Memorial Day Tip Sheet

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, was first proclaimed on

The University of Michigan has a long history of students and faculty who have given their lives in combat for the United States. The most prominent memorial to those University men and women who have fallen is the eagle at the southwest entrance to Michigan Stadium. It was dedicated to the memory of all of those people who gave their lives and served their country through World War II. One University building is actually dedicated to fallen alumni. The building housing the Museum of Art is Alumni Memorial Hall. It was dedicated in 1910 to alumni who died in the Mexican War, Civil War and Spanish-American War. By the close of the Mexican War, the University had been open less than seven years. Its total number of students and alumni was only 103. Though the war wasn’t favored in the North, five University men fought in Mexico. Three of them were officers.

The news that the Confederate army had fired on Fort Sumter came to Ann Arbor on a Sunday. University President Henry Tappan immediately addressed the students with the results that three companies of student soldiers were at once recruited. In all, according to the unpublished memorial roster prepared under the direction of the late Prof. Isaac N. Demmon, 1,804 men served with the colors. Sixty-one are known to have been killed or died of wounds, 48 to have died of disease in service.

In the Spanish-American War, total number of men enrolled in military service equaled 576. Only five people died in combat, nine died of disease, and two were wounded. Three men served in the “Rough Riders” of Roosevelt.

One memorial dedicated specifically to the servicemen who died in the Spanish-American War is a Spanish Mortar which rests on the west side of Clements Library. Dedicated in 1899, one must leave the sidewalk to decipher the worn inscription on the small cannon. Tucked away in a corner of the garden on the east side of the Rackham Building is a Holocaust Memorial. Near the statue is a plaque commemorating Raoul Wallenberg, a 1935 U-M graduate, who as a Swedish diplomat, saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews. Taking center stage in the University’s Diag area is a large white flagpole with a small plaque at its base. It was dedicated by the Michigan Chapter of Scabbard and Blade F Company, fourth regiment, founded

Museum of ArtHenry TappanScabbard and BladeU-M News and Information ServicesUniversity of Michigan