Mississippi
Confederate Decoration Day
An event occurred in 1866 that helped to heal the wounds from the recent Civil War. A group of Columbus women met in the home Twelve Gables to plan a way to honor the war dead interred at the Odd Fellows Cemetery. More than 1,000 Confederate soldiers lay in rest, while about 40 Union graves were there, too. They had been wounded on nearby battlefields and transported to homes and churches in Columbus. It was hard to tell blue uniforms from gray in the smoke and confusion of war, and after all, they were all Americans and they needed help, too, so they were taken to make-shift hospitals near the battlefields.
The women of Columbus planned a day in April to cut flowers from their gardens to take to the cemetery for what they were calling Confederate Decoration Day. Once there, one of the women saw the neglected and over-grown Union graves, and said to her friends that the “Yankee” soldiers perhaps had wives, mothers, and sisters, too, so she placed a few flowers on the Union graves nearest her. Other ladies followed suit, and soon both Confederate and Union graves were adorned with lovely spring flowers.
Word of this generous gesture by the women patroits spread by word of mouth and finally, a brief mention in the New York Tribune. Young lawyer F.M. Finch saw the piece and was inspired to write the poem, “The Blue and the Gray.” The poem first appeared in the September, 1867, issue of the Atlantic Monthly magazine, and after a while, Confederate Decoration Day evolved into the nation’s Memorial Day.
Other towns across the South and one in Pennsylvania claim to be the site of the first Memorial Day, though according to the Library of Congress, Columbus, Mississippi, was the only town to honor both Confederate and Union soldiers. The federal soldiers were moved to Shiloh National Cemetery in 1867, though row after row of “Unknown Confederate Soldiers” still rest in peace in what is now Friendship Cemetery in Columbus, where Decoration Day is still observed late each April while the nation’s Memorial Day is a May event. Also in April, the annual Pilgrimage to antebellum homes features historic homes adorned in period finery and flowers.
In downtown Columbus – one of the state’s
top Main Street programs – is the Tennessee Williams Welcome Center at 300 Main
Street. It’s hard to miss the yellow and gray Victorian, which was once the
Episcopal rectory and the first home of the playwright Tennessee Williams.
Columbus’s native son was one of the most prolific playwrights ever, and he won
Pulitzers for two of his many acclaimed plays, A Streetcar Named Desire and
Cat
on a Hot Tin Roof.
Early each September, local volunteers present the Tennessee Williams Tribute
and Tour, a scholarly and fun event stretching over a long weekend.
The arts have a strong presence downtown, with the fine Rosenzweig Arts Center occupying a prominent corner building. Good things happen at the RAC! And each year around the first of May, the huge Market Street Festival is a major event — one of many festive events held in this river city.
