The Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) was a voluntary, fraternal association of men who served in the Union Army, Navy, or Marine Corps between the years 1861 and 1865, and were honorably discharged from service. Major Benjamin F. Stephenson founded the G.A.R. on April 6, 1866 in Decatur, Illinois when he took the title of department commander and issued the first charter. Wisconsin was the second state to organize a G.A.R. department.
The G.A.R. objectives as outlined by founders, Major Stephenson and Reverend W. J. Rutledge, were: 1) “to preserve and strengthen those kind and fraternal feelings which bind together the soldiers, sailors, and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion, and to perpetuate the memory and history of the dead.” 2) “To assist such former comrades in arms as need help and protection, and to extend needful aid to the widows and orphans of those who have fallen.” 3) “To maintain true allegiance to the United States of America, based upon a paramount respect for and fidelity to the National Constitution and laws, and to discountenance whatever tends to weaken loyalty, incites to insurrection, treason or rebellion, or in any manner impairs the efficiency and permanency of our free institutions; and to encourage the spread of universal liberty, equal rights, and justice to all men.”
The G.A.R. was organized at both the state and national level. Each participating state was considered a department, which was divided into local posts. The local posts were numbered and named. No two posts within a state could share a name. Each department held an annual encampment, which often included camping out, formal dinners, entertainment, and memorial events. The G.A.R. annually held a national encampment in a different city each year; several were held in Wisconsin. Although the G.A.R. continued until the last member died in 1956, the final encampment was held in 1949.
From 1866 to 1873, the G.A.R. was primarily a political organization. Although the founders abolished all political discussion, G.A.R. members clearly became a political force. The G.A.R. aligned itself with a Republican political ideology. Members favored the Republican's harsher reconstruction policies and appreciated the pensions the Republican's believed should be used to repay the “debt of gratitude” the country owed its veterans. In fact, membership in the G.A.R. was almost a prerequisite to running for many public offices. For a time, it was impossible to be nominated on the Republican ticket without a G.A.R. endorsement. Five G.A.R. members were elected President of the United States and it was often said the Grand Army of the Republic controlled every office in the northern states from “dog catcher to President.”
In Wisconsin, Republican leaders became active in promoting the G.A.R. and in attracting veterans to the radical Republican ideals. Lucius Fairchild, who lost his left arm at Gettysburg, organized the first G.A.R. post in Wisconsin. Fairchild went on to become Wisconsin's first three-term governor and the first of seven Civil War veterans to govern the state, from 1865 to 1901. Robert M. La Follette ended forty-six years of veteran governors when he took office in 1901.
Civil War veterans were encouraged to form political voting blocks by soldier politicians and Republicans. The G.A.R. was a voting block and veterans were urged to join so they could prevent another Southern rebellion, and save the nation from ruin at the hands of ex-confederates, the KKK, and their allies in the Democratic Party. Campaigns emphasizing these ideas were known as “waving the bloody shirt” and they served to rekindle Civil War animosities in order to solidify political support. The “bloody shirt” campaigns were most prevalent immediately after the war. The oratory declined in the 1870s, though revived during the presidential election of 1888.
Wisconsin soldier politicians Lucius Fairchild and Jeremiah M. Rusk, both three term governors, espoused bloody shirt politics when it suited their purposes. Fairchild encouraged voters to cast their ballots in favor of the “loyal blue” rather then the “traitor gray.” Encouraging G.A.R. members to “vote the way you shot” furthered partisan ideology.
A major initiative of the G.A.R. was the establishment of a holiday to remember Civil War dead. In 1868, Commander-in Chief John A. Logan issued General Order No. 11, designating May 30th as Decoration Day. The name of the holiday was changed to Memorial Day in 1882. All posts observed Memorial Day. Activities for the day included decorating graves, speeches, and songs. Some claimed that a day set aside to remember the war dead served no purpose, would increase sectionalism, or was initiated for partisan purposes. Memorial Day raised public recognition of the G.A.R. and became an important yearly activity sponsored by the posts.
From the early 1870s to the gradual decline in the early twentieth century, the attention of the G.A.R. shifted from politics toward social policies and activities for veterans. Despite the shift, G.A.R. influence in political matters did not diminish. The shift coincided with severe financial depression in 1873 and decrease in political fervor generated by Reconstruction. Veterans and other citizens concentrated their attention on making a living and G.A.R. membership dwindled. In 1868, membership was 240,000. However due to depression and internal strife, membership declined to 27,100 in 1873. During the decline, departments disbanded and many posts returned their charters. Only a few posts remained active. With the change to a social policies and activities, membership climbed until it reached 409,489 in 1890.
As debate over reconstruction diminished, the G.A.R. promoted social and charitable activities. The G.A.R. sponsored “camp fires” and dances, encouraged regimental reunions, and created auxiliary organizations for the wives and children of veterans. Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Woman's Relief Corps (WRC), Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, and Daughters of Unions Veterans of the Civil War were all officially endorsed as “Allied Orders.” These activities and allied orders brought new membership to the G.A.R.
Events, auxiliary organizations, and designation of Memorial Day all added to the public awareness and appeal of the G.A.R. bringing it and Civil War veterans again to the forefront. These changes led to more members, thus increasing their voting block. During the late 1870s the G.A.R. began hosting state and national veteran reunions. This type of reunion grew in scale and popularity attracting thousands of spectators. For example, the 1880 Grand Reunion in Milwaukee attracted 150,000 visitors.
Renewed attention to veterans and veteran concerns was reflected by the 1879 passage of the Arrears Pension Act. The act provided pension money for soldiers from their discharge date, allowing soldiers and widows to collect a lump sum payment for the years before their pension claim was approved. The demand for pension increased with the Arrears Act and between 1884 and 1887 numerous pension bills were proposed. This culminated in the Dependent Pension Act of 1890. The act granted pension to every honorably discharged soldier with ninety days of service who suffered from any incapacitating disability without reG.A.R.d to financial situation or how incurred. The pension bills and political controversy they caused demonstrated G.A.R. political influence and the power veteran groups could wield over legislation.
Similarly, this interest in veterans manifested itself in the development of homes for impoverished veterans. The Wisconsin Veterans Home at King was a local example of this trend. Organized in 1887, the King facility became known as the Grand Army Home. There, ex-soldiers and their wives dwelled in cottages situated along the bank of a lake.
In the late 1880s and early 1890s, the G.A.R. raised funds for an Easel-Shaped Monument. The monument was designed by J. W. Carnahan and used sculpture and carved pictures to depict the Civil War. Money was raised by selling prints of the monument with personalized information about the purchaser inserted. The location of the monument was to be in the city or state where the most prints were purchased. However, the monument was not built.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the G.A.R. began work on a new “educational mission.” This mission began, in a large part, in Wisconsin. In 1886, a Wisconsin post created a committee to examine a textbook used by state schools. The committee found the book “unreliable.” Lucius Fairchild presented these findings at the 1888 national encampment and a copy of the findings was sent to G.A.R. posts across the country. Other departments followed Wisconsin's lead in examining textbooks. By 1890, the G.A.R. began pressuring publishers to print a “correct history of the late war.”
Examining textbooks was only the beginning of the G.A.R.'s educational mission. It also preserved battlefields, erected monuments, institutionalized Memorial Day as a holiday, promoted use of the Pledge of Allegiance, and placed flags in schools. Much of this was overseen by the post patriotic instructors who filed annual reports with their department, and with the national patriotic instructor. Patriotic instructors reported on the number of schools with flags, types of Memorial Day services, and information on other patriotic holidays area schools observed. Department of Wisconsin Patriotic Instructor Hosea Rood, who also served as the National Patriotic Instructor in 1920, published a series of Little Flag Books providing students with information on flag display and care. The educational mission and public actions of local posts commemorated the Civil War and its veterans.
In Wisconsin and several other states, the educational mission took an additional form in the establishment of museums. In 1901, the Wisconsin Department pushed the state legislature to establish a museum to preserve Civil War History and items from “all subsequent wars.” This museum, located in the state capitol, became known as the G.A.R. Memorial Hall. Destroyed in the 1904 capital fire, the museum was rebuilt and dedicated in 1918. After many years at its location in the state capitol, the museum moved across the street and reopened in 1993 as the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.
Another example of the educational mission was the preservation of Camp Randall. The G.A.R. included many of its own artifacts in the cornerstone of the Camp Randall arch and participated in the dedication ceremony.
The G.A.R. was the first widespread organization for veterans. It offered veterans a political voice as well as fulfilled an important social and charitable role. Subsequent veteran groups looked upon the G.A.R. as a model.
The G.A.R. motto, “Fraternity, Charity, Loyalty,” characterized the organization well. Its fraternal aspects were evidenced in the group's rituals. G.A.R. member loyalty to each other and the cause for which they fought found expression in political involvement and developing educational mission. This education mission, together with the G.A.R.'s work on behalf of disabled veterans, war orphans, and widows; lends firm support for the G.A.R.'s charitable contributions.
