President McKinley's Speech on Decoration Day 1900-- Part 1: Back When Confederates Were Considered Honorable

From the May 18, 2020, Tribune-Chronicle  "President McKinley gives the Antietam Address in 1900" by Mike Wilson.

President William McKinley was a resident of Niles, Ohio.  The Spanish-American War of 1898 had recently ended and many of the troops were back home with their families.  This was the first time that Northerners and Southerners had formed one military since the Civil War.

During the war, McKinley had appointed two supreme commanders of American forces, one was a former Union officer and the other a former Confederate officer.

With Decoration Day (now Memorial Day) fast approaching, McKinley wanted to bring the nation together even more to honor all of our military.  During past decoration Days, families of Union veterans and families of Confederate veterans had  decorated the graves of their fallen separately.

McKinley changed that in 1900 as he traveled to the Antietam Battlefield to give a speech.

There were two significant things about this particular battle:  one was that McKinley had fought there as a Union sergeant and been awarded for heroism, and, second, Maryland had recently  completed a large memorial at the site honoring the state veterans of both sides during the conflict.

--Old Secesh