Showing respect for those who fought, even when they fought and killed those on your side is hard – and necessary.
When a women’s memorial association in Columbus, Mississippi, decorated the graves of both Confederate and Union soldiers on April 25, 1866, this act of generosity and reconciliation prompted an editorial piece, published by Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune, and a poem by Francis Miles Finch, “The Blue and the Grey,” published in the Atlantic Monthly. The practice of strewing flowers on soldiers’ graves soon became popular throughout the reunited nation.
In honoring the memory of all those who sacrificed their lives and limbs in the Civil War, and in all wars since, let us remember the spirit of mutual respect shown by memorial association in Columbus, Mississippi.
Photo credit: Senior Airman Robert Dantzler, USAF.
