Miscellaneous
HISTORIC SOUTH
Friendship Cemetery, in Columbus MS, was the site of one of
the first recorded observances of Memorial Day. It is reported that in
late April 1866, a group of Columbus women went to the cemetery to honor those
who died at the Battle of Shiloh. The women were impartial in honoring
the dead. They placed flowers on the graves of both the Confederate and
Union soldiers. Their action is said to have inspired Francis Miles
Finch's poem
"The Blue and the Gray".
Submitted by Christine Walters
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