Memorial Day: A Memorial For Those Who Died
Prepared by: Kim Cox
For most of us, Memorial Day means a day off work, a holiday. And for me, it used to mean a day off of work while the kids were in school. But the true reason to celebrate this day is to honor those who died in wars to protect us, our homeland and our rights.
I’ll first tell you a little background about Memorial Day. Originally called Decoration Day, the Memorial Day holiday was first proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan in his General Order No. 11. This day was first observed on May 30, 1868. Flowers were placed on the graves of Civil War soldiers who had died for both the Union and Confederate armies. Until after World War I, the South refused to recognize Decoration Day and honored their dead on separate days. Today it is now celebrated in almost every state on the last Monday in May.
Flags are used to decorate graves and should be flown half-staff until noon during Memorial Day.
New York City has quite a number of World War I memorials. Reasons for this vary from many feelings about the war—idealism, patriotism and/or sorrow. New Yorkers had two hometown regiments in the middle of the fighting, the “Fighting 69th” and the “Harlem Hellfighters.”
These memorials can be found hanging high on the sides of public buildings in downtown Manhattan and at remote street crossings in Queens and Brooklyn. Where some have become part of their community, others are hidden and forgotten.
Most of New York City’s memorials had been put up by the local regimental armories. A group of mothers whose sons had been killed in the war, “The Gold Star Mothers,” donated a statue of a doughboy. It stands in Park Slope, Brooklyn in front of the 14th New York regiment armory. Today a wreath is laid on the statue during a Memorial ceremony led by the community and a veterans group.
In front of the Health Department in Chelsea, lower Manhattan stands a typical World War I monument of bronze and heroic with a bayonet flourished. This statue is dedicated to the “Soldiers and Sailors”, but the dates on the statue, cover the period before the United States entered the war. Though this could be to cover the period of neutrality when many died from German ship sinkings.
The clock in the tower of Pier A, Battery Park, lower Manhattan, dedicated in 1919 was the first World War I memorial in the United States. Now the tower can only be viewed from a distance due to the decline in port traffic, causing the pier to be closed to the public.
The 7th Regiment memorial on Central Park and East 67th Street is similar to the Chelsea statue and is a block away from their armory.
Unlike the armory statues, Brooklyn’s official war memorial (produced in 1921 in Prospect Park), is sort of cabalistic and lugubrious. There’s an angelic figure supporting, protecting or drawing in a weary soldier. Behind the angel are the names of the borough’s war dead on long panels. The inscription at the bottom reads that they died for “the cause of universal peace.” Although there was only one woman listed, it was dedicated to the men and women who died in conflict.
On the edge of Forest Park in Queens, the Richmond Hill statue wasn’t put up by the city or an armory, but by the community of Richmond Hill. It’s inscription talks about wars fought with noble self-sacrifice and determination.
Then there are probably more than a hundred plaques of testaments to the soldiers of times gone by. Across the front of one of these is P.S. 134 plaque, on 18th Avenue in Brooklyn. This plaque has a quote from the Gettysburg address with a suppressed design and mostly English and Irish names.
Dedicated to the Merchant Marines is a plaque garnished with a quote from President Warren G. Harding, “These men rendered one of the greatest services that could have been done for our nation and civilization’s cause. Hundreds of precious lives were lost—a loss that can never be made up by their country.” The plaque was attached to the Customs House in 1921, where all ship passengers had to pass. But due to a recline in traffic, as with the Pier A in Battery Park caused the building to be changed to the National Museum of the American Indian.
The John Purroy Mitchel plaque, near 95th Street in Central Park is extremely noticeable and is passed by joggers on their daily run. Who is John Purroy Mitchel you might ask? In 1913, at the age of twenty-five, he was elected mayor of New York City—youngest person to hold that office and thereby nicknamed, “the Boy Mayor.” In 1917 he lost the election and volunteered for the Army Air Corps. He was killed while in training in 1918, seemingly from falling out of his plane.
Recognition of soldiers were also done with street names. Michell Place in Manhattan was name after John Purroy Mitchell. Avenue A was name York Avenue after Sergeant York in 1928. The “Fighting 69th” were the most celebrated of the city’s regiments. This was primarily an Irish regiment from Manhattan. Father Duffy’s (a chaplain) statue adorns Times Square. Two New York City boroughs named street lineaments after Sergeant Joyce Kilmer who was in fact from New Jersey. One that sits alongside the courthouse is the Bronx’s Joyce Kilmer Park and the second is a shopping district along King’s Highway, Brooklyn’s Joyce Kilmer Square. Henshaw and Staff streets in upper Manhattan and Finn Square in Tribeca, lower Manhattan (not marked now) were other streets named after soldiers.
In conclusion, I feel these are wonderful tributes to the men who died to save us from sure devastation had the course of events been different. So lets remember on this coming Memorial Day to say a prayer of thanks for the Veteran’s of World War I and those of other wars that were fought for our country.
Sources:
Memorial Day Flag Etiquette
http://funnelweb.utcc.utk.edu/~dmdragon/flagetiq.html
Memorial Day History
http://funnelweb.utcc.utk.edu/background.html
Trenches on the Web—Special Survey of New York
WWI Monuments/Memorials by Laura Canon
http://www.worldwar1.com/sfnycm.htm
