First Memorial Day
Hampton Park was once home to the Washington Race Course and Jockey Club. In 1864 this site became an outdoor prison for Union soldiers. Before Charleston fell in Feb. 1865, more than 250 prisoners died and were buried in mass graves. After Confederate evacuation, black ministers and northern missionaries led an effort to reinter bodies and build a fence around a newly established cemetery. Over the entrance workmen inscribed the words “Martyrs of the Racecourse.”
On May 1, 1865 a parade to honor the Union war dead took place here. The event marked the earliest celebration of what became known as “Memorial Day.” The crowd numbered in the thousands, with African American school children from newly formed Freedmen’s Schools leading the parade. They were followed by church leaders, Freedpeople, Unionists, and members of the 54th Mass., 34th, and 104th U.S. Colored Infantries. The dead were later reinterred in Beaufort.
Where it stands. Hampton Park, at parking lot near Mary Murray Dr., Charleston, Charleston