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Founder of Decoration Day, April 26, 1865
 

                                                                                                                                            - Susan Adams, April 26, 1865

On the eve of April 25, 1865, Susan Hutchinson Adams (1835-1911) summoned the ladies and young girls of Jackson, Mississippi to meet the next day at the Greenwood Cemetery to spread flowers on the graves of fallen soldiers. The next day, April 26, as flowers were being placed on the graves, she saw that the graves of Union soldiers did not have flowers on them so she urged her lady friends to garland them anyway. Thus begin the custom of decorating the graves of fallen soldiers, regardless of which side of the battles they fought. The custom later became known as Decoration Day and earned official recognition. In 1882 it was renamed Memorial Day.2 

Mrs. Vaughan is buried next to her sister Sallie Adams (1839-1903) in the Mount Olivet United Methodist Church in Arlington, Virginia. She was born Susan Hutchinson Adams, in the town of St. Charles, in St. Charles County, Missouri, on October 12, 1835.3   However, Susan’s nephew, Herbert S. Jones, in his book Decision at Shiloh, states her middle name as Landon. He cites reputable genealogical references.4 

Some accounts5 say that she was married to a Confederate Officer during the Civil War, but this cannot be verified. It is known that on August 14, 1876, she married Judge Cornelius Lewis Neville Vaughan (1821-1893) in Sacramento, CA. There is no credible evidence that she was married more than the one time, and she has generally been referred to as Susan Landon Vaughan.

The spelling of her married name has been subject to error. Mrs. Faye Webb, grandniece of Mrs. Vaughan, wrote a brief history of her great aunt for the Internet web site Notable Women Ancestors (Heroines). The text of the article spells her married name correctly (Vaughan) but the article heading, probably supplied by the web site authors, incorrectly spells it Vaughn.

She and her sister Sallie Adams were the daughters of John Adams and Margaret Ann Gill. John Adams was from Lexington, Virginia and Margaret’s family was from Culpeper County, Virginia. Margaret Gill was born in Danville, Boyle County, KY. It has been said that this line of Adams are descendents of President John Quincy Adams, but that has yet to be verified. She began the custom of decorating the graves of Civil War soldiers, Union and Confederate, while living in Jackson, Mississippi.

Ms. Adams studied at Fielding Institute, Lindenwood College and Fulton Female Institute, later to become Fulton Synodical College, from which, in 1886, she received an honorary degree in Mistress of LHD. She later became a teacher and writer. During the Civil War, she was a Confederate nurse, Rebel spy and land blockade-runner. She carried medical supplies from St. Louis to Vicksburg in a carpetbag on the boats that operated on the Mississippi River. Posing as a missionary, she entered Union lines innumerable times, supposedly to minister to the needs of the troops. She jotted in her mind all the military information she could obtain.6  On August 14, 1876, she married Judge Cornelius Lewis Neville Vaughan in Sacramento, CA. Judge Vaughan died April 18, 1893. Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Mrs. Vaughan moved to Ballston, Alexandria County (later Arlington County), Virginia. She lived with her sister Sallie Adams next door to the Shreve family on Wilson Boulevard at what is now Abingdon Street. She befriended Marie Shreve, who later married Frank L. Ball Sr. The Ball and Shreve families were very active in the Mount Olivet Methodist Protestant Church.

On April 26, 1865, in Greenwood Cemetery, in Jackson Mississippi, among the many Southern and Northern soldiers’ graves, Ms. Adams, directing her attention to the undecorated graves of the Northern soldiers declared “I will garland them with pink roses for the mothers and sisters sobbed prayers as they marched away.”

Careful historians consider this act to be the first of similar acts that later grew into our present Memorial Day. On the Mississippi Capitol grounds there is a sixty-five foot tall Mississippi Confederate State Monument. Inscribed inside the Monument is testimony to Sue Landon Vaughan's initiation of Decoration Day. The inscription reads,
 

                                 "It reeks not where their bodies lie.
                                  By bloody hillside, plains or river.
                       Their names are bright on fames proud sky,
                                 Their deeds of valor live forever."
                                                ------------------------
                                                 Decoration Day
                                Originated in Jackson, Mississippi
                                                April 26th 1865
                                         By Sue Landon Vaughn

It would be in 1868 that Union General John A. Logan (1826-1886) issued his famous General Order No. 11 directing all Grand Army of the Republic Divisions (individual state organizations) that May 30, 1868 be designated “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defence [sic] of their country during the late rebellion”.

His order was replete with derogatory references to the southern troops and southerners in general. On that day in Arlington Cemetery, Union veterans stood armed guard over the graves of Southern soldiers to ensure flowers would not be placed there.7 

It is clear that prior to May 30, 1868, both Southern and Northern families decorated the graves of their Civil War fallen. In some instances this became a town sponsored event – again in both the North and South. Many towns dispute which one “first started” Decoration or Memorial Day. It is generally accepted that Waterloo, New York was the first community to officially organize a day of remembrance for their fallen soldiers.

In 1865, Henry C. Welles (1821-1868), a druggist in the village of Waterloo, NY, mentioned at a social gathering that honor should be shown to the patriotic dead of the Civil War by decorating their graves.

In the Spring of 1866, he again mentioned this subject to General John B. Murray (1822-1884), Seneca County Clerk and Civil War veteran. General Murray embraced the idea and a committee was formed to plan a day devoted to honoring the dead.

Townspeople adopted the idea wholeheartedly. Wreaths, crosses and bouquets were made for each veteran's grave. The village was decorated with flags at half mast and draped with evergreen boughs and mourning black streamers.
On May 5, 1866, civic societies joined the procession to the three existing cemeteries and were led by veterans marching to martial music. At each cemetery there were impressive and lengthy services including speeches by General Murray and a local clergyman. The ceremonies were repeated on May 5, 1867.8 

Congressional House Concurrent Resolution 587 on February 10, 1966 recognized the village of Waterloo, New York's celebration on May 5, 1866 as the "first observance of Memorial Day as a national holiday to pay tribute to those who gave their lives in all our Nation's wars" and also recognized Waterloo, New York, as the birthplace of Memorial Day.

It would not be until June 5, 1904 that Confederate soldiers resting in Arlington Cemetery would be officially recognized in a ceremony. This would be some forty years after Sue Landon Vaughan appealed to the daughters of the "Southland" in Jackson, Mississippi to meet with her to place flowers on the graves of the fallen soldiers in Greenwood Cemetery. And on April 26, 1865 she included the fallen Union soldiers in this act of compassion.

She died July 22, 1911 at the Masonic and Eastern Star Home in the District of Columbia9. Mrs. Vaughan is buried next to her sister Sallie Adams in the “ADAMS” burial plot in the Mount Olivet United Methodist Church cemetery. Her sister Sallie had died eight years earlier.

     

The founding of Memorial Day has many claimants, but there can be no doubt that on April 26, 1865, Sue Landon Vaughan, in decorating the graves of both Union and Rebel soldiers, epitomized the feelings and thoughts we now have on Memorial Day.


Hank Hulme, Historian