On this episode of Our American Stories, formerly enslaved people in Charleston, SC, decided to honor the Union soldiers who had perished at a racecourse converted into a POW camp. Then, as Dan Welch of the Gettysburg Foundation puts it: "A procession at a gravesite, a procession with 9,000 spectators - was all but forgotten in just two years.". Here's the story of the real first Memorial Day. We'd like to thank the Gettysburg NPS for allowing us access to this wonderful audio.
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Our American Stories