DECORATION DAY, a holiday, known also as Memorial Day, observed in the northern States of the United States on May 3o, originally in honour of soldiers killed in the American Civil War, but subsequently also in honour of those who fell in later wars. Before the close of the Civil War May 3o was thus celebrated in several of the Southern States; in the North there was no fixed celebration until 1868, when (on May 5) Com mander-in-Chief John A. Logan, of the Grand Army of the Repub lic, issued a general order designating May 3o, 1868, "for the pur pose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion" ; Logan did this "with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year." In 1882 the Grand Army urged that the "proper designation of May 3o is Memorial Day"—not Decora tion Day. Rhode Island made it a legal holiday in 1874, Vermont in 1876 and New Hampshire in 18 7 7 ; and by 191 o it was a legal holiday in all the States and Territories save Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. In Virginia May 3o is observed as a Confederate Memorial Day. June 3 (the birthday of Jefferson Davis) is observed as Confederate Memorial Day in Louisiana and Tennessee; April 26, in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi; and May Io, in North Carolina and South Carolina.