The High Cost of Forgetting | Opinion Allen West , Former U.S. Representative On 5/31/21 at 7:00 AM EDT Memorial Day, first called Decoration Day, began as a response to the carnage of the Civil War. After the war ended in the spring of 1865, Americans began holding springtime tributes by reciting prayers and decorating with flowers the graves of countless fallen soldiers. It was a way to remember those who had given, as President Abraham Lincoln beautifully said, "the last full measure of devotion" to defend their nation. Three years later, Major General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued an order to set aside a unique day for Americans to place flowers on the graves of war heroes, and on May 30 of that year, the first Decoration Day was held at Arlington Cemetery.