the Iranian Embassy in London.

1984 – U.S. President Reagan signed cultural and scientific agreements with China. He also signed a tax accord that would make it easier for American companies to operate in China.

1991 – An estimated 125,000 people were killed in a cyclone that hit Bangladesh.

1993 – CERN put the World Wide Web software in the public domain.

1993 – Monica Seles was stabbed in the back during a tennis match in Hamburg, Germany. The man called himself a fan of second- ranked Steffi Graf. He was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm and received a suspended sentence.

1998 – NATO was expanded to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The three nations were formally admitted the following April at NATO’s 50th anniversary summit.

1998 – United and Delta airlines announced their alliance that would give them control of ¹/₃ of all U.S. passenger seats.

1998 – In the U.S., Federal regulators fined a contractor $2.25 million for improper handling of oxygen canisters on ValuJet that crashed in the Florida Everglades in 1996.

2002 – Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was overwhelmingly approved for another five years as president.

2012 – One World Trade Center became the tallest structure in New York when it surpassed the height of the Empire State Building.

2015 – NASA’s Messenger spacecraft crashed into the surface of Mercury. The space probe sent back more than 270,000 pictures to earth.

on-this-day.com

POSTED BY BLACKTHEN – APRIL 29, 2021 – LATEST POSTS, SLAVERY

Of all his writings, Thomas Jefferson’s most famous and far-reaching was undoubtedly his draft of the Declaration of Independence.

Although the issue of slavery was widely debated — both the chattel slavery of Africans in America and the civil slavery that fired patriot rhetoric — it is conspicuously absent from the final version of the Declaration. Yet in his rough draft, Jefferson railed against King George III for creating and sustaining the slave trade, describing it as “a cruel war against human nature.”

Although Jefferson’s description of the slave trade was as much an indictment of the colonies as of Britain and the king, the issue that most distressed the patriots stemmed from Lord Dunmore’s 1775 proclamation that offered freedom to slaves who joined the British cause: “…he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he also obtruded them…”

When the document was presented to the Continental Congress on July 1, 1776, both northern and southern slaveholding delegates objected to its inclusion, and it was removed. The only remaining allusion to the original paragraph on slavery is the phrase “He has excited domestic Insurrections among us,” included in a list of grievances against the king.

Original Article Found At http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h33.html

Source: blackthen.com