L A Clugh, and other enterested cemetery researchers, it was in 1866 and the United States was recovering from the long and bloody Civil War. Soldiers, many ampties returning home all had stories to tell. Henry Welles, a drug store owner in Waterloo New York, heard the storiesa and had an idea; on the morning of May fifth, the townspeople placed wreaths and flowers on graves of Northern soldiers. About the same time, Retired Major General Jonathan A. Logan planed another ceremony, this time for the sodiers who survived the war. Logan led them through town to the cemetery to decorate thier comrads graves with flags. It was a happy celebration but a memorial. The townspeople called it " Decoration Day ". In Major General Logans proclomation he declared; ' THE 30TH OF MAY 1868 IS DESIGNATED FOR THE PURPOSE OF DECORATING GRAVES OF COMRADS WHO DIED DEFENDING THEIR COUNTRY AND WHO'S BODIES NOW LIE IN ALMOST EVERY TOWN VILLAGE AND HAMLET CHURCHYARD IN THE LAND. IN THIS OBSERVANCE NO FORMAL CEREMONY IS PROSCRIBED, BUT POST AND COMRADS WILL IN THEIR OWN WAY ARRANGE SUCH FITTING SERVICES AND TESTIMONIALS OF RESPECT AS CIRCUMSTANCES MAY PERMIT. The two ceremonies were joined in 1868 and Northern States commemerated on May 30th. Southern States commemerated on different days. Rifles were shot in the air as a salute to Northern Soldiers who had given their lives to keep the United States together. In 1882 the name was changed to Memorial Day and soldiers who died in previous wars were honered as well. In the Northern United States it was designated a public holiday. In 1971 along with other holidays President Richard M. Nixon declared memorial day a Federal Holiday on the last Monday in May. President Lyndon B. Johnson declared Waterloo the birthplace of Memorial Day in 1966 - one hundred years after the first commemoration. Some Southern States continue to celebrate Memorial Day on various days, I. E. June 3rd in Louisiana and Tennessee called " Confederate Memorial Day " and on May 10th in North and South Carolina's. In Washington D. C. on the Friday before the last Monday soldiers plaxce flags on the thousands of graves in Arlington Cemetery. A special unit is assigned each year to do this declaring as they place each flag... "the dead have done their job now it is time for the living to do theirs ". Thats all I have to say about the origin of Memorial Day.