Picture courtesy of Jim Kuntz

On April 29, 1866, over 200 veterans and several thousand citizens gathered at Woodlawn Cemetery to honor those who had died in the Civil War. General John A. Logan delivered the keynote address, saying "every man's life belongs to his country, and no man has the right to refuse when his country calls for it." This memorial service influenced Logan, as Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, to issue G.A.R. General Order no. 11 on May 5, 1868. This order instructed his comrades to observe May 30, 1868, and successive May 30ths, as Decoration Day by "strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion."

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