Washington D.C.’s Logan Circle features a statue of Maj. Gen. John Alexander Logan and his horse, Slasher. As commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, Logan issued General Order No. 11, declaring May 30, 1868, as “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.”

Logan didn’t conceive of the concept of decorating the graves of the Civil War fallen, but this order, and the high esteem in which he was held by his fellow Americans, were instrumental in establishing Memorial Day as a national holiday.