The Battle of Franklin

The Battle of Franklin

By: Jerry Devine, Patriotic Instructor

The Battle of Franklin was one of the last great battles of the Civil War. Fate and circumstance placed the small town of Franklin in the path of two great in late November 1864.

Gen. John Bell Hood, at the head of the Confederate Army of Tennessee, which numbered just over 30,000, marched his army toward Nashville after having lost Atlanta in September. His hope was to retake the lost Tennessee capital, which had fallen to U. S. troops in early 1862. A Federal army, commanded by Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield, was sent from Georgia by Maj. Gen. William Sherman to Middle Tennessee with orders to slow Hood’s advance. Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. George Henry Thomas organized defenses just outside Nashville.

                                  
The Confederate troops began to arrive on the southern edge of the Harpeth Valley, about two miles from Franklin, around 1 pm. Within the hour, Hood had decided to launch a frontal assault, believing that Franklin was his last opportunity to destroy Schofield before the Federal army got to Nashville and reinforced Thomas.

The skies were clear that afternoon and the temperature pushed to nearly sixty degrees. Many described it as a beautiful “Indian summer afternoon,” but at 4 pm everything changed as roughly 20,000 Confederate soldiers began their advance toward a similar number of Federal troops. By that time, a frantic yet valiant stand by some newly recruited Federal troops, and a counter-assault by a brigade of Federal veterans, had stemmed the Confederate breakthrough. For those Southern troops who had pushed deep into the Federal defensive perimeter and then suddenly found their opportunity ripped away, the nighttime hours were ones filled with bloodshed and untold agonies. A Mississippian recalled how the Federal troops shot his comrades down like “animals trapped in a pen.” In places the bodies of the dead were heaped upon one other three and four deep. Some of the wounded were pinned beneath the dead and others cried and moaned and prayed throughout the long night.

During those short but awful hours, as the battle raged and swirled around them, the Carter family took refuge in their basement. Some two dozen men, women, and children, including the neighboring Lotz family who lived just across the Columbia pike, waited as the horrors of war engulf them.

Around midnight the Federal army began to withdraw from the smoldering and gruesome battlefield. Left behind was a small town and a battered Confederate army. Altogether, some 10,000 American soldiers became casualties at Franklin and about three-fourths of that number were Confederates. Six Confederate generals were counted among those killed or mortally wounded and lay on the back porch of the house. All told some 2,300 men died at Franklin, about 7,000 were wounded, and roughly 1,000 were taken prisoner. When recollecting the battle years later one soldier said simply, “It was as if the devil had full possession of the earth.”

The bloody assault cost Hood nearly 7,000 casualties, including six dead Confederate generals. Schofield withdrew to Nashville where he and Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas's army would engage Hood one last time. It is sometimes referred to as Pickett’s Charge of the West. The charge covered more ground lasted longer and resulted in more Confederate casualties than did the better known one at Gettysburg.In the decades after the war veterans from both sides, some congressmen, and even a few Franklin locals made genuine efforts to establish a national or state park so as to commemorate the terrible conflict. Despite these efforts it was not to be, although some two dozen such bills were introduced into Congress only to die in sub-committees.

Over time the story of Franklin, like others, was lost. In fact, what happened at Franklin is not all that dissimilar to what happened to the battlefields outside Atlanta and Nashville. But what has happened in Franklin over the past 15 years is truly unique. Over 200 acres of a battlefield that most considered “lost” forever has been saved and reclaimed. Nearly $15 million has been spent to save this hallowed ground from the ravages of time.

Schofield’s small army of about 27,000 was nearly flanked, or cut off, near Spring Hill on the late afternoon and early evening of November 29, 1864. The Confederate forces missed a tremendous opportunity to deal Schofield a serious blow, and Spring Hill ultimately set the stage for Franklin. The Yankees just walked on by the Confederate forces and were not noticed, challenged, or attacked, and it haunted the memories of many Confederate veterans for decades.

Federal troops began to arrive on the outskirts of Franklin around dawn on November 30, 1864. Because the two bridges spanning the Harpeth River north of town were impassable, engineers hurriedly worked to prepare the bridges for a withdrawal. Meanwhile, the blue-clad soldiers began to throw up earthworks south of town. Around the same time, after discovering the enemy had slipped away, the Confederates initiated a hurried march north from Spring Hill in pursuit of the Federal army.

Federal Brig. Gen. Jacob D. Cox set up his headquarters at the Carter House after waking the family around sunup. 

By noon, the bulk of the Federal army was organized into a defensive line which spanned just over a mile in length and was anchored on the Harpeth River on both flanks. At 2 pm orders were issued calling for a withdrawal to Nashville to begin at 6 pm.

Artillery fire soon began shrieking toward the Southern line and gaping holes were ripped into the gray and butternut ranks. The Confederate attack quickly morphed into a headlong charge. The two armies came into close contact shortly before 4:30 pm and the fighting became brutal and fiendishly savage. Waves of Southern troops were shot down, even as some of them ruptured the center of the Federal line. Scores of Federal troops were shot and clubbed as howling and jubilant Southerners plowed forward. Casualties were severe and mounted quickly. The sun set soon after the battle reached its apex and it was completely dark only a few minutes after 5 pm, except for the flashing of the guns.

                                    

At Carnton House wounded Confederate soldiers were arriving by the dozens not long after the battle began. It soon became the largest field hospital in the area and surgeons were set up in almost every room of the house and some worked outside. By the middle of the night some 300 wounded filled the home, with hundreds more on the grounds.

Around midnight the Federal army began to withdraw from the smoldering and gruesome battlefield. Left behind was a small town and a battered Confederate army. Altogether, some 10,000 American soldiers became casualties at Franklin and about three-fourths of that number were Confederates. Six Confederate generals were counted among those killed or mortally wounded and lay on the back porch of the house. All told some 2,300 men died at Franklin, about 7,000 were wounded, and roughly 1,000 were taken prisoner. When recollecting the battle years later one soldier said simply, “It was as if the devil had full possession of the earth.” The bloody assault cost Hood nearly 7,000 casualties, including six dead Confederate generals. Schofield withdrew to Nashville where he and Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas's army would engage Hood one last time. It is sometimes referred to as Pickett’s Charge of the West. The charge covered more ground lasted longer and resulted in more Confederate casualties than did the better known one at Gettysburg.

In the decades after the war veterans from both sides, some congressmen, and even a few Franklin locals made genuine efforts to establish a national or state park so as to commemorate the terrible conflict. Despite these efforts it was not to be, although some two dozen such bills were introduced into Congress only to die in sub-committees.

Over time the story of Franklin, like others, was lost. In fact, what happened at Franklin is not all that dissimilar to what happened to the battlefields outside Atlanta and Nashville. But what has happened in Franklin over the past 15 years is truly unique. Over 200 acres of a battlefield that most considered “lost” forever has been saved and reclaimed. Nearly $15 million has been spent to save this hallowed ground from the ravages of time.

Ironically Schofield and Thomas, the victors, as well as the Battle of Franklin itself, are names known only by dedicated WBTS scholars. Thomas is not only forgotten, but, on the verge of achieving the most decisive victory of the entire war, in the sense of destroying the opposing Army of Tennessee as an effective fighting force, was slated to be relieved of command for failing to move decisively against the enemy. The Confederate General Hood, who lost the final battles for Atlanta, was defeated at Franklin, and had his army destroyed at Nashville is still comparatively well known for his personal bravery, for his terrible wounds, his (disputed) drug use, and the more recent massacre at the fort that bears his name. History is a fickle mistress.

The Turning point of the war- 3 cigars and the Lost Order

By: Wendell Small

The month of September 1862 began as the low point of the American Civil War for the North. The South was superior on the battlefield and demonstrating a spirit of resistance which boded the separation of the former United States into two rival nations. Before the month of September ended, the eventual defeat of the South became inevitable.

Second Battle of Bull Run Map

In August, Robert E. Lee had smashed the Federal forces under John Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run,¹ leaving a legacy of hysteria to the Federal Government. Records were shipped further north and gunboats and a steamer were ready to evacuate Lincoln and his cabinet in the face of anticipated Confederate advances.

In New York and Indiana, potential Copperhead plots and sabotage terrorized both official and public opinion. Confederate armies in Kentucky under Braxton Bragg had taken Lexington and were threatening Louisville and Cincinnati, where martial law was proclaimed. A third major Confederate army under Earl Van Dorn, somewhere in Mississippi, conjured up additional nightmares for the frightened, who visualized this army over-running the western areas of the Union. In Maryland, where memories of the April 1861 riots in Baltimore against Federal soldiers were still clear and bitter, there was widespread apprehension of a rebel uprising attended by the loss of the state and the isolation of Washington.

Among the European powers, sentiment was building toward mediation in the war and recognition of the Confederacy, if not toward actual intervention on its behalf. The British were provoked to these attitudes by the shortage of cotton for their textile mills, resulting in unemployment and deprivation for hundreds of thousands of workers; by a preference of the British nobility for the aristocratic, Anglo-Saxon South over the heterogeneous, "mongrelized" North; by the desire of the British Government to see two rival pygmies instead of a single united giant on the Canadian frontier; and by general national anger toward supposedly hostile Northern actions such as the blockade and the removal by a Yankee warship of two Confederate agents from a British mail steamer, the Trent. Recognition of the Confederacy by Her Majesty's Government and a negotiated peace on the basis of Southern independence loomed as a startling reality to the North in the shambles of its defeated army. Britain would have been followed by Napoleon III of France, who had the assurance of Confederate support and eventual recognition of any French conquests in Mexico in return for his recognition of the Confederacy effectively revoking the Monroe Doctrine.

The South responded to news of the great victory at Second Bull Run with a demand that the war now be carried into Yankee territory. Newspapers in every Southern city spoke for their readers when they clamored for an immediate invasion of the North. Sentiments similar to those stirring the average Southern citizen also motivated the leaders of the Confederacy. Lee agreed that Southern military success had put the Confederacy in a position to state its political objectives leading to an honorable peace, but he still felt that one more victory over the Federal troops and this one a victory north of the Potomac would so clearly prove the strength of the Confederate position that the North must accede to any demand for peace. Such a victory might well affect the coming Congressional elections in the North as well as influence the wavering British and French Governments to recognize Southern independence. An offer of peace after a great victory would be considered a magnanimous gesture by a victorious power rather than a sign of weakness by a frightened bureaucracy.

To achieve these political ends, Lee had to gain another battlefield victory over the Federals. By taking the initiative, Lee could draw his opponents, far less skillful than he, whoever they might be, into a war of maneuver in which he could win on a field and at a time of his choosing. Lee also intended to seize or to destroy the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge over the Susquehanna River at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, severing the connecting artery between Washington and the West.
With a victorious, battle-tested army under successful veteran commanders, Lee would be able to defeat the Federals. Lee also would be able to destroy the railroad bridge at Harrisburg if he reached it without having drawn the Federals into battle or to seize the bridge if he reached it after a victorious battle.

Although his army was relatively small, Lee divided it into several parts, with the Federal garrisons at Harper's Ferry and Martinsburg in the Shenandoah Valley as targets for three units. Two other units were to proceed toward Boonsboro and Hagerstown. In his Special Orders 191 of 9 September 1862, Lee drew up his order of march and made his troop dispositions. Each of the key commanders mentioned in the order was sent copy of the order. James ("Pete") Longstreet carefully read his copy and chewed it.  John G. Walker pinned his copy to the inside of his jacket. Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson meticulously burned his copy.

There was a certain confusion in Jackson's mind as to whether Daniel Harvey Hill was still under his command or directly under Lee. To be certain that Hill received a copy of Special Orders 191, Jackson, in his own hand, sent Hill a copy. Hill admitted receiving this copy.   Unfortunately, Lee, considering Hill no longer under Jackson but directly under himself, also sent Hill a copy. Hill claimed that he never received this copy.

On Saturday, 13 September, the hastily reorganized Federal Army of the Potomac under the command of George B. McClellan moved into Frederick and set up camp on the outskirts of the town. Colonel Silas Colgrove, the commander of the 27th Indiana Volunteers, Third Brigade, First Division, Twelfth Army Corps, ordered his men to stack arms in the same area which had previously been occupied by the men under the command of Daniel Harvey Hill.

While resting in this area, Private Barton W. Mitchell and Sergeant John M. Bloss, both of the 27th Indiana, found a copy of Lee's Special Orders 191 in a paper wrapped around three cigars. The order was authenticated by Colonel Samuel E. Pitman, First Division Adjutant-General, who recognized the signature of Lee's Assistant Adjutant-General as that of Colonel Robert H. Chilton, with whom Pitman had served in Detroit. The order then was brought to McClellan, who set off to destroy Lee in detail.

Barton W. Mitchell marker

Picture of Barton W. Mitchell

Sergeant John M. Bloss

 

McClellan, dilatory by nature and convinced by his faulty intelligence that Lee had an army about 50 percent larger than the Army of the Potomac, was not likely to have attacked Lee. Even with Lee's orders before him - orders dividing Lee's army - McClellan inched cautiously, but swiftly for him, forward.

Lee, stunned by the relatively swift advance by McClellan, did his best to reassemble quickly his scattered units to present a united front to the Federals, and on Wednesday, 17 September 1862, the Battle of Antietam took place.  Lee, forced to fight on the defensive for the first time during the war and incapable of maneuver, was able to stop the Federal attack only with great difficulty and great losses. On 19 September, Lee withdrew into Virginia, and the North was free of the invader.
The railroad bridge at Harrisburg was not cut, and the North was able to maintain its fundamental east-west link. Maryland, eager to follow a winner, not only did not secede but even went so far as to increase its effort on behalf of the Union. With Maryland remaining loyal, Washington was neither surrounded nor isolated, and the fear of invasion among Northern states proved to be groundless.

The Copperhead movement gradually lost strength as the war progressed. Even at the polls this movement proved to be weak as Lincoln's Republicans hung on in the Congressional elections of 1862 enough to remain in power.
Lincoln, who had resolved upon the Emancipation Proclamation as a military, political, and psychological measure necessary to insure the ultimate conquest of the Confederacy by the Union, leaped upon Antietam as the victory which he needed to give meaning to the Proclamation. Even though the Proclamation was a political gesture, in victory it seemed more idealistic - and realistic - than if it had followed a defeat on Northern territory. After a Union defeat the Proclamation would have seemed to be nothing more than the empty oratory of a beaten demagogue rather than the noble gesture of a confident leader.

The recognition which the South had expected from abroad was contingent upon a Confederate victory, and the Southern retreat from Maryland was no such victory. The retreat led to second thoughts; second thoughts, to inaction; inaction, to continued nonrecognition - right through to the end of the war. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, moreover, swayed foreign public opinion to the North, which now seemed to stand for the oppressed rather than as the oppressor of a popular revolt.

Finally, Southern hopes which had been raised to the heights with the victory at Second Bull Run and with the transfer of fighting from Southern to Northern soil changed to utter frustration in less than three weeks. Although the spirit of the South was as resolute after Antietam as before, a gnawing doubt now marched side by side with this spirit.
Lee unequivocally blamed the failure of the invasion of Maryland on the lost order. At the very least, if McClellan had not obtained a copy of Lee's orders, Lee could have reunited his army long before the dilatory McClellan would have moved, and Lee could have re-equipped it with some of the hoard from Harpers Ferry and given his 10,000 or more stragglers time to rejoin his army. Thus refurbished, Lee could have gone on to Harrisburg, destroyed the bridge, and sought out McClellan.

The cumulative effects of a victory by Lee over McClellan in Maryland would have been devastating to the North. Lee could have moved on to Harrisburg and could have menaced Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington.
Washington, isolated by a secessionist Maryland could hardly have remained the capital. Previously prepared evacuation plans might have moved the Government to Philadelphia or New York while Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, graciously doling out merciful terms to a stunned city, rode triumphantly down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Lincoln, with defeat on the battlefield and at the polls a haunting reality, would hardly have dared to propose the Emancipation Proclamation. An independent Confederacy, badly in need of a labor force, might have maintained the institution of slavery until the increased use of the machine made slavery an expensive economic anachronism.
If secession had succeeded, Great Britain could have obtained the cotton that its textile mills needed and eventually could have established a successful partnership with the Confederate States of America. The South, led by an aristocracy with a lineage as proud if not as old as Britain's nobility could have been accepted as a peer and an ally by its British cousins.
The Yankees by the very similarity of their economic interests could never be a partner or an ally of the British but must always be a rival against whom war might very well erupt. Finally, although the Union had an Anglo-Saxon heritage, it was a melting pot with many social customs alien to the British, who found Southern Anglo-Saxon homogeneity more palatable.
Napoleon III, having recognized the Confederacy, would have received a carte blanche from the South to pursue his conquest of Mexico. The North, defeated and confused, would have been able to do very little to prevent Napoleon from succeeding.

Tradition and a considerable body of opinion have held that Gettysburg, not Antietam, is the more nearly decisive battle and the turning point of the Civil War. However, the relative positions of the North and South at both these junctures in history clearly seem to point up September 1862 as a period far more critical for the North and far more favorable for the South than July 1863.

As a final historical note, although the circumstances of how the Orders came to be Lost are still debated today, and the responsibility for the loss has never been accurately fixed on any individual, no one knows what happened to the cigars.

Retreat from Gettysburg

The Retreat from Gettysburg
Description and Controversies

During the Gettysburg campaign, General John Imboden’s force of cavalry took little part in the great struggle. After the repulse of Pickett’s Charge General Imboden was summoned to General Lee’s headquarters, and await his arrival from General A.P. Hills’ command. Although Imboden was not an especially favored officer, his troops, unlike the other hard used Confederates, were unbloodied, which qualified them for an important assignment.

General John Imboden

General Robert E.Lee

When Lee arrived he reined in his jaded horse, and dis­mounted, the effort to do so betrayed so much physical exhaustion that Imboden hurriedly rose and stepped forward to assist him, but Lee dismounted and threw his arm across the saddle to rest, and fixing his eyes upon the ground leaned in silence and almost motionless upon his equally weary horse. Imboden reported a look of sadness on Lee’s face and stated:  “General, this has been a hard day on you.” Lee looked up, and replied mournfully: “Yes, it has been a sad, sad day to us, I never saw troops behave more magnificently than Pickett’s division of Virginians did today in that grand charge upon the enemy”. After a moment’s pause he added in a loud voice, in a tone almost of agony, “Too bad! Too bad! OH! Too BAD!”

General Lee Following Gettysburg

Turning to the matter at hand, Lee changed from his melancholy to his usual determined forceful self. “We must now return to Virginia. As many of our poor wounded as possible must be taken home. I have sent for you, because your men and horses are fresh and in good condition, to guard and conduct our train back to Virginia. The duty will be arduous, responsible, and dangerous, for I am afraid you will be harassed by the enemy’s cavalry.”

Gettysburg General Retreat 

General Imboden's Route

    

“I can spare your men some artillery,” he said, “but no other troops, as I shall need all I have to return safely by a different and shorter route than yours. Nearly all the transportation and the care of all the wounded will be entrusted to you. You will re-cross the mountain by the Chambersburg road, and then proceed to Williamsport by any route you deem best, and without a halt till you reach the river. Rest there long enough to feed your animals; then ford the river, and do not halt again till you reach Winchester, where I will again communicate with you.”

Imboden was charged to convey all the wounded in wagons and ambulances along with a personal message from General Lee to President Davis. By the morning of July 4^th Imboden had assembled and approximately 2100 cavalry to defend the train which eventually stretched 17 miles, and by the early afternoon was drenched in a torrential rain. The orders were for no stopping for any reason. If an accident should happen to any vehicle, it was to be abandoned. The column moved rapidly, considering the rough roads and the darkness, and from almost every wagon for many miles issued heart rending wails of agony: “Oh God! Why can’t I die? My God! Will no one have mercy and kill me Stop! Oh! For God’s sake, stop just for one minute; take me out and leave me to die on the roadside.”  I am dying! I am dying! My poor wife, my dear children, what will become of you?

Union Pursuit

Some were simply moaning; some were praying while a majority endured without complaint unspeakable tortures, and even spoke with cheer and confront to their unhappy comrades. In motion and in darkness was safety for the retreating Confederates, who knew that when day broke they would be harassed by bands of Federal cavalry. Instead of going through Chambersburg, The column cut across the country to Greencastle, reaching there by morning of July 5^th twelve or fifteen miles from the Potomac at Williamsport, the point of crossing into Virginia. There the column was beset by Maryland civilians who were promptly made POWs, but caused enough of a delay for the Yankee cavalry to attack, and only prompt reaction by both the cavalry and the artillery permitted the Confederates to continue.

  

Nearly all of the immense train reached Williamsport on the afternoon of the 5^th, taking possession of the town to convert it into a great hospital for the thousands of wounded brought from Gettysburg.

The town of Williamsport is located in the lower angle formed by the Potomac with Conococheagne Creek. These streams enclose the town on two sides, and back of it about one mile there is a low range of hills that is crossed by four roads converging at the town. The Greencastle road leading down the creek valley; the Hagerstown road; the Boonsboro road; and lastly the River road.

Williamsport, MD

Early on the morning of the 6th they were attacked by a large body of cavalry with three full batteries of six rifled guns. These were the divisions of Generals Buford and Kilpatrick, and Huey’s brigade of Gregg’s division, consisting, of a total force of about 7000 men who would be facing no more than 3000 Confederates including approximately 700 impressed wagoners or as we would term them, teamsters.

“As we could not retreat further, it was at once made known to the troops, that unless we should repel the threatened attack we should all become prisoners, and that the loss of his whole transportation would probably ruin General Lee” —Gen. John D. Imboden

The battle became known as the Wagoner’s Fight. The fate of the Confederate retreat fell, in part, not on the generals and strategy, but on the tenacity of the rear echelon non-combatants. Although sustaining many casualties, these newly minted soldiers held on until rescued by a combined force of General Fitzhugh Lee and JEB Stuart.

There are many controversies surrounding the Battle of Gettysburg and the aftermath. Both commanders, General Lee and General George G. Meade have been censured for decisions and failures during and after the Battle. Lee’s Army lost the Battle. His detractors contend he was weak and confused when north of the Potomac. His defenders equally maintain he was undercut by his subordinates, especially General James Longstreet. General Meade is likewise censured by his failure to trap Lee on the North side of the Potomac thereby not ending the war almost two years earlier.

General Robert E. Lee

General George G. Meade

         

Historians, as well as contemporaries, are divided regarding General Meade. Some comments are in order. The Army of the Potomac was severely mauled during the Battle, sustaining about 15% casualties, a figure considered critical today for military cohesiveness.  Forced marching in the heat before the Battle, the savage fighting, and the torrential rains in the aftermath must be factored into any consideration of the fighting ability of the Army, as well as the loss of Meade’s two most aggressive generals Reynolds, killed on the first day, and Hancock, wounded on the third, sapped the fighting elan of the Army and his other generals. For those who think the Confederates had lost their will to fight after Gettysburg, a brief review of the 1864 Overland Campaign should put those thoughts to rest. It took Grant and his ‘awful arithmetic’ to complete what a defensive victory could not accomplish.

General Imboden describes a meeting between Lee and Longstreet while pontoons were preparing to carry the Confederates across the Potomac: “

As we were talking General Longstreet came into the tent, wet and muddy, and was cordially greeted by General Lee in this wise: “Well, my old warhorse what news do you bring us from the front?” That cordial greeting between chief and lieutenant is a sufficient answer, in my mind, to the state­ments of alleged ill feeling between the two men growing out of affairs at Get­tysburg. It has been said that if “Stonewall” Jackson had been in command at Gettysburg, Longstreet would have been shot. This is a monstrous impu­tation upon General Lee, no less than upon Longstreet, and utterly without foundation, in my opinion. They were surely cordial on the 9th of July 1863.”

Presented by: Brother Gerard Devine MD, DC, Camp Patriotic Instructor
Major General Thomas H. Ruger Camp #1
July 2016

The Grand Army of the Republic- A Brief Overview

The Grand Army of the Republic - The Beginning

Grand Review of the Armies

In early 1866 the United States of America was waking to the reality of recovery from war, and this had been a much different war. In previous conflicts the care of the veteran warrior was the province of the family or the community. Soldiers then were friends, relatives and neighbors who went off to fight–until the next planting or harvest. It was a community adventure and their fighting unit had a community flavor.

By the end of the Civil War, units had become less homogeneous; men from different communities and even different states were forced together by the exigencies of battle where new friendships and lasting trust was forged. With the advances in the care and movement of the wounded, many who would have surely died in earlier wars returned home to be cared for by a community structure weary from a protracted war and now also faced with the needs of widows and orphans. Veterans needed jobs, including a whole new group of veterans–the colored soldier and his entire, newly freed, family. It was often more than the fragile fabric of communities could bear.

The Welcome Home

State and federal leaders from President Lincoln down had promised to care for “those who have borne the burden, his widows and orphans,” but they had little knowledge of how to accomplish the task. There was also little political pressure to see that the promises were kept.

But probably the most profound emotion was emptiness. Men who had lived together, fought together, foraged together and survived, had developed an unique bond that could not be broken. As time went by the memories of the filthy and vile environment of camp life began to be remembered less harshly and eventually fondly. The horror and gore of battle lifted with the smoke and smell of burnt black powder and was replaced with the personal rain of tears for the departed comrades. Friendships forged in battle survived the separation and the warriors missed the warmth of trusting companionship that had asked only total and absolute commitment.

With that as background, groups of men began joining together — first for camaraderie and then for political power. Emerging most powerful among the various organizations would be the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), which by 1890 would number 409,489 veterans of the “War of the Rebellion.”

Benjamin F. Stephenson

 

Founded in Decatur, Illinois on April 6, 1866 by Benjamin F. Stephenson, membership was limited to honorably discharged veterans of the Union Army, Navy, Marine Corps or the Revenue Cutter Service who had served between April 12, 1861 and April 9, 1865. The community level organization was called a “Post” and each was numbered consecutively within each department. Most Posts also had a name and the rules for naming Posts included the requirement that the honored person be deceased and that no two Posts within the same Department could have the same name. The Departments generally consisted of the Posts within a state and, at the national level, the organization was operated by the elected “Commandery-in-Chief.”

Encampment Grand Army of the Republic - Philadelphia, Penn & Chicago, Ill.

Post Commanders were elected as were the Junior and Senior Vice Commanders and the members of Council. Each member was voted into membership using the Masonic system of casting black or white balls (except that more than one black ball was required to reject a candidate for membership). When a candidate was rejected, that rejection was reported to the Department which listed the rejection in general orders and those rejections were maintained in a “Black Book” at each Post meeting place. The meeting rituals and induction of members were similar to the Masonic rituals and have been handed down to the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.

The official body of the Department was the annual Encampment, which was presided over by the elected Department Commander, Senior and Junior Vice Commanders and the Council. Encampments were elaborate multi-day events which often included camping out, formal dinners and memorial events. In later years the Department Encampments were often held in conjunction with the Encampments of the Allied Orders, including Camps of the Sons of Veterans Reserve, which at the time were quasi-military in nature, often listed as a unit of the state militia or national guard.

National Encampments of the Grand Army of the Republic were presided over by a Commander-in-Chief who was elected in political events which rivaled national political party conventions. The Senior and Junior Vice Commander-in-Chief as well as the National Council of Administration were also elected.

The GAR founded soldiers’ homes, was active in relief work and in pension legislation. Five members were elected President of the United States and, for a time, it was impossible to be nominated on the Republican ticket without the endorsement of the GAR voting block.

The Mansfield, Ohio - Soldiers and Sailors Home Dedicated in 1889

With membership limited strictly to “veterans of the late unpleasantness,” the GAR encouraged the formation of Allied Orders to aid them in its various works. Numerous male organizations jousted for the backing of the GAR and the political battles became quite severe until the GAR finally endorsed the Sons of Veterans of the United States of America (later to become the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War) as its heir. A similar, but less protracted, battle took place between the Womens’ Relief Corps (WRC) and the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic (LGAR) for the title “official auxiliary to the GAR.” Both the WRC, which is the only Allied Order open to women who do not have an hereditary ancestor who would have been eligible for the GAR, and the LGAR were designated Allied Orders.

SUVCW Allied Orders

Coming along a bit later, the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, similar to the SUVCW but for women, also earned the designation as an Allied Order of the GAR. Rounding out the list of Allied Orders is the Auxiliary to the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, which is open to women with hereditary ties to a veteran or who is the spouse, sister or daughter of a member of the SUVCW.

The G.A.R.'s political power grew during the latter part of the 19th century, and it helped elect several United States presidents, beginning with the 18th, Ulysses S. Grant, and ending with the 25th, William McKinley. Five Civil War veterans and members (Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, and McKinley) were elected President of the United States; all were Republicans. (The sole post-war Democratic president was Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th chief executive.) For a time, candidates could not get Republican presidential or congressional nominations without the endorsement of the G.A.R. veterans voting bloc.

Detroit Michigan - 1914   

By 1890 the GAR saw its largest membership reaching nearly 500,000 and their power at its highest having helped elect five U.S. Presidents after the Civil War who were all members of the Grand Army of the Republic. The final encampment, or ruling body meeting, of the Grand Army of the Republic was held in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1949 with only six surviving members left. The final member of the GAR died in 1956 and there by the organization died with him. 

The final Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic was held in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1949 and the last member passed away in 1956.

The last surviving member of the Union Army who served in the American Civil War.

Albert Henry Woolson (February 11, 1850 – August 2, 1956)

During its existence the Grand Army was a powerful organization, especially in the 1880s through the 1900s. In some areas it was near impossible to get elected to a political office unless you were a member of the organization. Being a veteran of the Civil War meant a lot and to prove that you were you basically had to be a member of the GAR. In addition they worked diligently in getting quality pensions for all veterans of the Civil War. With a strong membership it allowed them to apply large amounts of pressure on local, state, federal governments. The Grand Army of the Republic is also known for establishing General Orders No. 11 which established Memorial Day. In 1868, John A Logan who was leading the GAR then put forth the idea which came in a letter from a member in Cincinnati, Ohio. The notion was that every May 30 flowers would be strewn on the graves of soldiers who died in the defense of their country during the Civil War. This was eventually adopted by the United States Government and turned into the last Monday of May in which we remember all soldiers who have died in the line of duty.

Little is usually said about the Grand Army of the Republic and everything they did for the

veterans of this country. Memorials have been placed throughout the country in honor of this organization and of the men who died in the war. One of these memorials is U.S. Highway 6, which stretches nearly completely across the country is named after this organization. In fact if you drive down this highway today you will find signs that identify it as a memorial highway to the Grand Army of the Republic.

The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) is a fraternal organization dedicated to preserving the history and legacy of veteran heroes who fought and worked to save the Union in the American Civil War. Organized in 1881 and chartered by Congress in 1954, SUVCW is the legal heir and successor to the Grand Army of the Republic.

Written by Brother Gerard Devine MD, Patriotic Instructor

Presented by Brother Dennis St Andrews, Department Commander
Major General Thomas H. Ruger Camp #1

Lincoln

Lincoln;

 Words of the Man, not the Politician

Politicians use words much as do Generals and Admirals directing field artillery or naval barrages. The words are uttered to destroy and rout the opposing side. However, the real meanings can be more elusive to determine. Are the words expressive of the office seeker’s conscience or are they artfully contrived to garner the largest number of votes to ensure election? Is Nancy Pelosi just gullible or merely contemptuous of the public when she states ‘we have to pass the bill to find out what is in it’? Is Hillary Clinton to be taken seriously when she says, of the death of four Americans in Benghazi ‘what difference does it make’? Is Donald Trump…? Well, mere words fail me.

Abraham Lincoln was one of the shrewdest and effective politicians ever to hold the office of the Presidency. He and the two Roosevelts were perhaps the most successful of the Presidents, at least in the terms of providing effective leadership and concrete accomplishments. Lincoln’s speeches have been analyzed and parsed over and over, but these were for public consumption.  Do they expose the heart of the man or are they reflective of the immediate issues of that moment in time?

There are two instances of Lincoln’s thoughts that were not crafted speeches, and were not much more than his private feelings expressed without intention to inspire or to promote his causes or to achieve election. These considerations are probably the closest we will get to the real man. During this, the month of his birthday, I believe they deserve our reflection.

This is the speech Abraham Lincoln gave to his neighbors as he left Springfield to go to Washington to assume the Presidency. This was no prepared speech, just the thoughts of a man who, no one knew then for the last time, was speaking farewell to his neighbors after many years of mutual work, friendship, and association. 

  

Lincoln's Home in Springfield, Illinois

"My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell."

Lincoln's Private Secretary
 John Milton Hay

This second fragment was found and preserved by John Hay, one of President Lincoln's White House secretaries, who said it was "not written to be seen of men." Some of the thoughts expressed here, written after discouraging days of personal sorrow and military defeats, also appear in Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address of 1865.

Hay said that in this writing "Mr. Lincoln admits us into the most secret recesses of his soul .... Perplexed and afflicted beyond the power of human help, by the disasters of war, the wrangling of parties, and the inexorable and constraining logic of his own mind, he shut out the world one day, and tried to put into form his double sense of responsibility to human duty and Divine Power; and this was the result. It shows ---- the awful sincerity of a perfectly honest soul, trying to bring itself into closer communion with its Maker."

Washington, D.C.
September, 1862

Lincoln in Thought

“The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party -- and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say that this is probably true -- that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By his mere great power, on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And, having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.”

When Lincoln wrote these words he was coming to grips with the loss of his son, the failures of the Union offensives and the contempt the losing generals had for him, the impending loss of his party’s Congressional majority, the decision to free (and arm) the slaves, and trying to fight a war without end with an empty treasury. Small wonder at the solemn tone of these words in the face of such responsibilities.

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

‘Four score and seven years ago’, ‘Shall not perish from this earth’, ‘The better angels of our nature’, and ‘Let us strive to bind up the nation’s wounds’, are better known Lincoln phrases, but the above lines reflect the man rather than the politician speaking.

Presented February 13, 2016

Brother Gerard Devine MD, Patriotic Instructor
Major General Thomas H. Ruger Camp #1