Mystic Seaport will pay tribute to fallen Civil War soldiers during the Museum’s annual Decoration Day ceremony on Monday, May 26.

Known today as Memorial Day, Decoration Day was formally instituted by the U.S. Government in 1868 as a day of national remembrance of those killed during the Civil War. Decoration Day observances included tending and decorating the graves of the fallen, as well as church services, solemn processions and community suppers.

Observances will begin inside the Museum’s Fishtown Chapel with the “Roll of the Dead” at 10:30 a.m. Names of the fallen soldiers that lay in Elm Grove Cemetery, located on Greenmanville Ave. in Mystic, will be read and visitors can lay a remembrance in their honor. At 12 p.m., tolling steeple bells from the Greenmanville Church will invite visitors inside for a brief memorial service and hymns.

Following the service a uniformed color guard playing a funeral dirge and citizens of 1876 Greenmanville will lead a solemn procession to Middle Wharf for the playing of Taps and a wreath laying upon the Mystic River. A special Music of the Civil War program will be held in the bandstand on the Village Green at 1:30 p.m. The day’s observances conclude with a gathering in the Seamen’s Friend Society Reading Room where visitors can speak with the citizens of 1876 Greenmanville about their memories of the Civil War.

Wreath laying upon the Mystic River during Mystic Seaport’s Decoration Day ceremony.