GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC
The first steps taken for the organization of this fraternal association of Union soldiers, who had participated
in the Civil War, were upon suggestion of Dr. Benjamin F. Stephenson, surgeon of the Fourteenth Illinois Infantry.
He, in conjunction with the chaplain of that regiment, W. J. Rutlege, met at Springfield, Illinois, in March, 1866,
and prepared a ritual for the association.
On the 6th of April the first Post of the Grand Army of the Republic was organized at Decatur, Illinois. A district
organization was also made and officers chosen. The Constitution of the order made provision for precinct Posts,
District, State and National organizations.
The National organization was to be known as " The Grand Army of the Republic," the officers to be a
Commander, Adjutant-General and Quartermaster-General.
The purpose of the organization was stated in the " Declaration of Principles " to be as follows: "
The soldiers of the Volunteer Army of the United States, during the
Rebellion of 1861-5, actuated by the impulses and convictions of patriotism and eternal right, and combined in
the strong bands of fellowship and unity by the toils, the dangers and the victories of a long and vigorously waged
war, feel themselves called upon to declare in definite form of words and in determined cooperative action those
principles and rules which should guide the earnest patriot and the enlightened freeman and the Christian citizen
in his course of action; and to agree upon those plans and laws which should govern them in a united and systematic
working method
with which, in some measure, shall be effected the preservation of the grand results of the war, the fruits of
their labor and toil, so as to benefit the deserving and worthy."
The first National Convention of the order was held at Indianapolis, Indiana, on the 20th of November, 1866, and
a National Encampment was held at Philadelphia, January 16th, 1868.
The local Posts are numbered and named for some locality, battle, or deceased loyal person, usually a Union soldier
or sailor. There are State organizations called
Departments. The motto of the order is " Fraternity, Charity and Loyalty.'' It is the custom of members of
the local Posts to visit the cemeteries on Memorial Day
and decorate the graves of their fallen comrades. The original purpose of the organization was to emphasize, by
mutual assent, the principles of Union and National honor to which its members had given devoted adherence in the
field. Each Post is required to establish a relief fund for the assistance of needy comrades and the wives and
families of those deceased who may need aid. No person who at any time has borne arms against the United States
is eligible to membership. But at occasional gatherings where Union and Confederate veterans have assembled there
has always been manifest the soldierly magnanimity due a worthy foe. As the years pass by the feeling of fraternity
between those who wore the blue and the gray has grown and the late War with Spain almost obliterated the last
remnant of antagonism of the period of the Civil War.
The first Commander-in-Chief of the National organization was General Stephen A. Hurlbut of Illinois.
In the fall of 1865 an organization of veterans of the Union Army was made in Davenport, Iowa, under the name of
the " Old Soldiers' Association of Scott County," of which General Addison H. Sanders was chosen president,
and Captain N. N. Tyner, secretary. The Association was merged into the Grand Army of the Republic as Post No.
1, Davenport Department of Iowa. In July, 1866, General Sanders visited Dr. Stephenson at Springfield, was instructed
in the work of the order, provided with the ritual and constitution and authorized to organize Posts. A charter
was issued, dated July 12th, 1866, by Dr. Stephenson, commanding the Department of Illinois, to General A. H. Sanders,
Colonel R. M. Littler, General J. B. Leake, Lieutenant 0. S. McNeil, Captain N. N. Tyner, Lieutenant-Colonel T.
J. Saunders, A. P. Alexander, Captain A. T. Andreas, Captain J. G. Cavendish and J. W. Moore. A meeting was held
in Davenport, July 24th, 1866, to organize the Post and a provisional department was formed with General Sanders
as Commander. On the 26th of September a meeting of representatives of Posts was held at Davenport where a permanent
department was organized. Ninety-five Posts had been organized in the State at the time of the Second Encampment,
April 10th, 1867. For some reason the order ceased to prosper in Iowa
and, in 1870, there were not more than five hundred members and the State Department was dissolved. But after a
few years the interest revived and made steady gains in membership until in 1902 the number of Posts was five hundred
seventeen.
Source: Gue, Benjamin F., History of Iowa from the Earliest
Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth, New York, 1903 [Transcribed by: Candi H.]
