Memorial Day in Maine
by Mary Ellen Chase
At that time, in the eighteen nineties and at
the turn of the century, New England villages
and small towns, and many outside New England as well, provided they were north of
Mason and Dixon's line, observcd this sacred
day after a carefully prescribed manner; and
ours was no exception to the rule.
In the morning all graves in the village
cemetery, which during the preceding week
had been mown and clipped by our sexton,
were decorated by the families concerned
with potted plants and with jars and vases of
flowers; and small American flags were set
upright by our town authorities on those
which marked the resting place of soldiers,
whether of the Revolutionary or the Civil
War.
At precisely two o'clock in the afternoon a
long procession marched from our own hall
on the green toward the cemetary one half
mile distant above our small, quiet harbor.
Our village band headed the line of march,
erect and spruce in gold-laced green uniforms, which upon its original formation had
been eagerly provided by local contributions.
Its few members played their fifes, cornets,
trumpets, and drums with markcd dignity,
martial music being the order bcfore the procession entered the cemetery, whcn muffled
drumbeats superseded it.
Directly behind the band rode Our one calvalry officer, Captain Augustus Stevens. He wore a broad-brimmed hat with a faded gold
cord and in his free right hand held aloft a
flashing sword. He was an imposing figure,
who each year sent a chill down my back; and
although his horse was hardly of the mettle of
those which charged at Gettysburg, he, too,
seemed to us magnificent as his hoofs sent up
whirls of dust from the country road.
Children completed the line of march
scores of children; boys in tight knce pants
and white blouses, girls in summer frocks of
gingham or percale, all awe-struck and silent.
Each child carried a bouquet of flowers
lilacs and apple blossoms if the spring was
early enough, violets and wild cherry if it was
slow in coming to place upon the graves of
our honored dead when once the procession
with a final roll of drumbeats should halt in
the cemetery and the signal should be given.
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