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Last of the Civil War veterans
Click the link to see the pics and read the article. I can't do it justice here. Below are a few sentences I snatched from between the images.For 90 years after the last shot of the American Civil War was fired, the men who had fought for the Union and the Confederacy, respectively, continued to meet, and in doing so wielded considerable political power in the nation that had divided them. For one, the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) brought together Union soldiers, referred to as "veterans of the late unpleasantness." Starting in 1866, only one year after the war's close, and ending with the death of 109-year-old Albert Woolson in 1956, the G.A.R. boasted 490,000 members at its peak in 1890. A hugely influential body, the G.A.R. was instrumental in electing a number of U.S. presidents in the late 1800s, from the 18th (Ulysses S. Grant) to the 25th (William McKinley). Orators for the G.A.R. were caricatured as "waving the bloody shirt." With one single exception, the G.A.R. was a male body. That exception was Sarah Emma Edmonds, who was admitted to the G.A.R. in 1897. Sarah had fought in the 2nd Michigan Infantry disguised as a man named "Franklin Thompson," from 1861 to 1863. She died in 1898. For the South, the United Confederate Veterans (U.C.V.) was inaugurated in 1889. Local Confederate veteran associations proliferated after the war. At the movement's peak, more than 1,500 such groups were amalgamated in the U.C.V. The U.C.V.'s stated purpose was to promote "social, literary, historical and benevolent" aims. During the 1890s, around 30,000 veterans and 50,000 further guests were present at the annual U.C.V. reunion. But in 1950, at the final reunion, a lone U.C.V. member was present: 98-year-old James Moore of Alabama. About 617,000 Americans were killed during the Civil War. The number is equal to the entire number of Americans who had died in all wars up to that point, including both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Posted by: gorb 2015-04-13 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=415022 |