About this ‘Confederate’ Memorial Day By Vince Wheeler May. 21, 2014 Maybe I missed the notices. But May 10 — remembered by some in North Carolina as Confederate Memorial Day — came and went this year with little or no fanfare, at least of which I was aware. And that is OK with me. Confederate Memorial Day used to be a pretty big deal in North Carolina. In the late 1860s not long after the U.S. Civil War, veterans who served in the Confederate armies, their families and friends across the South, began observing the day to remember Southern troops who died in the war with the North, which raged from April 1861 to April 1865. In the Tarheel State, May 10 was set aside for the holiday. The date was observed by state government and various Civil War remembrance groups with parades and speeches and tales of heroic exploits by Southerners during that critical, but tragic, period in the evolution of America. The date continued as an official N.C. holiday into the late 1960s or early 1970s. Interest in and observance of Confederate Memorial Day seems to have waned over the past 20 to 30 years, except maybe for an occasional program at a state historic site. But that declining interest in Confederate Memorial Day is no concern to me — I’ve been saying for years that no separate day to remember the Civil War’s Confederate dead is needed. I say this weekend’s observance of the national Memorial Day holiday, when we remember Americans who died during this nation’s wars, includes those Southern soldiers who fell during the Civil War. Southerners who died during the war were Americans, too, ya know. This Memorial Day, I especially will think about my great-great grandfather, Westbrook Tart of Harnett County. He died of smallpox 150 years ago this past March, while serving in the 10th N.C. Heavy Artillery near present-day Southport. However, I also will remember the nearly 1.5 million Americans who have died in wars throughout our nation’s history. No matter how you may view politically the wars in which we’ve been involved, these men and women answered the call to service — and they made the supreme sacrifice. For that, we, as a nation are eternally grateful.
Posted on: Thu, 22 May 2014 06:41:51 +0000
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