Today is Memorial Day, a day to honor those who paid the extreme sacrifice in the service of their country.
In 1918, Memorial Day services across the state were held mostly to honor the Civil War veterans who fought for the preservation of the Union. Fifty-three years had passed since the end of the Civil War, and the ranks of the Grand Army of the Republic were quickly thinning as the hands of time continued to claim the old soldiers. With their passing, the memories of the great battles gradually faded. Memorial Day had become more of a head count of Civil War veterans and a reunion for old soldiers. The uniforms would then be put back in moth balls for another year. The Spanish-American war veterans and the Ladies Auxiliary had been instrumental in preserving the holiday’s observance, but the sanctity of the day had diminished.
In 1917, Memorial Day took on new meaning as America entered the Great War, though few North Dakota boys were on foreign soil. A year later, however, the Honor Rolls were beginning to fill, with Gold Stars being placed on homes across the state – the symbol of a fallen hero. As the bands played and the orators spoke of glorious victories of the past, American troops were entering their first major offensive of the war. At the same moment that three hundred young ladies dressed in red, white and blue, marched in Grand Forks in the form of the American flag, North Dakota boys were carrying the flag on French battlefields at Cantigny and Chateau Thierry.
So, while those who gathered at the Memorial Days celebrations in 1918 honored the men of the Civil War, their minds also wandered to those missing from home who were now fighting for freedom on a global scale. The carnage on the battlefields of France had brought back the dignity and the solemn spirit of the day. Memorial Day was a day of prayer not only for those of the Civil War, but also for those fighting and dying in the “War to End All Wars.”
Dakota Datebook by Jim Davis
Sources:
The Weekly Times-Record (Valley City) June 6, 1918
Grand Forks Herald, May 30, 1918
