會員通訊：美國陣亡將士紀念日起源的索隱

新聞 06-04

會員通訊：美國陣亡將士紀念日起源的索隱

這是選·美的第340篇文章

每年五月份的最後一個星期一，是美國為紀念陣亡將士等為國捐軀者而設立的聯邦節假「國殤日」（Memorial Day，或譯「紀念日」）。在普通人眼中，這一天正值春夏之交：非官方的夏季從「國殤日」開始，到「勞工日」（Labor Day，九月份的第一個星期一）結束。

今年的「國殤日」恰遇5月30日，也是《統一星期一假日法案》（Uniform Monday Holiday Act，1968年國會通過、1971年生效）將華盛頓誕辰日、國殤日、退伍老兵日、勞工日等聯邦假日統一固定在星期一紀念（以便與周末兩天連續放假）之前，聯邦國殤日的本來時間。

國殤日的早期歷史並不十分清晰。1868年5月30日是有案可查的第一次聯邦層面的烈士紀念，但只作為軍隊內部的節日（並且只紀念北軍陣亡將士，不紀念南方叛軍死者），由John Logan將軍頒發軍令施行：

The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

但Logan將軍舉行國殤紀念的主意又是從何而來？內戰結束後的一兩年中，地方各州已經有了零零散散的國殤紀念。1966年國殤日前，國會決議及約翰遜總統宣言認定，1866年的紐約州滑鐵盧市才是「國殤日」傳統的誕生地：

By House Concurrent Resolution 587, the Eighty-ninth Congress has officially recognized that the patriotic tradition of observing Memorial Day began one hundred years ago in Waterloo, New York. In conformity with the request contained in that concurrent resolution, it is my privilege to call attention to the centennial observance of Memorial Day in Waterloo, New York, on May 30, 1966.

滑鐵盧市雖然得到官方認證，卻仍然不能平息國殤日首創權的爭議；根據美國退伍老兵事務部的統計，迄今至少仍有25個城市宣稱是自己最早舉行了國殤紀念，其中絕大多數是南方城市（並且一開始只紀念南方陣亡將士）：

Local Observances Claim To Be First Local springtime tributes to the Civil War dead already had been held in various places. One of the first occurred in Columbus, Miss., April 25, 1866, when a group of women visited a cemetery to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen in battle at Shiloh. Nearby were the graves of Union soldiers, neglected because they were the enemy. Disturbed at the sight of the bare graves, the women placed some of their flowers on those graves, as well.

Today, cities in the North and the South claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day in 1866. Both Macon and Columbus, Ga., claim the title, as well as Richmond, Va. The village of Boalsburg, Pa., claims it began there two years earlier. A stone in a Carbondale, Ill., cemetery carries the statement that the first Decoration Day ceremony took place there on April 29, 1866. Carbondale was the wartime home of Gen. Logan. Approximately 25 places have been named in connection with the origin of Memorial Day, many of them in the South where most of the war dead were buried.

Richard Gardiner和Daniel Bellware在The Genesis of the Memoral Day Holiday一書中考證認為，不管是紐約滑鐵盧，還是其它城市，其國殤紀念都可以溯源自「喬治亞州哥倫布市女士國殤協會（Ladies Memorial Association of Columbus, Georgia）」於1866年3月11日在地方報紙上呼籲（南方各州）紀念內戰烈士的一封公開信；該市欣然採納其建議，於1866年4月26日舉辦了首次烈士紀念。南方若干城市紛紛效尤，而北方也不甘落後，同時展開對北軍烈士的紀念。由於南北氣候不同，開花有早晚，因此南方多在四月底五月初紀念（迄今南方許多州還在聯邦國殤日之外另行紀念自己的「邦聯國殤日（Confederate Memorial Day）」），而北方針鋒相對的「掃墓日（Decoration Day）」往往定於五月底（直到一戰前後「掃墓日」才漸漸統一改稱「國殤日」）。到了十九世紀末，隨著各地「都市傳說」的興盛，許多城市開始回頭編造自己烈士紀念的早期史（比如當時弗吉尼亞州甚至宣稱自己早從1862年開始就在紀念烈士），真正的起源漸漸被人遺忘。

事情到此並未水落石出。「喬治亞州哥倫布市女士國殤協會」的想法，很可能出於對更早一些的烈士紀念活動的反應。研究內戰與種族關係史的耶魯大學教授David Blight發現，內戰結束後最早的烈士紀念活動，其實是由南卡羅萊納州查爾斯頓市（也就是去年種族主義槍擊案發生地）獲得解放的黑奴發起的。在內戰中，被囚禁在該市的北軍戰俘遭到殘酷虐待，死後更被胡亂掩埋。南方投降後，黑人們感念北方將士的恩德與犧牲，自發地於1865年5月1日組織起來，將亂墳之中的戰俘屍首掘出清洗後，再隆重下葬：

But for the earliest and most remarkable Memorial Day, we must return to where the war began. By the spring of 1865, after a long siege and prolonged bombardment, the beautiful port city of Charleston, S.C., lay in ruin and occupied by Union troops. Among the first soldiers to enter and march up Meeting Street singing liberation songs was the 21st United States Colored Infantry; their commander accepted the city』s official surrender.

Whites had largely abandoned the city, but thousands of blacks, mostly former slaves, had remained, and they conducted a series of commemorations to declare their sense of the meaning of the war.

The largest of these events, forgotten until I had some extraordinary luck in an archive at Harvard, took place on May 1, 1865. During the final year of the war, the Confederates had converted the city』s Washington Race Course and Jockey Club into an outdoor prison. Union captives were kept in horrible conditions in the interior of the track; at least 257 died of disease and were hastily buried in a mass grave behind the grandstand.

After the Confederate evacuation of Charleston black workmen went to the site, reburied the Union dead properly, and built a high fence around the cemetery. They whitewashed the fence and built an archway over an entrance on which they inscribed the words, 「Martyrs of the Race Course.」

The symbolic power of this Low Country planter aristocracy』s bastion was not lost on the freedpeople, who then, in cooperation with white missionaries and teachers, staged a parade of 10,000 on the track. A New York Tribune correspondent witnessed the event, describing 「a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before.」

The procession was led by 3,000 black schoolchildren carrying armloads of roses and singing the Union marching song 「John Brown』s Body.」 Several hundred black women followed with baskets of flowers, wreaths and crosses. Then came black men marching in cadence, followed by contingents of Union infantrymen. Within the cemetery enclosure a black children』s choir sang 「We』ll Rally Around the Flag,」 the 「Star-Spangled Banner」 and spirituals before a series of black ministers read from the Bible.

然而隨著南方重建的草草收場與白人至上主義者的再度掌權，南方各州開始系統性地打壓關於黑人自主性的記憶，構造了一套邦聯主義的內戰敘事取而代之：

Despite the size and some newspaper coverage of the event, its memory was suppressed by white Charlestonians in favor of their own version of the day. From 1876 on, after white Democrats took back control of South Carolina politics and the Lost Cause defined public memory and race relations, the day』s racecourse origin vanished.

Indeed, 51 years later, the president of the Ladies』 Memorial Association of Charleston received an inquiry from a United Daughters of the Confederacy official in New Orleans asking if it was true that blacks had engaged in such a burial rite in 1865; the story had apparently migrated westward in community memory. Mrs. S. C. Beckwith, leader of the association, responded tersely, 「I regret that I was unable to gather any official information in answer to this.」

南方黑人對國殤日傳統的創建，就此塵封一百多年。墨寫的謊言，終於在漫長的時間裡，掩蓋了血寫的事實。

當然，1865年查爾斯頓黑人對北軍烈士的重葬與緬懷，同樣可能有其濫觴。Alan Jobbour與Karen Jobbour夫婦在Decoration Day in the Mountains: Traditions of Cemetery Decoration in the Southern Appalachians一書中指出，美國中南部的高山地區，民間一直有春末掃墓的傳統，只不過這種民間掃墓紀念的都是親朋好友，而不是國家英烈（時至今日，從北卡羅來納到密蘇里的部分山區，仍然可以見到這種習俗）。

將私人性質的掃墓升華到公共性質的國殤紀念，性質與意義自然大為不同。2000年，柯林頓簽署了國會通過的《全國緬懷時刻法案》（National Moment of Remembrance Act），建議全國公眾在每年國殤日的下午三點，暫停手頭活動，緬懷所有為追求自由與和平而犧牲的同胞：

Today I am pleased to sign S. 3181, the 「National Moment of Remembrance Act,」 which designates 3:00 p.m. local time on Memorial Day each year as the National Moment of Remembrance, in honor of the men and women of the United States who died in the pursuit of freedom and peace.

也許將來的某一天，會在春夏之交的某個時刻集體緬懷殉國志士的，不再只有美國人民。

（責任編輯：華思睿）

參考鏈接

HEADQUARTERS GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC General Orders No.11, WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5, 1868

242 - Proclamation 3727 - Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, May 26, 1966

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=27618

Memorial Day History

http://www.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/history.asp

The Genesis of the Memorial Day Holiday

Confederate Memorial Day

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_Memorial_Day

Civil War Memory