General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic who designated May 30, 1868,
" as a day for strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of   comrades who died in defense of their country, and whose bodies now lie in  almost every city, village, or hamlet churchyard in the land...It is the purpose of  the commander-in-chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope that it will  be kept from year to year while a survivor of the war remains to honor the  memory of the departed."