In 1866, a group of Columbus women met in the home Twelve Gables to decide on a way to honor the Confederate war dead in the local Oddfellows Cemetery. They decided on a date to meet, walk to the cemetery and decorate the graves with flowers from their gardens. Once they arrived, one of the women began placing flowers on the graves of the few Union soldiers, too, for they also had given their lives for their beliefs. Other women followed suit, and soon, all the graves -- Confederate and Union -- had flowers.
This generous gesture was told and re-told, and finally made its way to the New York Tribune, where the short article was seen by young attorney Francis Miles Finch.
He was so moved by the generosity of the Southern ladies and their Decoration Day, he wrote the poem, "The Blue and the Gray," and it was published in the Atlantic Monthly in September 1867.
