Remembering the fallen
It is Memorial Day here in the United States–the official holiday and the end of the three-day weekend during which we honor those who gave all for the cause of American freedom.
It was added to the federal holiday calendar in 1888 as Decoration Day1 and moved to the Monday holiday calendar along with Labor Day, Columbus Day and Veterans Day in 1968.2
The purpose of this day is often confused. It’s not the day to honor those who served. That’s Veteran’s Day, and that’s in November.3
No, today is the day set aside for us all to honor the men and women who died in the service of this country — those who gave all in order that we might live free.
The Legal Genealogist can identify at least five family members who gave their all in defense of freedom:
• In the Revolutionary War, Richard Baker. He was born 23 December 1753, most likely in Culpeper County, Virginia.4 So he was just 23 years old when he died, on a cold December day in 1776, a casualty of the Battle of Trenton. His death only recorded in the pension application of his brother, my fourth great grandfather David Baker.5 Unmarried. Leaving no descendants.
• In the Civil War, though most of my kin wore Confederate grey, some did not. In particular, one group of my Battles cousins from Cherokee County, Alabama, were loyal to the Union, and proudly donned Union blue, joining the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry in 1863. Isaac Battles and his cousins James, Russell and William F. Battles went off to war. Only Russell came home. Isaac, James and William F. Battles all perished, not in the war itself, but in the explosion and sinking of the steamer the Sultana in April 1865, with some 1700 or more other Union soldiers just freed from Confederate prisoner of war camps.6
• And in World War II, Philip Cottrell. My mother’s first cousin. Born 16 April 1920 to John W. Cottrell, my grandfather’s brother, and Abigail Claymore, John’s second wife. A Marine Corps pilot in training in the summer of 1943, assigned to a training squadron at the Mojave Marine Corps Air Station — a station which saw four pilots killed in training accidents between the first of August and the 7th of September in 1943.7 And the first to die in those terrible weeks.8
That’s what today is all about.
Yes, we will — as a nation — grill in the backyards, open the beaches, sit by the pools, pop open the drinks, look for the sale.
But we need to stop.
And think.
And remember the fallen.
Those whose sacrifice made the rest of it possible.
Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “Memorial Day 2024,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 27 May 2024).
Image: Black Hills National Cemetery, photo by Dave Golterman, CC BY-SA 3.0
SOURCES
- “An act making May thirtieth a holiday in the District of Columbia,” 25 Stat. 353 (23 Feb 1888). ↩
- “An Act To provide for uniform annual observances of certain legal public holidays on Mondays, and for other purposes,” 82 Stat. 250 (28 June 1968). Veteran’s Day was moved back to the 11th of November in 1975. “An Act To redesignate November 11 of each year as Veterans Day and to make such day a legal public holiday,” 89 Stat. 479 (18 Sep 1975). ↩
- See U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, “The Origins of Veterans Day,” pdf online, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (https://www.va.gov/ : accessed 27 May 2024). ↩
- John Scott Davenport, “Five-Generations Identified from the Pamunkey Family Patriarch, Namely Davis Davenport of King William County,” PDF, p. 27, in The Pamunkey Davenport Papers: The Saga of the Virginia Davenports Who Had Their Beginnings in or near Pamunkey Neck, CD-ROM (Charles Town, W.Va.: Pamunkey Davenport Family Association, 2009). ↩
- Affidavit of Soldier, 26 September 1832; Dorothy Baker, widow’s pension application no. W.1802, for service of David Baker (Corp., Capt. Thornton’s Co., 3rd Va. Reg.); Revolutionary War Pensions and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, microfilm publication M804, 2670 rolls (Washington, D.C. : National Archives and Records Service, 1974); digital images, Fold3.com (https://www.Fold3.com : accessed 27 May 2024), David Baker file, p. 4. ↩
- For Isaac, see Casualty Sheet, Compiled Military Service Record, Isaac Battles, Private, Company K, 3rd Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, Civil War; Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Tennessee, microfilm publication M395, roll 22 (Washington, D.C. : National Archives & Records Services, 1963); Fold3.com, Isaac Battles file, p. 17. For James, see ibid., James M. Battles, Private, Co. K, 3d Tenn. Cavalry; Fold3 James M. Battles file, p. 20. For William, see ibid., William F. Battles, Private, Co. K, 3d Tenn. Cavalry; Fold3 William F. Battles file, p. 20. ↩
- “Accidents Occuring 1940 – Prior,” Aircraft Wrecks in Southern California (http://www.qnet.com/~carcomm/a.htm : accessed 28 May 2017). ↩
- Crystal Bachman, “In Memory of Marine Lieutenant Philip Ellsworth Cottrell,” South Dakota WWII Memorial via Wayback Machine (https://web.archive.org/ : accessed 27 May 2024). Also, “California Death Index, 1940-1997,” entry for Philip Patrick Cottrell, 4 Aug 1943; database, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 27 May 2024); citing California Death Index, 1940-1997, California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics, Sacramento. ↩
