Residents and visitors have noticed the American flags and some Prisoner of War-Missing in Action flags along State Route 89A, installed just before Armed Force Day on May 21 and which will be up until after Memorial Day, Monday, May 30.
These were installed by the Sedona Area Veteran & Community Outreach members and their allies to help honor those who served.
While Memorial Day only became a federal holiday in 1971, it dates back to 1866, when the women of Columbus, Miss., laid flowers on the graves of Union and Confederate dead buried in the town’s Friendship Cemetery.
Columbus had been a hospital town, treating wounded soldiers. Many were brought there after the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, with the cemetery eventually containing 2,000 graves of Confederate and 150 graves of Union soldiers who did not survive.
New York poet Francis Miles Finch, who happened to be in town that day and attended the ceremony, later penned the poem “The Blue and the Grey,” which the first stanza read, “By the flow of the inland river / Whence the fleets of iron have fled / Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver / Asleep are the ranks of the dead / Under the sod and the dew / Waiting the judgment-day / Under the one, the Blue / Under the other, the Gray.”
The memorial spread across the South as Memorial Day, later Confederate Memorial Day, to differentiate it from Decoration Day, which began in the North in 1868 and honored those who died to preserve the Union during the American Civil War.
The event became more commonly practiced after World War II, when it expanded to honor those who died in the both world wars.
The date was officially named Memorial Day in 1967 and made a federal holiday by Congress in 1971.
Locally, on Saturday, May 28, American Legion Donald C. Thompson Post and Auxiliary 135 will host the 11th annual Memorial Day Observance at 11315 E. Circle Drive in Cornville, at 11 a.m.
On May 30, SAVCO, Civil Air Patrol Verde Valley Composite Squadron 205 and the Sedona Police Explores Post No. 7100 will conduct a Memorial Day service May 30, from 9 to 10 a.m. at the Sedona Military Park, located within the Jack Jameson Memorial Sculpture Park, 25 Northview Road. Former Sedona City Councilman John Currivan, who served in the U.S. Navy as a pilot and later as a judge advocate general, will speak.
The weekend preceding Memorial Day has also become the de facto kickoff to summer. Families around the state use the weekend to visit local lakes, state parks, national monuments and tourist destinations. By the last Monday in May, most of Arizona’s schools and universities have graduated their seniors and let out for summer break.
It is also a weekend known for heavy drinking and an increased number of driving under the influence arrests.
Clarkdale, Cottonwood, Jerome, Sedona and Flagstaff police, from the Camp Verde Marshal’s deputies and Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office deputies, and Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers will conduct saturation patrols specifically looking for drunk drivers.
If you plan to imbibe alcohol at barbecues, gatherings, restaurants or bars this weekend, have a designated driver or call a cab. There are numerous taxi services and car services that now operate in Sedona and Verde Valley. The price of cab is far cheaper than court fines and the installation of an interlock device should you get arrested for DUI.
Memorial Day is also a big one for barbecuing, but most of Northern Arizona and all the public lands in the Verde Valley are under fire restrictions. If you have questions, call the Sedona Fire District at (928) 282-6800.
Many of us also use Memorial Day to remember our relatives who went to war and gave the last full measure of devotion on the battlefield, or have since shuffled off this mortal coil after returning safely home as veterans. However you enjoy this weekend, on Monday, pay tribute to those who fought to give us the civic freedoms we enjoy.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
“The Blue And The Gray”
By Francis Miles Finch (1827-1907)
Published in “The Atlantic” magazine in September 1867
By the flow of the inland river,
Whence the fleets of iron have fled,
Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver,
Asleep are the ranks of the dead:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Under the one, the Blue,
Under the other, the Gray
These in the robings of glory,
Those in the gloom of defeat,
All with the battle-blood gory,
In the dusk of eternity meet:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgement-day
Under the laurel, the Blue,
Under the willow, the Gray.
From the silence of sorrowful hours
The desolate mourners go,
Lovingly laden with flowers
Alike for the friend and the foe;
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgement-day;
Under the roses, the Blue,
Under the lilies, the Gray.
So with an equal splendor,
The morning sun-rays fall,
With a touch impartially tender,
On the blossoms blooming for all:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Broidered with gold, the Blue,
Mellowed with gold, the Gray.
So, when the summer calleth,
On forest and field of grain,
With an equal murmur falleth
The cooling drip of the rain:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment -day,
Wet with the rain, the Blue
Wet with the rain, the Gray.
Sadly, but not with upbraiding,
The generous deed was done,
In the storm of the years that are fading
No braver battle was won:
Under the sod adn the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Under the blossoms, the Blue,
Under the garlands, the Gray
No more shall the war cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red;
They banish our anger forever
When they laurel the graves of our dead!
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day,
Love and tears for the Blue,
Tears and love for the Gray.
