The first DECORATION (MEMORIAL) DAY: In Charleston, South Carolina, freedmen decorate the unmarked graves of 257 compulsory Union prisoners-of-war, at the Washington Race Course, which had been turned into an open-air prison.  The freedmen built a fence around the cemetery, an arch at the entrance, and sanctified the ground as “Martyrs of the Race Course.”

       [restored 4/22/2022] Thanks to Jim Lorenz for this entry.