[1] In most states of the American Union the 30th of
May is a legal holiday called Decoration Day, the
purpose being to honor, by various means, the memory
of the soldiers who died in defence of the Union in
the great Civil War of 1861-65. More than a quarter
of a million survivors of the Union army are members
of a fraternal society called the Grand Army of the
Republic, which is divided into about seven thousand
local branches called Posts. The organization is
military in form, each post having a body of officers
with military titles and insignia. All posts carry the
national colors in their parades, and are expected to
be uniformed in close imitation of the service dress
of the army of the United States. A few posts bear
arms, and each member of the order wears a medal made
by the national government from cannon captured from
the enemy. The posts always parade on Decoration Day,
and at cemeteries where soldiers of the Union army
have been interred they read their "Ritual of the
Dead" and decorate the graves with flags and flowers.
In recent years the order has decorated the graves
of dead Confederates also, and there have been many
friendly interchanges of civilities and hospitalities
between the Grand Army of the Republic and the Southern
survivors' organization known as The United Confederate
Veterans--an order which has about fifty thousand
members.