Have you ever been to Decoration Day?

The holiday has a long history in Lawrence County. Newspaper records indicate that it may have first been formally observed here in 1871 (although probably earlier) as a day set aside to decorate the graves of military casualties–specifically, casualties of the Civil War.

The immense human cost of the Civil War gave rise to the holiday. Because so many had died during the war, there was a common desire nationwide to honor that sacrifice by caring for and decorating their graves with flowers at a specified time each spring.

During those first Decoration Days after the Civil War, Lawrence Countians would have lain flowers on the tombs of men like Lieutenant Berry Evans, who is buried in the Old City Cemetery on Waterloo Street in Lawrenceburg. Evans, who was an officer in the Confederate unit known locally as the ‘Lawrenceburg Invincibles,’ was one of Lawrence County’s first Civil War fatalities. As his tombstone records, the popular young lieutenant was killed in training at Camp Trousdale in the summer of 1861 when a weapon accidentally discharged.

In those early days, Decoration Day was always celebrated on May 30. And, as time passed, the scope of the holiday broadened to include the decoration of the graves of men who had died in military service after the Civil War. In fact, a 1906 issue of the Lawrence ‘Democrat’ records that “no memorial day…has ever come around…when a better state of feeling has existed between the North and the South, and between the men who fought in the war, than now.”

The holiday became more commonly known as Memorial Day after World War II. In 1968, Congress set the date of the holiday to the last Monday in May. However, many local churches still observe Decoration Day sometime in the month of May as a time to remove old flowers and add new ones to the graves of loved ones in adjoining cemeteries.