Beneath the oak and tulip poplar trees of Woodlawn Cemetery, many weathered stone monuments lay in testament of the war that threatened to rip the country apart, and the healing afterwards that inspired the solemn celebration of Memorial Day. The earliest veteran interred in the cemetery is George P. Bowyer, who fought in the Black Hawk War of 1832 and was buried there in 1857. Just a few short years after Bowyer's death, the United States would be embroiled in the Civil War. And by the time the last battle had been fought in 1865, more than 550,000 soldiers were dead.

Legend has it that two Union veterans were watching in May 1866 as a young woman and her two small children placed flowers on a small gravestone at the Crab Orchard Christian Church. They were inspired by what they saw and began gathering wildflowers from around the church and placing them on the graves of other soldiers in the cemetery.

By the following Sunday, they had organized a community memorial event at Woodlawn Cemetery in Carbondale. Townspeople marched in a solemn procession from the "Old Blue Church" on Jackson Street to Woodlawn Cemetery, where Gen. John A. Logan gave a speech.

Two years later, in 1868, after Logan had been named commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, he signed General Order No. 11, establishing May 30 as a day when fallen soldiers would be honored. The Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans from the Civil War, was in charge of Memorial Day celebrations in the northern States for years.

For the next 30 years, the United States remained at peace. Then in 1898 in the Spanish-American War, and in 1899 in the Philippine-American War, young men from across the country took up arms. In all, more than 5,500 soldiers fell during those two turn-of-the-century wars, but what lay ahead made all other wars look like minor skirmishes.

During World War I, more than 81,000 U.S. military personnel died and about 5,000 were reported missing. During World War II, the numbers more than tripled, with more than 350,000 U.S. military dead and nearly 11,000 missing.

By this time, the American Legion was officially in charge of Memorial Day celebrations in the United States. And although more than 75 years had passed since Gen. Logan signed General Order No. 11, Memorial Day remained as a day to honor those members of America's armed forces who had given their lives.

And on Monday, 135 years after that first service in Woodlawn, the faithful gathered to do the dame.

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