Memorial Day, then called “Decoration Day,” was begun in a variety of places at the end of the Civil War to memorialize the dead of the conflict. By 1872, just seven years after Appomattox, it was widely celebrated in the North on May 30. There were great commemorative activities planned for the day in New York City, but a torrential downpour dampened the day and some events were cancelled or postponed. Still, a parade set out from Union Square in Manhattan, with many of the marchers taking the ferry to Brooklyn and eventually marching to the Union cemetery in Cyprus Hills in what is now Queens. Irish Brigade veterans assembled in Calvary Catholic Cemetery near Cyprus Hills to conduct ceremonies near the graves of their soldiers. Here is how the New York Herald covered the rainy day’s events in its May 31, 1872 issue:
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