Three years after the Civil War ended, an organization of Union veterans established Decoration Day on May 5, 1868, as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. In 1971 an act of Congress went into effect changing the name to Memorial Day. It became a federal holiday to honor those lost in every major conflict. These four 1860c rifles were used in the Civil War and donated to the Botetourt History Museum by Liz Deisher. They were used by her great-grandfather, James Quincy Deisher, who traveled from Ohio to his home in Eagle Rock during the War Between the States. They are a part of the present museum exhibit titled “The Figgats’ Fincastle-Life in Botetourt in the 1800s.”
~ Botetourt County Museum of History & Culture
