Less than a month after the end of the Civil War in April 1865, a group of former slaves in Charleston, SC, held a commemoration for the dead soldiers. Within the next few years, more communities began to organize remembrance activities.

On May 5, 1866, General John A. Logan, leader of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization composed of veterans of the Civil War, called for a nationwide day of remembrance. Usually, spring blooming flowers and evergreens were placed on the graves of the fallen. Parades and oratory were added to the activities over time in various communities. General Logan selected May 30^th because there had been no battles fought on that date during the war between the states.

The ceremony on the first Decoration Day in 1866 was held at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, DC. General James Garfield gave the oration of the day. He would later be assassinated after he had been elected President. Some 5,000 people decorated the 20,000 graves in the burial ground.

In Galesburg, the Grand Army Post was organized in 1867. The men began planning the Decoration Day parade and ceremonial activities several months in advance. They announced in the newspaper that they didn’t want any baseball games being played to take attention away from the solemn day. The parade, composed of dignitaries, bands and the old soldiers, usually began on Main Street at Seminary Street and marched to Hope Cemetery.

There are veterans of seven American wars buried in Hope Cemetery. There is one soldier from the Revolutionary War, nine from the War of 1812, three from the Mexican War, more than 180 from the Civil War, twenty-one from the Spanish-American War (the one in which Carl Sandburg participated), twenty-one from World War I and six from World War II. There are fourteen unknown Civil War soldiers in one row. They were taken from a train traveling to Chicago for hospital care of the wounded.

Hope Cemetery, established 1836.
Photo Courtesy of Rex Cherrington