Two years after the close of the Civil War the _New York Tribune_ printed a paragraph simply stating that "the women of Columbus, Mississippi, have shown themselves impartial in their offerings made to the memory of the dead. They strewed flowers alike on the graves of the Confederate and of the National soldiers." Whereupon the North thrilled with tenderness and Francis Miles Finch was inspired to write his moving lyric "The Blue and the Gray," which has become the credo of the Festival. In a famous address, Chauncey M. Depew related the occurrence with felicity: "When the war was over in the South, where under warmer skies and with more poetic temperaments symbols and emblems are better understood than in the practical North, the widows, mothers, and the children of the Confederate dead went out and strewed their graves with flowers; at many places the women scattered them impartially also over the unknown and unmarked resting-places of the Union soldiers. As the news of this touching tribute flashed over the North it roused, as nothing else could have done, national amity and love and allayed sectional animosity and passion. Thus out of sorrows common alike to North and South comes this beautiful custom." The incident, however, produced no practical results until in May, 1868, Adjutant-General N. P. Chipman suggested to National Commander John A. Logan, of the Grand Army of the Republic, that their organization inaugurate the custom of spreading flowers on the graves of the Union soldiers at some uniform time. General Logan immediately issued an order naming the 30th day of May, 1868, "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, or hamlet churchyard in the land.... It is the purpose of the commander-in-chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of the departed." The idea spread rapidly. Legislature after legislature enacted it into law until the holiday has become a legal one in all states. In some of the southern states an earlier date is usually chosen. THE REVEILLE[F] [F] Used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers. Hark! I hear the tramp of thousands And of armed men the hum; Lo! a nation's hosts have gathered Round the quick alarming drum-- Saying "Come, Freeman, come! Ere your heritage be wasted," said the quick alarming drum. "Let me of my heart take counsel: War is not of life the sum; Who shall stay and reap the harvest When the autumn days shall come?" But the drum Echoed "Come! Death shall reap the braver harvest," said the solemn-sounding drum.