Locals pay respect to those who made the ultimate sacrifice
Published 10:54 am Sunday, May 27, 2018
Memorial Day is a time to remember all those who have fought and died for our country.
And it is in this remembering, we honor and pay respect for their service.
Additionally for Memorial Day, at the Vicksburg National Military Park, thousands of American flags are placed at the gravesites of those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
For the past three years, Rebecca Busby and her three children, Jon Daniel, Matthew and Olivia have volunteered to help place these flags at their graves.
“For me it was important to start doing it as a way to get involved in the community, and it was a way to honor those who served our country,” Busby said.
The first couple of years, Busby said her children were not as enthusiastic about placing the flags because they were younger, nine, seven and five respectively, when they started, but now that they are older, they too, enjoy placing the flags.
Jon Daniel, who is 12 years old, said, “It is really nice to go there because it is early in the morning and it is really nice outside.”
He added that placing the flags is a way he can pay respect to those who died.
“It means a lot to me because these people fought and died in the Civil War in Vicksburg, so this is a really big honor (to place the flags),” Jon Daniel said.
While placing the flags, Jon Daniel said he noticed there are many tombstones that do not have names on them.
“I looked at how many unnamed graves, so it’s not just how many fought in the war and died in this war, but how many we don’t know the identities, and their families could be living in Vicksburg and not even know it because their graves are unmarked — this hits me every year, and I think, wow!”
Busby said she found out about placing the flags from Bess Averett, who serves as the executive director of Friends of the National Military Park and Campaign, the group that promotes placing the flags.
“Volunteers meet with the (park) rangers who tell us what to do and then we break off in smaller groups and head in a different direction,” Busby said.
The groups are given flags and are then asked to cover as much ground as possible.
Averett said approximately 17,000 flags are placed at gravesites and the number of volunteers has grown each year.
“Last year, we had about 75,” Averett said.
“For me, this is a way to honor those that have served, and I hope that my children are picking up on that by participating,” Busby said.
The observance of Memorial Day originated 150 years ago, by an order issued by Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, the commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization composed of veterans of the Union Army.
VNMP Chief of Interpretation Scott Babinowich said Logan had been one of the generals who served during the Siege of Vicksburg.
Initially, Memorial Day was called Decoration Day and across the nation observers would decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers.
According to snopes.com, Logan chose May 30 as the day to remember those who died in active military service because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.
“The first large Decoration Day was observed at Arlington National Cemetery and the ceremonies centered around the mourning-draped veranda of the Arlington mansion, which once the home of Gen. Robert E. Lee,” the website states.
History.com states that as Decoration Day gradually came to be known Memorial Day, so too did it began to honor more than those that lost their lives while fighting in the Civil War.
“During World War I the U.S. found itself embroiled in another major conflict, and the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars,” history.com stated.
The website added that for decades Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30, the date Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day.
“But, in 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees.”
This change went into effect in 1971 and the same law also declared Memorial Day a federal holiday.