n the years following the bitter Civil War, a former Union general took a holiday originated by former Confederates and helped spread it across the entire country. The holiday was Memorial Day—an annual commemoration born in the former Confederate States in 1866 and adopted by the United States in 1868 as a form of “reconciliation.”
Richard Gardiner
Dr. Richard Gardiner is the program director of History Education at Columbus State University. Gardiner earned a Bachelor's degree, Magna Cum Laude, in Philosophy and History at the University of Maryland (College Park), his state teaching credentials at Princeton University, and completed a Master's Degree at Princeton Theological Seminary.
