Gary L. Knepp
Soon after the end of the Civil War, 10,000 of Charleston, South Carolina’s black citizens gathered at the city’s race course to participate in an extraordinary act of gratitude and remembrance.
The remains of 257 Union soldiers- known locally as “the martyrs of the race course”- were buried in the grassy field next to the stands. The mourners erected a fence to mark the sacred space, tidied up the grounds and placed crosses and flowers at each grave. And so Decoration Day was born.
Major General John Logan, commander of the Union veteran organization known as the Grand Army of the Republic, successfully requested Congress to select May 30 as Decoration Day because the date did not fall on an anniversary of a Civil War battle. Former general and future president James Garfield delivered remarks on May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetery dedicating the day: “For love of country they accepted death… and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue.” Upon the conclusion of the formal ceremony, 5,000 attendees decorated the graves of 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers. Gradually, the holiday became known as Memorial Day.
Clermont County has a strong tradition of military service. As many as 5,000 Clermonters served during the Civil War, dozens of whom died. Prominent among the deceased was Colonel John Lowe. Lowe was an attorney, former mayor of Batavia and a Mexican War veteran. He was appointed to command the 12th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
Col. Lowe was falsely accused of cowardice at the Battle of Scary Creek in July of 1861. He was mortified, believing that his reputation was forever stained. He became obsessed with dying a hero’s death. Lowe wrote this eerie poem to his wife in late summer.
My day of life is over.
And here I lay me down
In the hot, red, field of battle.
In the arms of high renown.
By the shaft of death I’m stricken
In my upward flight to fame,
And I give my life to nothingness
To win a warrior’s name.
Several weeks later Lowe was at the head of his troops at the Battle of Carnifex Ferry. He drew his sword and charged his men to advance. A canister ball struck his forehead. He was the first officer of his rank in the state of Ohio to be killed in action.
By the turn of the 20th century, the ranks of the Civil War generation had begun to thin. Lt. General Henry Corbin of Monroe Township addressed his fellow Clermonters on Decoration Day 1909 at Batavia’s Citizen’s Cemetery.
He noted that his fallen comrades:
made a free offering of their all-their lives- that their country might live. Their valor belongs to the nation and their memories will be cherished so long as the nation lives. It was their blood that freed the slave and welded the states into a lasting Union. This and kindred sentiment brings the most of you here today. Others of us came in that spirit we call comradeship. To we old soldiers, this word means more than any other in our language. It is a token of a relationship so close, so tender, so uplifting that only those of us who have shared the hardships and privations of service in War can fully grasp.
On this Memorial Day, let’s revive the old tradition. Let’s go to a cemetery and place flowers on the grave of a fallen hero. It’s the least we can do. *( This is the motto of the American Battle Monuments Commission whose task it is to tend to the more than 200,000 graves of American service members buried overseas.)