EDITORS

PmLrP D. JORDAN, PH.D. CHARLF.S M. TBoKAS, PH.D. Miami University Ohio State University

ANNALS OF AMERICA

VOLUME Ill

THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN

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SU:ALL IT BE SO? The Veteran and the Politician; a Cartoonist's View (Minneapolis Tribune, January 17, 1892)

F R A N K H. H E C K

THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN IN MINN ES OT A LIFE AND POLITICS

Oxford, Ohio The Mississippi Valley Press 1941 COPYRIGHT, 1941 BY

THE MISSISSIPPI V ALIXY PltEss

All right.s reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form except by a re­ viewer who may quote brief passages in a re­ view to be printed in a magazine or newspaper.

PTinted in the United States of America go

&he Glriends o/ cYn'I @olle9e Q)ays

EDITORS' FOREWORD

This study of the Civil War veteran in Minnesota life and politics is a valuable contribution to an understanding of a na­ tional movement. What happened in Minnesota was occurring in other northern states. There were over a million soldiers in the Union army at the end of the war in 1865. These veterans, if they cooperated, could control the political machinery of northern states and of the nation. The Civil War veterans were unusually successful in securing the passage of such laws as they desired. A later generation in the North looked upon membership in the G. A. R. as synonymous with being a Civil War veteran. Professor Heck shows that this was not always the case. Care­ fully investigating the history of the G. A. R. in one state, he finds the reason why it for years wavered en the point of dis­ solution and disappearance. He traces the parallel in other states during these doubtful years, and then shu\\.'"S the relatively sud­ den booming of the G. A. R to include almost all eligible vet­ erans. He indicates the changing rules of eligibility and explains how and why certain veterans were excluded. The headquarters of the G. A. R., often in one of the best rooms of the courthouse itself, we.re a focal point of gay social life and community activity in many American towns of ·forty years ago. A generation, younger than that of the veterans, then often wondered and now may know what transpired within the ranks of the G. A. R. Its meetings usually were secret, but the publications of veterans' organizations, and manuscript ma­ terials, including the personal papers of many veterans and non­ veterans, have been added to contempory newspaper accounts by Professor Heck to give a well-rounded picture of the place of the G. A. R. in post-war society. P.D.J. C.1\1.T.

PREFACE

The original purpose of the study which has resulted in this volume was to examine the part played by the Grand Army of the Republic, as a pressure group, in the politics of one northern state. As the investigation proceeded, its scope was, almost of necessity, expanded. It soon became apparent, for one thing, that a well-rounded picture could not be achieved without due consideration of veterans' organizations other than the Grand Army, and of the considerable numbers of ex-soldiers who j cined no veteran group. The G. A. R. early adopted a rule which prohibited the use of the organization for partisan purposes. Accordingly it seemed important to consider, not only the work of the Grand Army on behalf of pensions and other measures of interest to veterans, but also the attempts "\-vhich were made to enforce and to circumvent the order's self-denying ordinance. Again, the veteran, participating as an individual in the political life of his state, called for attention. A growing realization that much of the significance of the G. A. R. and of other veterans' organiza­ tions lay in their contribution to the social life of the community led to a further broadening of the scope of the work. In its own right, the history of 1\1innesota, a blend of North and West during the generation which followed the Civil War, is full of interest. Population increased with startling rapidity, as immigrants from far and near found new homes within the ample boundaries of the state. In its changing life some thou­ sands of men who had served in arms during the civil conflict took such part as they could. If the part which they and the veterans' organizations which they joined was less a dominant one than some have supposed-and that is the conclusion to which the whole investigation leads-it would nevertheless seem well to tell their story for its own intrinsic interest. That it n1ay be told more clearly, three chapters dealing with the ever-shifting patterns of party politics in the North Star state have been inserted. While preparing this study for publication, I have become in­ debted to .Professor E.W. King and Mr. L. S. Dutton of the 1\1i­ ami University library for many courtesies. And it is difficult, in a few words, to express adequately my gratitude for the scholarly and friendly assistance which I have received, first and last, from the staff of the Minnesota Historical Society, notably from Dean Theodore C. Blegen, formerly superintendent of the Society; from his successor, Dr. Arthur J. Larsen; from Dr. Grace Lee Nute, curator of manuscripts; from Dr. Lewis Bee­ son, curator of newspapers; from Miss Gertrude Krausnick, li­ brarian; and from Miss Lois Fawcett and Mrs. Irene B. Warm­ ing, reference librarians. A letter by John Lind is reprinted from Professor George M. Stephenson's John Lind of lvf.innesota, p. 204, by permission of the publisher, The University of 1\1innesota Press, Minne­ apolis, Minnesota. Above all, I am very much a debtor to Professor Lester B. Shippee of the University of Minnesota, who first suggested to me the desirability of investigating the place of the Civil War veterans in American politics. The obligation grew as the work proceeded under the stimulus of his friendly encouragement and criticism. I am grateful, also, to my colleague, Professor William J. McNiff, who read the entire manuscript and contributed much sound counsel; to Professor Merrill E. Jarchow of South Dakota State College, who likewise made a number of improv­ ing suggestions; and to my brother, John P. Heck, who did all manner of chores incident to such an undertaking. The editors, Professors Jordan and Thomas, have given me the benefit of their editorial judgment and historical scholarship, with all pa­ tience and generosity. It will be understood, of course, that though the helpful advice of these friends has enabled me to avoid sundry pitfalls, they are in no wise to be held responsible for any into which I may have slipped. Frank H. Heck l\.1iami University Oxford, Ohio October 6, 1941 CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE .. .tors' Foreword Vll Eal ...... Pref ace ...... lX I. Fraternity, Charity, and Loyalty ...... I II. Gro,,tth and Decline; the G. A. R. in Minnesota .. . IO III. Good Fellowship Among Comrades ...... 33 IV. G. A. R. Department Activities ...... 46 V. Lesser Veterans' Organizations ...... 70 VI. Party Irregularity in a Republican Stronghold ... . 84 VII. The Machinery of Democracy ...... 104 VIII. Intra-Party Factions ...... I 3 I IX. The Veteran As a Parry Worker ...... 144 X. The Veteran As an Office Seeker ...... 156 XI. The Politician Seeks the Soldier Vote ...... 1 77 XII. The Veteran Point of View ...... 200 XIII. The Veteran and the Pension Issue ...... 208 XIV. The Veterans' Legislative Program ...... 224 xv. The G. A. R. and Party Politics in Minnesota . . . . 238 Appendix ...... 2 57 Bibliography ...... 261 Index ...... 283

MAPS Location of Important G. A. R. Posts in Minnesota ...... 2 1 Political Dissent in l\1innesota ...... 89

CHAPTER I

FRATERNITY, CHARITY, AND LOYAL TY

URING THE GENERATION which followed the Civ­ il War, Minnesota was the home of a considerable number ofD organizations composed of men who had served during the conflict in the army or navy of the United States. Of these, the Grand Army of the Republic was by all odds the most signi­ ficant. Other associations of veterans appealed in each case to a smaller number of potential members. None had a history as long as its seventy-five year record, extending from 1866 and not yet closed. None exerted an influence on public sentiment as steady and sustained as that of the Grand Army. None so appealed to the imagination of the generation which flourished between the early 188o's and the eve of the War of 1914. Indeed the practice of assuming that the terms "Civil War veteran" and "member of the G. A. R." were synonymous was not uncom­ mon then, and certainly is not uncommon now. 1 As a matter of fact not all veterans of the Civil War were eligible to membership in the Grand Army. Of those who were eligible, not all, by any means, sought n1embership. Of those who sought membership, some, though eligible, were for one reason or another, denied admission. \Vhile the rules and regulations of the G. A. R. were amended ,vith comparative ease and indeed marked frequency, the re­ quiren1ents for membership remained practically unaltered after the date of the third national encampment, held at Cincinnati in May, 1869. The fundamental requiren1ent, of course, was service during the "war for the suppression of the Rebellion" in the United States army, navy, or marine corps. A further pre­ requisite was that unless the candidate was still enrolled in the

1 Minneapolis Tribune, July 10, 1899; September 4, 1901; see also car­ toon, ibid., January 17, 1892 (the frontispiece of this volume); G. A. R., National Encampment, Journal, 1884, p. 34-35. 2 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN armed service of the United States, he must have been honorably discharged. Finally, the r 869 encampment added, and later en­ can1pments refused to subtract, a proviso that "no person shall be eligible to membership who has at any time borne arms against the United States." This last regulation was, to be sure, of small consequence in Minnesota. In states farther south, however, it excluded a fairly sizeable number of would-be recruits who had, \vith more or less alacrity, enlisted in the Union forces after service in the Confederate ranks. It also closed the door to Union prisoners who enlisted under the Stars and Bars as an alternative 2 to the horrors of life in a military prison camp. · The rules under which an eligible veteran might be denied n1embership in the Grand Army of the Republic varied from time to time, but a secret ballot was always required.3 The rules and regulations adopted in January, r 868, provided that one '~blackball" to every twenty comrades voting should be suffici­ ent to exclude a candidate. In r 869, the regulation was fixed on a 1nore permanent and somewhat more liberal basis, when it was provided that two "black balls" should be required to reject a candidate when not more than twenty ballots were cast, and

2 Rules and Regulations, 1869, 1870, 1872, 1874, 1881, 1886, 1890; Grand Army Blue-Book, 1899, p. 22, 50-51; National Encampment, Proceedings, 1866-1876, p. 358, and passim; 1879, p. 640. Heated but unsuccessful at­ tempts were made in 1884 and 1885 to reword the requirements so as to open the door to honorably discharged Union veterans whose service in the Confederate ranks had been involuntary. National Encampment, Journal, 1884, p. 163-197; 1885, p. 232-253; 1887, p. 236. 3 Rules and Regulations, 1868, p. 5; 1869, p. 8; 1890, p. 6; Grand Army Blue-Book, 1899, p. 304. In the official register kept by the assistant ad­ jutant general of the Minnesota department are recorded the names of nine applicants, reported rejected by posts in the department during the three years following the reorganization of the department, August 1 7, 1881. One of the nine was twice rejected by Muller post number 1, Still­ water. Black Book and Endorsement Book, p. 6-7, Department of Minne­ sota, Papers. This collection will be cited hereafter as G. A. R. Papers. Departn1ent general orders issued during the eighties frequently listed, for the information of officers, the names of applicants who had recently been rejected by any of the posts. See general orders for 1884 in De­ partment of Minnesota, Journal, 1881-1885, p. 125; for 1885 in Journal, 1886, p. 88, 90, 93, 97, 98. In 1895, the national encampment voted that rejections should be filed at department and national headquarters, but should not be published. National Encampment, Journal, 1895, p. 338. FRATERNITY, CHARITY, AND LOYALTY 3 that for each additional t\venty ballots an additional black ball should be required to prevent his election. This was ultimately replaced by a sin1pler rule, adopted in 1 897, which provided that "one black ball for every ten balls deposited shall be neces­ sary to reject." The candidate who had been elected to membership ,vas "mustered" in a n1anner prescribed by the ritual. Accompanied by armed guards, he w·as conducted about the post hall, duly challenged and instructed by the ranking officers; then, sur­ rounded by the comrades in n1ilitary formation, he took the ob­ ligation. According to the ritual of 1907, the wording was as fol­ lows:

I, -, in the presence of Almighty God, and these Comrades of the Grand Army, do solemnly promise:- That I will at all ti1nes keep sacred the secrets of the Grand Army of the Republic; that I will never make known to any person not a comrade in good standing any countersign, sign or grip established and used by the Grand Army of the Republic, nor disclose the proceedings of any Post, Department, or National Encampment, except in accordance with the Rules and Regulations of the order. That I will regard every comrade as a brother, and will answer all signs and words by which he shall make himself known to me as such. That I will aid all poor and distressed soldiers and sailors, and the v.idows and orphans of my late co1nrades by all the means in my power, so far as I can, without injury to myself or family; and that in all things connected with the Grand Army, I will exercise a spirit of Fraternity and Charity towards all my comrades. I further promise that I will at all times, to the best of my ability, de­ f end the Union of the United States of America, honor its Constitution, conscientiously obey the laws of the land, encourage honor and purity in public affairs, and in a spirit of loyalty protect the flag of our country, as the emblem of liberty, equal rights and national unity. And this obligation as a comrade I voluntarily assume, and promise to fulfill on the honor of a soldier ( or sailor). Like the rules and regulations, the ritual of the G. A. R. was the object of repeated revisions and amendments. The first rit­ ual, prepared in the spring of r 866 by Major B. F. Stephenson, the recognized founder of the Grand Army, was thoroughly re­ vised at the second annual encampment, January, 1868. A year later, in a misguided effort to revive interest in the organization, there was established a short-lived system of grades or degrees 4 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN of membership, known as recruit, soldier, and veteran. 4 This, of course, required an expansion of the ritual, which had again to be revised in 187 1, when the grade system was abolished. A few months later still another partial revision became necessary when copies of the secret cipher and key to the "unwritten work" of the order, lost by certain officers in Maryland, were published. A rather thorough-going revision was made in 1888, only to be repudiated in 1890, when the national encampment ordered a return to the older forms. 5 Believing that candidates were sometimes kept out of the or­ der unjustly and for "purely local and personal reasons," the committee on rules and regulations in 1890 recommended to the national encampment, and that body adopted, an amend­ ment designed to lighten somewhat the burdens of the persist­ ent but unpopular seeker for membership. Thereafter, a man whose application for admission to one post had been rejected might apply freely to another after six months had elapsed. Formerly the consent of the post which had rejected a candi­ date's application had been necessary to his election by a sec­ ond unit.6 The Grand Army of the Republic may be said to have been a mildly secret society. A good deal of care was taken, at least during the first generation and a half of the order's existence, to keep the printed copies of its ritual a\vay from the eyes of the uninitiated. As a further safeguard, certain words and ceremonies were never printed. The "unwritten work" included a "hailing

4 Ritual of the Grand Anny of the Republic, 1884, 1907. A shorter, and presumably earlier, version of the obligation quoted above is found in the G. A. R. Papers. It contains the sa111e basic engagements as does the one quoted. The original Stephenson ritual is printed in 0. M. Wil­ son, The Grand Ar1ny of the Republic under Its First Constitution and Ritual, 22 3-2 35. A copy of the 1869 Ritual, including the obligations of all three grades, is found in the Torrance Collection in the library of the Minnesota Historical Society. See also, National Encampment, Proceed­ ings, 1866-1876, p. 19, 64-67. 5 National Encampment, Proceedings, 1866-1876, p. 82-85, 114-115, 138, 197; National Headquarters, General Orders, No. 14, December 26, 1871, G. A. R. Papers. 6 National Encampment, Journal, 1890, p. 177-178. FRATERNITY, CHARITY, AND LOYALTY 5 sign," changing national and department countersigns, a grip, a "sign of distress," with words to be used when the latter might not be visible, and a dialogue by means of which traveling com­ rades might identify themselves. From 1869, the ritual and un­ written work were designated in the rules and regulations as secrets whose revelation would lead, upon due conviction, to the dishonorable discharge of the guilty member. The ballot on the admission of a candidate for membership was by its nature a secret one, and to divulge any information regarding the "causes or means" of the rejection of a candidate was particularly pro­ hibited. To publish the proceedings of a post meeting, depart­ ment or national encampn1ent, without the approval of the en­ campment, the department commander, or the commander in chief, was also an offence which called for expulsion. 7 John S. Kountz of Toledo, Ohio, commander in chief of the G. A. R. in 1884-1885, and a Roman Catholic, was apparently somewhat concerned lest some of his co-religionists be restrained from seeking membership in the Grand Army by a strict inter­ pretation of the church's general rule against membership in sec­ ret societies. He there£ore appointed a committee headed by no less a personage than General W. S. Rosecrans, who corre­ sponded with Archbishops Gibbons and Ryan, and conversed with other prelates and theologians, all of whom agreed that the G. A. R. "as now organized and conducted, is not, in the ecclesiastical meaning of the phrase, a 'secret society,' and that Catholics may, with all good conscience, belong to it." In reporting this favorable opinion to the annual encampment of 188 5, Kountz was also able to state that two small and ordin­ arily strict Protestant sects had taken a similar stand. The Church of the United Brethren had decided that its members might join

1 Rules and Regulations, 1868, p. 9; 1869, p. 31; 1874, p. 31; Grand Ar1ny Blue-Book, 1899, p. 244-246; Ritual, 1884, esp. p. 3, 26-27. In the G. A. R. Papers is a copy of the Ritual, 1883, which contains pencilled explanations of the "unwritten work." A pleasant account of a reporter's unsuccessful attempt to gain admission to the l\llinnesota department en­ campment of 1892 at Minneapolis is found in the Minneapolis Tribune, February 18, 1892. On this and similar occasions, a special press commit­ tee or some designated officer was usually authorized to give the repre­ sentatives of the press an account of the proceedings. 6 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN the G. A. R. without incurring the displeasure of the church, and the United Presbyterians had decided to leave the matter to the conscience of the individual members. 8 Less favorable was the position taken by the leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference. In the official per­ iodical of the ultra-conservative Missouri Synod, there appeared, early in 1888, an analysis of the nature of the G. A. R., ending in a hearty denunciation of the organization as "objectionable according to God's Word, and dangerous to the souls of those \ivho join the order." In February, 1892, at a joint meeting in Minneapolis of representatives of the Minnesota Synod and the Minnesota-Dakota district of the Missouri Synod, it was agreed that members of Lutheran congregations who joined the G. A. R. ought to be expelled from the church.9 The Augustana Swedish Lutheran Synod, which had long frowned upon membership in secret societies, adopted in 1 894 a definition of that term, sweeping enough to include the G. A. R. and the Sons of Veterans. Some doubt remained, however, as to whether membership in these organizations and some others, primarily concerned with providing insurance benefits for their members, actually was, or ought to be, forbidden. As the enforcement of the prohibition, in any event, rested with the local pastor and lay officers, the practice followed was not uniform. In at least one or two cases, however, members of the G. A. R. and the Sons of Veterans seem to have been offered the alternative of leaving the church or leaving the order.10

8 National Encampment, Journal, 1885, p. 31-32. 9 A. G., "Die Grand Army of the Republic," in Der Lutheraner, 44: 9-11, 17-19 (January 17, 31, 1888); Minneapolis Tribune, February 19, 1892. 10 Referat ofwer f orhandlingarna wid Skand. Evangelisk-Lutherska Augustana-Synodens, 35:20, 76 (1894); 34:90 (1893); Referat ofver forhandlingarna vid Minnesota-Konferensens af. Ev. Luth. Augustana­ Synoden, 38:13, 20 (1896); St. Peter Herald, June 15, 1894; St. Paul Dispatch, May 12, 16, 21, 1896; The Sentry (St. Paul), May 23, 1896; Minneapolis Journal, June 8, 19, 1901; interview with Mr. Theodore Abramson, former treasurer of Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church, St. Paul, July 31, 1940. I am indebted to Mr. Abramson, and to Miss Elsa R. Nordin of the Minnesota Historical Society library, for assist­ ance in translating material in Swedish, cited above. FRATERNITY, CHARITY, AND LOYALTY 7 The objects of the Grand Army were commonly summar­ ized by the slogan, "Fraternity, Charity and Loyalty," the init­ ials of which were used in the complimentary closing of a let­ ter from one comrade to another. As stated more fully and auth­ oritatively in the rules and regulations, the objects of the order were as follows:

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 pro­ tection; 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 Con­ stitution and laws; 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.11

The G. A. R., it should be explained, was divided into depart­ ments, whose jurisdictions were generally coterminous with those of the states or territories for which they were named. The local units, each of which was supposedly subordinate to the department in which it was located, were known as posts. Chief of the post officers were the commander, the senior and junior vice commanders, the adjutant, whose duties were those of a sec­ retary, and the quartermaster, who served as treasurer. Lesser officers included the surgeon, chaplain, sergeant major, quarter­ master sergeant, officer of the day, officer of the guard, and after 1906, patriotic instructor. The adjutant was at first elected like the other higher officers, but after 187 1 he was oppointed each year by the post commander. The sergeant major and quarter­ master sergeant, assistants respectively of the adjutant and quar­ termaster, were appointed by the post commander upon the rec­ ommendation of those officers. The department officers, past department commanders, the

11 Rules and Regulations, 1874, p. 3-4. For a consideration of the regu­ lations designed to restrain political action by the Grand Army and its subdivisions, see below, p.· 238-254. 8 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN commanders and past commanders of the several posts, rein­ forced by one or more elected delegates from each post in good standing, met annually in department encampments. At these meetings a good deal of business was transacted, and a depart­ ment commander and other officers were chosen for the follow­ ing year.12 The relations of the national encampment with the depart­ ments were similar to those of the department encampments with the posts. The head of the national organization bore the title of commander in chief. He was assisted by a senior vice commander in chief, a junior vice commander in chief, a chap­ lain in chief, and a surgeon general. His personal staff included the national secretary, who was known as the adjutant general, the inspector general, and the national treasurer or quarter­ master general. The equivalent department officers were termed assistant adjutant general, inspector, and assistant quartermaster general respectively. The legal officer of the Grand Army was the judge advocate general. After 187 1, like the adjutant general, inspector general and quartermaster general, he was appointed by the commander in chief, whose approval was necessary to validate the opinions in which the judge advocate general in­ terpreted the rules and regulations of the G. A. R. Similarly, the assistant adjutant general, assistant quartermaster general, and judge advocate were appointees of the department comman­ der.13 In the titles of its officers, in the arms and uniforms used by officers and comrades, in the wording of its ritual, in the com­ munications between its officers, and in the character of its pri-

12 Rules and Regulations, 1869, p. 10-12; 1872, p. 9-14; 1890, p. 9-17; National Encampment, Journal, 1907, p. 334. During the first year or so of the Grand Army's existence, county organizations known as districts were maintained, at least on paper. No provision was made for districts in the revised rules and regulations adopted by the second national en­ campment in January, 1868. Compare, Department of Minnesota, Con­ stitution, p. 4-5; Proceedings of the Annual and Semi-Annual Encamp- 1nents, 1866-1879, p. 8-10, 15. The latter volume was printed, with in­ significant omissions and alterations, from a large manuscript volume of minutes in the G. A. R. Papers. 13 R.ules and Regulations, 1881, p. 12-21; Grand Army Blue-Book, i889, P· 73. FRATERNITY, CHARITY, AND LOYALTY 9 vate and public ceremonials, the Grand Army preserved, natur­ ally enough, a military flavor. Whatever was said, however, about "assuming command," about "orders" from one officer to a subordinate, and about the duty of military obedience, even the department commanders and commander in chief were ac­ tually constitutional officers, chosen by their fellows for short tern1s, and carefully restricted in their powers and duties. They could recommend; they could advise and exhort; they could in­ deed command; but it was not always possible to enforce a com­ n1and against a recalcitrant member, post, or department. Furth­ ermore, appeals might be taken from the rulings of a post con1- mander to the department commander. From the decisions and official acts of the departn1ent commander, appeals were fre­ quently carried to the department encampn1ent or to the com­ n1ander in chief. Even the decisions of the commander in chief were subject to revision by the national encampment.14

14 Rules and Regulations, 1881, p. 16, 17, 19, 28; Grand Army Blue­ Book, 1889, p. 73, 78, 172-173, 220-222; Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1886, p. 41; 1893, p. 113. CHAPTER II

THE G. A. R. IN MINNESOTA

GROWTH AND DECLINE

UST WHAT THE character of the Grand Army was to be, no one could surely have told on the summer day, Au­ Jgust 1, 1866, when Colonel J. M. Snyder, representing the infant department of Illinois, initiated thirteen veterans, who forthwith proceeded to organize themselves as the department of Minnes­ ota in the Grand Army of the Republic. The organization had few, if any, precedents to follow. It might easily have been as­ sumed that the newly founded society was just another ephem­ eral association without enough occasion for existence to keep it running for even a few years. Certainly it would have required a good deal of assurance to have predicted that over seventy years later, in Jone, 194 r, a handful of old men would meet, to hold what need not, even yet, be the final encampment of the department of Minnesota.1 To be sure, one who can look at the subject from the vantage point of later days and who has in mind both the later history of the Grand Army and the early history of the American Le­ gion, might be inclined to say that conditions in r 866 were very favorable for the success in Minnesota of the newly established veterans' organization. The state census of 186 5 credited Min­ nesota with a population of a quarter of a million. The disband­ ment of the Minnesota volunteer units, finally completed in May, 1866, returned nearly t,velve thousand officers and enlisted men to private life. Veterans from other states might well be expected to make their homes in pioneer Minnesota. Many of them actually did respond to the appeal of its cheap, fertile land, and of the business and professional opportunities of its new and

1 Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1866-1879, p. 5-6; St. Paul Pioneer Press, June 5, 1941. GROWTH AND DECLINE II growing comn1unities. Surely there was plenty of material from which the membership of a veterans' society might be drawn. 2 Yet the Grand Army of the Republic was not firmly estab­ lished in Minnesota for many years after the initial meeting of August 1, 1866. The years prior to 188 3, when for the first time the total membership of the department in good standing ex­ ceeded a thousand, must be accounted years of weakness and relatively ineffectual effort. The seventeen lean years were fol­ lowed, however, by a short period of strikingly rapid growth, which brought the Minnesota department to the peak of its nu­ merical strength in December, 1889, when 178 posts reported a total of 8408 members in good standing. Thereafter, the mem­ bership of the department declined slowly and son1ewhat errat­ ically. The turn of the century found 179 posts with 6572 n1en1bers in good standing. At the beginning of 191 o, 166 posts were still holding on, with a total membership of 4953 in good standing. By 1920, although the "day of the Civil War veteran" was no doubt definitely past, 1 2 8 posts and 2 o 1 5 members re­ mained to carry the banner of the department organization. 3 The rapid growth of the G. A. R. in the decade of the eigh­ ties seems surprising only when contrasted with the utter failure of the organization in the seventies to appeal successfully to any considerable fraction of the eligible men in Minnesota. The to­ tal membership of the department rose from 176 at the beginning of January, 1870, shortly after the unpopular "grade" system had been introduced, to a high figure of 614 in January, 1873, only to decline to less than a hundred in 1880. By that time, ac­ cording to the view of the national officers, the department of Minnesota had ceased to exist, and had been replaced by a new provisional organization. This pitiful record was made in a state

2 Minnesota, Executive Documents, 1865, p. 446; Minnesota, Adjutant General, Annual Report, 1865, Schedule C, p. 40; L. B. Shippee, "Social and Economic Effects of the Civil War, with Special Reference to Min­ nesota," in Minnesota History Bulletin, 2:403 (May, 1918). 3 See appendix A for a year by year statement of the total member­ ship in good standing of the national G. A. R. organization and of the department of Minnesota. For an explanation of apparent discrepancies in membership figures, see below, p. 3 1. 12 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN with a population of 439,706 in 1870, 597,407 in 1875, and 780,773 in 1880. 4 It is true, of course, that the Grand Army attained little more than a foothold in other parts of the United States, prior to 1880. It is also true that the Minnesota department's revival in the 188o's paralleled, or followed, a notable, if somewhat less spec­ tacular, resuscitation of the entire G. A. R. From the disordered reports which they received during the first five years of the order's existence, the successive adjutant generals professed to be quite unable to reach a definite conclusion regarding the nu­ merical strength of the Grand Army. The relatively accurate returns of the seventies revealed a membership which fluctuated between twenty-five and thirty thousand comrades, until in 1879 a sudden spurt brought the total to nearly forty-five thousand. For December, 1880, the adjutant general was able to report sixty thousand men in good standing, nearly twice the average annual figure for the seventies; and in 1890, the Grand Army, after a steady rise, reached its high tide, with a reported mem­ bership in good standing of 409,489 men. 5 What strength the G. A. R. attained during the 187o's was concentrated in the northeastern section of the Union. As late as June, 1879, the adjutant general could report that forty-one per cent of the membership belonged to the New England de­ partn1ents, and forty-seven per cent to those in the Middle states. The South claimed only three per cent of the total, while the departments west of Pennsylvania and north of the Ohio River accounted for the ren1aining nine per cent. Weak as the Min­ nesota department was, it paid in dues to the national organiza­ tion a sum greater than any other western department except Ohio in 187 2 and 1873, Illinois in r 87 5, and Ohio and Illinois in 18 74, 187 6, and 187 7. When one recalls that Minnesota was sparsely populated, in comparison with Ohio and Illinois, and even with its immediate neighbors to the south and east, he real-

4 Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1866-1879, p. 44, 94, 178; National Encampment, Journal, 1881, p. 761; Tenth Census ( 1880), Population, 66-67; Minnesota, Executive Documents, 1875, 1: no. 3, p. 96-97. 5 National Encampment, Proceedings, 1866-1876, p. 35-49, 84, 129; Journal, 1881, p. 761; 1888, p. 69; 1894, p. 72. See appendix A. GROWTH AND DECLINE 13 izes ho\v completely the G. A. R. had failed in the decade of the seventies to arouse the interest, much less the enthusiasm, of those veterans whose homes lay in the West.6 A satisfactory explanation of this indifference is not readily forthcoming. To be sure, the highest membership reached by the i\1innesota department prior to its revival in the 1 88o's was attained on the eve of the panic of 187 3, and a gradual decline in n1embership occurred during the succeeding years of eco­ non1ic depression. But it should be remembered that twenty years later, during the depression of the 1 89o's, the department of lVIinnesota's membership never fell below a figure ten times greater than the record total of the seventies. 7 While frontier conditions prevailed in much of the department's jurisdiction, they can hardly have been a serious barrier to the success of the G. A. R. in southeastern Minnesota, generally speaking, and particularly in such cities as St. Paul, Minneapolis, Stillwater and \Vinona.8 The official explanation, heard repeatedly during the 187o's, for the general weakness of the order in the section of its origin ,vas that that weakness had resulted from early efforts, especially between 1 866 and 1869, to use the Grand Arn1y as a political agency, in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri, and in the West gener­ ally. This theory will be considered in a later chapter, as will the argument advanced by Major Oliver M. Wilson to the effect that the elin1ination of the political animus which had at first

6 National Encampment, Proceedings, 1866-1876, p. 216-217, 284-286, 335-337, 394; 1877, p. 22-23; 18i8, p. 528-529; 1879, p. 600; Tenth Census ( 1880 ), Population, 4. The magnitude of the growth in membership dur­ ing the eighties is emphasized by the fact that each of the relatively strong northeastern departments more than doubled its membership between 1879 and 1890. Journal, 1881, p. 761; 1891, p. 11-42. 7 Assistant Adjutant Generals F. M. Finch and J. J. McCardy in 1877 and 1878 attributed the department's losses to the current hard times and the resultant inability of 1nembers to pay dues. Department of Min­ nesota, Proceedings, 1866-1879, p. 15 1; Minutes, p. 130, G. A. R. Papers. 8 As a matter of fact, two of the most vigorous posts during the seventies had their headquarters in the frontier villages of Detroit and Worthington. In each of these instances, to be sure, the post was located in the midst of a pioneer farming area whose settlers included many Civil War veterans. 14 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN characterized the order in such states as Indiana was a cause of its decline in those regions. 9 For the present, it will be enough to say that both of these contentions can hardly be sound, and that neither appears entirely satisfying. Whatever cause or collection of causes one assigns for the early weakness of the Grand Army in Minnesota as well as the West at large, the existence of that weakness can hardly be dis­ puted. Between 1867 and 1880, some forty-one posts ,vere or­ ganized in Minnesota. They existed for periods varying in length from a fe,v months to several years, but none was active throughout the thirteen years. At no one time, moreover, were there more than nineteen posts in good standing. The number was usually less. The last of the forty-one posts was mustered on January 14, 1876 at Cottage Grove, a tiny inland settlement belo"\\' St. Paul on the peninsula separating the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers. It was one of the eight posts represented at the encampment held in Minneapolis late in January, 1876, when eleven posts were reported in good standing.10 First place on the roll, when consecutive numbers were as­ signed in r 867, was accorded to the post at the Mississippi River town of Wabasha. Its first commander, Frank E. Daggett, elected in October, 1 866, became the second commander of the department. Daggett was a portly newspaper editor and minor politician, whose avoirdupois and good nature were all but pro­ verbial among his brother editors, whether "Radical" like him­ self, or "Copperhead," as a Republican editor of the period was apt to term his Democratic contemporaries. In spite of Dag­ gett's vigorous pen and personality, however, the Wabasha post seems not to have endured beyond 1868 or 1869. Daggett left Wabasha in 1870, and turned up at pioneer Litchfield, sixty-odd

9 See below, p. 2 38-246. 10 Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1866-1879, p. 44, 137, 178, and passim; Phil Sheridan post, Adjutant's Record, G. A. R. Papers. The total of forty-one posts does not include some that were established in 1866 but were not active after the end of that year or the early part of 1867. National Encampment, Proceedings, 1866-1876, p. 42. For a post to maintain itself in good standing after 1870, it was required to make a quarterly report to the department headquarters and to pay a tax of ten cents a quarter for each member not suspended or expelled. GROWTH AND DECLINE 15 miles ,vest of Minneapolis, in 187 2, as part owner and editor of the Litchfield News-Ledger. In 1874, Edward Branham post came into being at Litchfield with Daggett as its first com­ mander. This organization lasted long enough to turn out in uniform at its founder's funeral in October, 1876, but even at that time it was not in good standing at department headquar­ ters.11 Son1e other posts ,vere active for such short periods that they seem hardly \Vorth mentioning. Some, after passing through periods of inactivity were revived, only to decline again. The Faribault post "went down" at least three times before its name and number finally disappeared from the roster in 1875. On the other hand, the veterans in the bustling lumber town of Still­ water on the St. Croix succeeded in establishing a permanent or­ ganization in 187 5, after the failure of two earlier efforts, the first in 1868, and the second in 1872.12· Posts near the frontier of settlement sometimes were more vigorous than those in older, larger communities. That at De­ troit in the lake country along the main line of the Northern Pacific was far removed from all others. Yet it maintained itself with an average membership of about twenty-five from its estab­ lishment in February, 1872, when the settlement was not a year old, certainly until 1878; and it was one of the five posts that claimed to have survived the hiatus of 1880. The unusual vigor of this outpost of the G. A. R. may perhaps be explained by the fact that Detroit and the surrounding country were settled largely under the auspices of the New England Colony and Bureau of l\1igration, an organization which had for its purpose the colonization of veterans in the West. Its leader was Colonel George H. Johnston, who himself removed from Boston to De-

11 Wabasha Herald, October 4, 18, December 27, 1866; January 31, March 14, 21, June 20, 27, July 11, August 22, September 12, 1867; Feb­ ruary 20, May 21, June 18, 1868; October 13, 1870; Litchfield News­ Ledger, June 25, August 13, October 15, 1874; October 19, 1876. 12 Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1866-1879, p. 33, 37, 40, 42, 50, 63, 70, 84, 91, 94, 97, 107, 120, 133, 138, 149; UTabasha Herald, June 18, 1868; Stillwater Republican, March 18, 1868; Stillwater Messenger, April 2, 9, 1875; Joseph C. Mold to Henry A. Castle, March 18, 1890; January 14, 1891, Castle Papers. 16 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN troit. I-le was not only a promoter of colonization and of village enterprises generally, but an active worker in the Baptist church, the .iVIasonic order, the Republican party, and the Grand ...t\.rmy of the Republic. He served as comn1ander of the department of 1Vlinnesota in r 876.13 When the grasshopper horde settled down on southwestern Minnesota in the summer of 1873, there was only one active Grand Army unit in the afflicted area. This was Stoddard post nun1ber 34, which had been established the year before, aln1ost at the birth of the village of Worthington, its headquarters. It reported a membership of forty-three at the beginning of 187 3. A year later the total was down to thirty-four. At the annual encan1pments of r 87 5 and r 876, however, Stoddard post, with rosters of 102 and 127 members respectively, vvas the largest in the jurisdiction. Such a record by a post centering in a village of not more than five hundred inhabitants is worthy of so1ne special note. Even the fifty-five members reported in July, 1877, vvould seem a very respectable total for a post so located.1-1 No doubt the fact that in r 874 the post performed for its 111embers some of the functions of a claim protection association partially explains its rapid growth in membership during that year. Another factor was the part which the post played in obtaining direct relief, through the department and national or­ ganizations of the G. A. R., for its own members and for other sufferers f ron1 the grasshopper plague.15

18 Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1866-1879, p. 81, 96, 121, 133, 149, 15 2; Harold E. Peterson, "Some Colonization Projects of the Northern Pacific Railroad," in Minnesota History, 10:132-135 (June, 1929); Weekly Record (Detroit), July 13, 27, November 2 3, 30, De­ cember 21, 1872; January 4, 18, February 8, 15, 22, March 8, 1873; June 6, 1874. National Encampment, Proceedings, 1893, p. 273-276. Other posts which claimed to have maintained their organization through 1879 and 1880 were those at Stillwater, Elk River, St. Paul, and Shakopee. 14 Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1866-1879, p. 96, 121, 133, 149, 152; Western Advance (Worthington), March 14, August 22, 1874; William W. Folwell, A History of Minnesota, 3:97-110; Minnesota, Ex­ ecutive Documents, 1875, 1: No. 3, p. 80. 15 The career of the Worthington post is discussed at greater length by Frank H. Heck, "The Grand Army of the Republic in Minnesota, 1866-1880," in Minnesota History, 16:432-434 (December, 1935). GROWTH AND DECLINE 17 Naturally enough the posts at Minneapolis and St. Paul, each of which had responded generously to the appeals on behalf of the Worthington comrades, occupied an influential place in the counsels of the department organization. A post was organized at Minneapolis early in September, 1866, and a year later was assigned nu1nber 3 on the roll of the department. Still later it assumed the name of George N. l\1organ. The annual encamp­ ments of 1867, 1868, 1870, 1874, and 1876 were held at Minne­ apolis, and two of the department commanders, Henry G. Hicks in 1868, and D. W. Albaugh in 1875, were members of Morgan post. Its career, nevertheless, was not one of unbroken prosper­ ity. In January, 187 3, the commander reported to the depart­ ment inspector that he had been unable to obtain a quorum since July, 187 2, although the post numbered forty-eight members in good standing. Yet in 187 5, seventy-seven members were re­ ported; in 1876, _eighty. By January, 1878, however, only thirty­ six remained on the active roll.16 After the failure of a first effort in 1866, St. Paul veterans waited until 1870 before a successful Grand Army unit was established in the capital city. Acker post number 2 1, which came into existence in April, 1870, was one of the most active l\1innesota posts during the next seven years. Despite the fact that many members were suspended or dropped for nonpayment of dues, which amounted to two dollars a year, the roster of 4 3 members at the end of the first quarter of the post's existence rose gradually to a high point of Io 5, reported as of March 3 1, 1 87 5. The actual attendance at meetings was, however, by no means so large as this, even on the occasion of the annual election of o.fficers. 17

16 Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1866-1879, p. 8, 11, 15, 40, 97, 133, 138, 149, 152; Minneapolis Daily Chronicle, September 8, 24, October 5, 1866; January 30, February 22, March 17, 26, 30, 1867; H. D. Carter ( comp.), Roster, George N. Morgan Post, p. 10. 17 The fundamental source for the history of Acker post from 1870 to 1877 is two volumes of manuscript adjutant's records, which are pre­ served in the G. A. R. Papers. These volumes are supplemented by copies of the post adjutant's quarterly reports, in the same collection. One of the charter members, Josiah B. Chaney, drew upon these ma­ terials as well as on his personal recollections for his History of Acker Post. See also Chaney Diary, August 8, 15, 17, 29, 1866, Chaney Papers. THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN In harmony with the second of the basic Grand Army princi­ ples of "Fraternity, Charity, and Loyalty," Acker post was par­ ticularly diligent in its charitable work. Money was voted, for example, to provide watchers at the bedside of a sick comrade, to furnish temporary doles to the widows of soldiers, to pay the funeral expenses of a deceased veteran, and to bring an ailing and penniless member back to St. Paul from Denver. Partly as a means of entertaining members and friends, but more particularly to raise money for its relief fund, Acker post promoted a series of dances, excursions, lectures, and other en­ tertainments. A number of dramatic ventures were attempted, in which members and their friends of the other sex formed the greater part of the cast. The financial returns from the first few of these excursions into the field of the drama were eminently satisfactory. Then the post's luck changed. A series of failures and an expensive lawsuit arising out of the post's dramatic ac­ tivities saddled the organization with a debt, which in 1877 com­ peHed it to give up its regular meeting hall and sell some of the f urniture.18 Although a handful of members attempted to meet the techni­ cal requirements of continuity by paying their per capita tax to the department quartermaster general, Acker past can hardly be said to have been active between April 23, 1877, and July 15, 1881.19 With the larger posts losing ground, year by year, the annual department encampments of 1877, 1878, and 1879 must have been rather discouraging affairs. In 1 87 7, a loss of 1 38 members during the preceding year was reported. This reduced the roster of the department to fourteen posts with 445 members. A year later, the assistant adjutant general reported a further drop to eleven posts and 377 members. Both in 1877 and 1878, the en-

18 Acker post, Adjutant's Record, 1:55, 62, 69, 72, 100; 2: 18-25, 35, 107, 166, 212, 217, 243-253. Other posts used similar, but usually less ambitious, methods to obtain money for their relief funds. rn Henry A. Castle to Chaney, July 5, 1893, Chaney Papers; Chaney to Castle, July 6, 1893, in National Encampment, Proceedings, 1893, p. 273; Acker post, Adjutant's Record, 2: 253; Minutes of the reorganization meeting, July 15, 1881; J. J. McCardy to Adam Marty, August 30, 1881, G. A. R. Papers. GROWTH AND DECLINE campments were held at Stillwater. That of r 879 took place at Shakopee, with delegates and officers present from only the Stillwater and Shakopee posts. The department commander, William Willson of Shakopee, stated that he could not tell how many posts were in good standing, since he had not received reports from the assistant adjutant general and assistant quarter­ master general. He admitted, however, that the department was sadly disorganized. Captain C. A. Bennett, one of the Stillwater delegates, who was elected cotnmander, seems to have been wil­ ling to let the department organization die on his hands. At any rate, no reports or payments vvere made to national headquarters in 1879. Furthermore, Bennett failed to call the annual encamp- 111ent which should have met in January or February, r 880.20 Throughout these months, however, l\1uller post of Stillwater ren1ained active. Finally, in the spring of r 880, its commander, a Swiss-born house painter named Adam l\1arty, took the steps which resulted in the reorganization of the defunct department, with 1\1 uller post as number r and l\1arty himself as provisional department commander.:n For over two and a half years following the establishment of a provisional departn1ent organization in l\1ay, r 880, department affairs were administered at Stillwater by Marty and his fellow countryman, fellow townsman, cousin, and assistant adjutant general, a crippled veteran named Samuel Bloomer. Under their leadership the men1bership rose, by December, 1882, to a total of fifteen posts and 648 n1en in good standing. Thus, within two and a half years after the new start of r 880, the G. A. R. in l\1innesota attained numerical strength equal to the best record 2 of previous years. 2 lVleanwhile, at the earliest date permitted by the rules and

20 Department of Minnesota, Minutes, p. 130; Proceedings, 1866-1879, p. 151-160, 175. 21 Stillwater Messenger, May 31, 1879; July 10, 1880; National En­ campment, Journal, 1881, p. 743; Proceedings, 1893, p. 270, 276; A. B. Easton (ed.), History of the St. Croix Valley, 1:314-315. At the time of the reorganization, Marty was also president of the First Minnesota In­ f antry Volunteers Association. See Minute Book of that organization, p. 51-55. :!:.! Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1881-1885, p. 3-41; Minnesota History Bulletin, 3: 5 2 5. 20 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN regulations, Comrnander in Chief George S. Merrill of Law­ rence, Massachusetts, had authorized the assembling at Stillwater of a provisional encampment to organize a full-fledged depart­ ment of Minnesota. The representatives of the required mini­ mun1 of six posts had met, August 17, 1881, organized and elected officers. Finally the commander in chief, first G. A. R. officer of that rank to visit Minnesota officially, had installed the newly chosen department officers. 23 The work of these leaders was apparently facilitated by a more or less spontaneous awakening of interest in the Grand Army in Minnesota and throughout the country generally. At the encampment of August 17, 1881, Bloomer reported having received applications for charters and inquiries regarding the proper procedure in organizing posts, from various parts of the state. The following January, upon Commander Marty's recom­ mendation, the department encampment voted to charge each new post a uniform rate of twenty-six dollars for its charter, supplies, and traveling expenses of the mustering officer. The comn1ander's purpose was to reduce the costs of installation, which had previously been borne entirely by the new posts, and which had constituted a serious obstacle to the organization of units "in the frontier counties where they are generally poor, but willing to join the Order." The policy of lessening the cost of organizing posts at a distance from department headquarters was justified by the establishment during the next two years of approximately fifty new posts. During 1882, Bloo1ner requested the postmaster in each of fif­ ty towns where no post existed to send him the names of six or more ex-soldiers. Utilizing the lists thus secured, he was able, at

23 Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1881-1885, p. 3-11; Rules and Regulations, 1881, p. 12, 30. The six posts represented at the provisional encampment, August 17, 1881, were, in addition to the one at Stillwater, those at Anoka, organized October 28, 1880; Minneapolis, revived January 18, 1881; Albert Lea, organized January 28, 1881; Taylor's Falls, organized June 11, 1881; and lv1arshall, organized July 22, 1881. The re­ vived Acker post of St. Paul had not yet received the recognition of provisional Commander Marty. Merrill's predecessor, Louis Wagner of Philadelphia, was the first commander in chief to make it a matter of policy to pay a personal visit to as many department functions as pos­ sible. National Encampment, Journal, 1881, p. 745-746; 1882, p. 863-864. Map 1. Location of Important G. A. R. Posts in Minnesota 22 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN the end of the year, to report that about sixty-five blank appli­ cations for charters had been placed in the hands of old soldiers. In his annual report covering the year 1883, he .had the satisfac­ tion of chronicling the results of these endeavors. The year had seen the membership of the department more than tripled, and the number of posts in good standing increased f ro111 fifteen to .fifty-six. Reserving little credit for hin1self, the assistant adjutant general generously assigned the larger share of the responsibility for this phenomenal advance to another Stillwater man, the Rev. \V. H. Harrington, who, in the capacity of chief mustering of­ ficer, had visited various places where prospects for establishing a post had been detected. During this year of ren1arkable ex­ pansion the position of department commander was occupied by Captain John P. Rea, an able and eloquent Minneapolis at­ torney, who had been the first comn1ander of the revived lVlor­ gan post, ,vho had served since the reorganization of the depart­ n1ent in 1881 as senior vice department commander, and who, before the end of the decade, was to be promoted to the position of comn1ander in chief of the national organization. 24 During the years 1882, 1883, and 1884, the membership of the G. A. R. as a whole increased from 85,856 to 273,168 men in good standing. For this increase, successive commanders in chief, Paul Van Der V oort of Omaha and Robert C. Beath of Phila­ delphia rendered, in the farmer's words, "heartfelt thanks" to George E. Lemon, leading pension attorney at Washington, and publisher of the National Tribune. "At the outset of my ad­ rninistration," said Van Der V oort in his address to the national encampn1ent of July, 1883, "this splendid paper published a stir­ ring editorial, appealing to veterans outside of our organization, to take steps to organize posts. The response came during the year from every section, and up to date they have referred to national headquarters applications for 170 posts. Nearly all of these have been organized and are in good working order ..." 25

24 Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1881-1885, p. 6-7, 10, 14-15, 20, 33-35, 39, 56-58; Proceedings, 1889, p. 130. 25 National Encampment, Journal, 1883, p. 12, 32; 1884, p. 34; 1885, p. 52. On Lemon see W. H. Glasson, Federal Military Pensions in the United States, 182-183, 216, 218, 265. At the request of the National Tribune, Assistant Adjutant General Bloomer began, in September, GRO\VTH AND DECLINE 23 Whether or not the National Tribune or other papers designed to circulate among the Union veterans of the Civil \Var played a significant part in the growth of the lvlinnesota department of the Grand Army is not clearly demonstrable. Nor may one be too certain that the n1ajor cause of the order's growth in the early eighties was the increasing vigor with which the national organization pushed the enactn1ent of pension legislation. It 1nay be that this was indeed the pri1nary reason for the expansion ,vhich occurred; that veterans joined the G. A. R. because they believed that it was fighting their battles for them and that the greater its nu1nerical strength, the greater ,:vould be its force in the continuing struggle for ever more generous pension grants. It may ,veil be that the lun1p sums received by thousands of vet­ erans under the Arrears of Pensions act of 1 879, putting them on their feet financially, paying off the· mortgages on farms and homes, setting son1e of them up in small businesses, gave them a sense of financial \-veil-being in \vhich the cost of Grand Army rnembership seemed less serious than had once been the case.26 In the absence of more direct evidence than has appeared, how­ ever, an attempt to estimate the influence of such factors can proceed hardly at all beyond the level of conjecture. Certain other at least equally intangible factors may also have had a significant part in stimulating veterans to swarm into the G. A. R. in large numbers during the eighties. As years passed, n1en1ories of the war, at first no doubt thoroughly distasteful to

1883, a register of applications for the muster of new posts, forwarded to him through the office of that periodical. The list, however, includes only two applications, one received September 10, from Rochester, the other, September 19, from Moose Lake. A post was organized, shortly thereafter, at Rochester, but none was established at Moose Lake. De­ partn1ent of Minnesota, Black Book and Endorsement Book, G. A. R. Papers. Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1881-1885, p. 57. :::·o See below, p. 208-222, for a review of the activity of the G. A. R. in promoting pension legislation and in facilitating the allowance of pen­ sions under existing laws. On the Arrears of Pensions act, consult Glas­ son, Federal Military Pensions, 160-179. Especially in later years, Grand Army leaders stressed gratitude for the work of the G. A. R. on behalf of liberal pensions as one compelling reason why no eligible veteran should remain outside the order. Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1904, p. 57-58; Journal, 1915, p. 103-104; 1916, p. 20; 1921, p. 84. 24 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN many an ex-soldier, something to be forgotten as soon as pos­ sible, began to be viewed more often through the proverbial rose-colored spectacles. The lighter side of army life, and the intimate con1radeship of by-gone days were perhaps more fre­ quently recalled, to the partial exclusion of the suffering and sor­ row which had once bulked so large in the individual veteran's memory of his war-time service. The elements of adventure, danger, and daring in their arn1y experience n1ay well have seemed increasingly satisfying, in retrospect, to men in their forties and fifties, who found themselves living fundamentally drab and unexciting lives as they followed the regular routine of the settled farm, the factory, or the store. The Grand Army, with its stirring encampments, parades and campfires, reminded men who found the present unheroic and not always even so­ cial, that in the past they had been heroes, or at any rate com­ rades. Its appeal, as it invited them to join in a new comradeship based on the heroism and comradeship of other days, should have been a strong one. 27 The period, in any event, was one in which "joining" was a popular "sport." Between 1880 and 1895, some 260 new secret societies were founded in the United States, while such older and better-known organizations as the Odd Fellows experienced a numerical expansion greater proportionately than the increase in population. In Minnesota, the lodges of Odd Fellows, which in 1880 had a total membership of 3426, could boast by 1890 a total of 91 5 3, though the adult male population of the state had increased in the interval by only about seventy-six per cent.2·s Undoubtedly, the growth of the Grand Army generally dur­ ing the decade of the eighties was the result of a combination of favoring conditions and circumstances, no one of which should be overemphasized. Increased leisure, the result of business

2·7 Carter (comp.), Roster, George N. Morgan Post, p. 10; Minneapolis Tribune, June 3, 1889; St. Cloud Daily Tinzes, June 11, 1891. 28 A. M. Schlesinger, The Rise of the City, 288-290; B. H. Meyer, "Fraternal Beneficiary Societies in the United States," in American Jour­ nal of Sociology, 6:655-656 (March, 1901); Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Sovereign Grand Lodge, Proceedings, 1880, p. 8267; 1890, p. 12059; Tenth Census (1880), Population, 647; Eleventh Census, Popula­ tion, 1: 751. GROWTH AND DECLINE 25 or agricultural success, or of the growth of sons old enough to assist in the field or shop, may, during the eighties, have afforded some ex-soldiers their first opportunity for active membership in the Grand Army of the Republic. Samuel R. Van Sant, who was to serve successively as commander of his post at Winona, department commander of the G. A. R., speak­ er of the Minnesota house of representatives, governor of Min­ nesota, and commander in chief of the Grand Army, seems not to have joined the organization until the autumn of 1884. Asked in later years why he had waited so long to become affiliated with the Grand Army, the ex-governor explained that he had been young, absorbed in his business affairs, and that at Le Claire, Iowa, his headquarters until he moved to Winona in 1883, there was no G. A. R. post.29 Probably many of the recruits who joined the order in the 188o's would have done so sooner had someone taken the initiative in establishing a conveniently lo­ cated post. As the men1bership of the Grand Army increased, the size and splendor of the national encampments increased. They developed into great veterans' reunions. Veritable armies of ex-soldiers camped again on the tented field; mammoth parades through gayly decorated streets drew the cheers of admiring thousands; campfires, receptions, fireworks displays, concerts, and outings were arranged to entertain a host of visiting comrades who took no pan in the official business which was the ostensible occasion for all the festivities. 30 It was to be expected that the assembled old soldiers should enjoy themselves in an uproarious fashion. Even in Washington,

29 Interview with Mr. Van Sant, June 29, 1935. J. H. Baker, Lives of the Governors of Minnesota, p. 400-403, 407; Adjutant's report, John Ball post number 45, fourth quarter, 1884, G. A. R. Papers. Compare editorial in Minneapolis Tribune, July 22, 1884, on the occasion of the national encampment at Minneapolis. 30 National Encampment, Journal, 1882, p. 962-967; 1883, p. 192-213; 1884, p. 254-270; 1885, p. 306-336; 1886, p. 257-259; 1887, p. 261-262; Minneapolis Tribune, July 18-26, 1884. Nearly eight hundred Minnesota comrades attended the 1898 encampment at Cincinnati. Minneapolis Tribune, September 9, 1898. At the 1906 encampment in Minneapolis, a total of sixteen thousand men marched in the grand parade, though the weather was oppressively hot. Minneapolis Tribune, August 13, 1906. 26 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN D. C., where the sale of liquor at the encampment's tented res­ ervation was not permitted during the 1892 meeting, a friendly editorial after the event admitted that "many persons under the influence of liquor, such as follow any large gathering, had to be cared for," though "there were no serious infractions of the law." At Milwaukee in 1889, the Pabst brewery invited the vet­ erans to drink all the beer they wished, free, and one must as­ sume that many of the "old boys" responded with enthusiasm. According to a local editorial writer, however, Milwaukee res­ idents who had expected to see "considerable unseemly conduct and disturbances" during the week of the encampment had been "agreeably disappointed," since "the boys have had no time for 'painting the town red,' even had they been so inclined." Fol­ lowing the Boston encampment of 1904, a Boston newspaperman concluded from police data and the statements of saloon keepers that "no large amount of money was spent for liquor." After the next encampment, a teetotaling guard asserted that he smelled liquor on the breath of none of the hundreds of com­ rades from whom he received the countersign. In 1 896, however, the semi-official organ of the l\1innesota Sons of Veterans pre­ pared its readers for the approach of the national encampment at St. Paul, in somewhat apologetic terms:

The gallant old heroes who are about to visit our city will bring with them some faults, bad habits and etc., [sic] but they should not be cen­ sured too strongly. They should rather be treated like overgrown chil­ dren, for some of them are nothing more. Their bad habits were con­ tracted under the most trying circumstances, either to pass away time, alleviate pain, or drive away the blues. 31

Regardless, however, of the extent to which the encampment goers conformed to the standards of the ,v omen's Christian Temperance Union, the mamn1oth national encampments of the G. A. R. were an important element in building up the mem­ bership of the order. Those departments which, one after an­ other, enjoyed the opportunity of entertaining an affair and

31 Evening Star (Washington, D. C.), September 17, 22, 1892; Mil­ waukee Sentinel, August 28-29, 1889; Milwaukee Journal, August 29, 1889; Boston Evening Transcript, August 22, 1904; The Sentry (St. Paul), August 29, 1896; National Encampment, Journal, 1905, p. 347. GROWTH AND DECLINE spectacle of such magnitude benefited particularly. In February, I 8 84, soon after the opening of his administration as commander of the lVlinnesota department, Edward C. Babb of Minneapolis sent out a circular in which he predicted that thirty thousand veterans \,Vould be on hand for the national encampment to be held at J\11inneapolis during the coming summer. With this as an incentive, he sounded a call for vigorous endeavor in organizing new posts and recruiting new members for those already in ex­ istence. Without a doubt, the approaching encampment was in considerable n1easure responsible for the fact that the depart­ n1ent of Minnesota more than doubled its membership during the first half of that year. It was estimated that approximately two thousand comrades of the department participated in the grand parade, July 2 3, and the records of the assistant adjutant general sho\v that at the end of the year 1884, the department could boast 115 posts and 5611 members in good standing.32 For five more years the work of gathering into the organiza­ tion as many eligible veterans as possible continued to result in an annual increase of 1nen1bership, although the rate of increase, and even the actual numbers gained annually, declined sharply. Year by year, however, the total membership rose until the peak was reached at the close of the decade, only ten years after the lowest ebb in the fortunes of the department. At the l\1inneapolis encampment of 1884, the work of organi­ zing a national woman's relief corps was completed. As early as 1881, the official representatives of the Grand Army, in ses­ sion at Indianapolis, had passed a resolution authorizing the estab­ lishn1ent of such an organization and blessing it in advance with the designation, "auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic." Such an organization had actually been brought into being by the union of existing local, state, and sectional auxiliaries in July,

H:! National Encan1pn1ent, Journal, 1884, p. 265-266; Depart1nent of Minnesota, Journal, 1881 - 188 5, p. 90-91, 98-1oo, 133-135. It is of son1e interest to note that the department membership, which passed the five thousand mark for the first time during the preparations for this national gathering of veterans at Minneapolis, did not fall permanently below that figure for a full nventy-five years. Increases in membership were also registered in 1896 \Vhen the national encampment took place at St. Paul, and in 1906 when Minneapolis again played host. See appendix A. 28 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN 1883, when the national encampment of the G. A. R. took place at Denver. The objects of the new national organization of wo­ men, bound like the G. A. R. by vows of secrecy, included raising and distributing funds for the relief of distressed veterans, their widows and orphans, participating in campfires and other social gatherings under the auspices of the Grand Army, and as­ sisting the posts of the latter organization in every possible way.33 When the national encampment of the Grand Army and the national convention of the Woman's Relief Corps were held si1nultaneously at l\1inneapolis in 1884, five local relief corps had already been organized in Minnesota, one each in connection with Morgan and Plummer posts of Minneapolis, Stoddard post at Worthington, Garfield post at St. Paul, and John Ball post at \Vinona. Immediately after the adjournment of the convention, a provisional president for l\1innesota was appointed, and on No­ vember 28, 1884, a department corps organization was effected. By 1890, it had enlisted 65 corps and a membership of 1770 "loy­ al women." By 1900, its membership had increased to 37 59 and by 1910 to 4862.34 Here was an organization which without question had a good deal to do with encouraging applications for membership in the G. A. R., and with maintaining its active strength in later years. Unlike the Daughters of Veterans and the Ladies of the G. A. R., whose tents and circles appeared in Minnesota at a later date, the Woman's Relief Corps was open to women regardless of the military records of their male relatives; yet it no doubt drew the larger part of its following from the homes of veterans. One wonders in how many cases the fen1inine influence was the "joining" one, and the one which accounted for an old soldier's applying for membership in a Grand Army post. One wishes he knew to what extent the fact that the post and corps often met simultaneously, and sometimes in open meeting together,

33 National Encampment, Journal, 1881, p. 793; 1883, p. 177-182; 1884, p. 29; Minneapolis Tribune, July 22, 1884, p. 8. 34 Woman's Relief Corps, Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1884-1887, p. 3-6; 1890, p. 24; 1900, p. 44; 1910, p. 89; Woman's Relief Corps, Headquarters Provisional Department of Minnesota, General Orders, No. 2, November 6, 1884, bound with Proceedings, 1884-1887; Minneapolis Tribune, July 22, 1884. GROWTH AND DECLINE made it possible for one veteran to attend or difficult for another to stay at home on meeting nights. As early as 1904, the depart­ n1ent convention of the Woman's Relief Corps offered more material support by resolving that each local corps in the de­ partment "tender to the Post to which it is an auxiliary the sum necessary to keep every con1rade on the muster rolls in good 3 standing for the current year. " ;:, Throughout the seventies and eighties, department command­ ers, while indulging in _wishful thinking regarding the numerical strength of the organization under their charge, made sundry varying estimates of the number of veterans resident in l\1in­ nesota. D. W. Albaugh in 1876 concluded that there were then oyer thirty thousand veterans in the state. In February, 1884, E. C. Babb thought that there ,vere approximately ten thousand. In l\1ay his estimate had risen to t\venty-nine thousand, and by January, 188 5, he was ready, in his valedictory address as de­ partment comn1ander, to assert that Minnesota was probably the home of forty thousand Civil \Var veterans. In the state census returns of that year, however, only 13,699 men who had "served as soldiers in the federal army during the Rebellion" ,vere reported. The federal census enumerators of 1890 were directed to list the Union and Confederate veterans as such. \\Tith what accuracy they worked, it is of course difficult to judge, but the census bureau ultimately published a brief sum- 1nary of their findings. It was reported that 1,034,073 Union and 4 3 2 ,02 o Confederate veterans survived, and that 18,840 of the former and 164 of the latter resided in l\1innesota. In 189 5, the decennial Minnesota census enrolled a total of 14,784 Union veterans. Ten years later the enumerators reported that 9798 veterans of the Civil War still lived in the state. 36

35 See address of Commander in Chief Beath in National Encampment, Journal, 1884, p. 29; of William Warner, ibid., 1889, p. 44; Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1887, p. 56; Journal, 1893, p. 95; Proceedings, 1905, p. 62; Minneapolis Tribune, October 23, 1905. See below, p. 69. 36Minneapolis Tribune, January 28, 1876, p. 4; Department of Min­ nesota, Journal, 1881 - 188 5, p. 94, 125, 13 3; Eleventh Census ( 1890), Pop­ ulation, 1:751; 2: clxxii, 803-804; Minnesota, Executive Documents, 1886, 1: 508; Minnesota, Fourth Decennial Census, 1895, p. 277; Fifth Decennial Census, p. 68, 237. The adult male population of Minnesota was 328,081 in 1885, 376,036 in 1890, 429,688 in 1895, and 574,839 in 1905. No enu- 30 THE CIVIL \:\1AR VETERAN Assu1ning that the enumerators in 1890, 1895, and 1905 were reasonably accurate, at least when each group is compared with the other two, it will be vvorth while to compare the data just cited with the membership statistics of the G. A. R. This com­ parison indicates that between 1890 and 190 5 the proportion of Grand Army men1bers to the total nu1nber of veterans in Min­ nesota tended to increase. In December, 1890, there were 8201 men1bers of the department of Minnesota in good standing, or 4 3. 5 3 per cent of the number of veterans returned in the federal enumeration.37 In December, 1895, the Grand Army records showed 7 8 7 7 n1embers in good standing, 5 2. 2 8 per cent of the number of ex-soldiers reported by the state census takers. In 1905, the 5523 comrades of the G. A. R. constituted 56.37 per cent of the number of veterans found by the enumerators.38 meration of Civil \Var veterans was attempted in the federal census of 1900, 1910, or 1920, or in either federal or Minnesota censuses prior to 1885. The 1885 listing of Civil War veterans was no doubt very care­ lessly done. It actually shows a lower proportion of ex-soldiers in the total adult male population than does the federal enumeration of 1890. 37 Comparing similar data for other states, one finds that in 1890 Min­ nesota stood sixteenth in number of Union veterans, ranking after Penn­ sylvania with 110,780, Ohio, New York, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Iowa, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Nebraska, and Tennessee, in that order. In G. A. R. membership, however, it ranked thirteenth. Only in the District of Columbia and in the New England departments of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, did the rnembership in good standing of the Grand i\rmy exceed :fifty per cent of the Union veterans reported by the federal census takers of 1890. Only Vermont rejoiced in more than sixty per cent. Eleventh Census ( 1890 ), Population, 2:clxxiv; National Encampment, Journal, 1891, p. 11-42. 38 The year by year figures of the membership of the department of Minnesota in appendix A are computed on the basis of the number re­ ported in good standing on December 3 1 of each year, the time at which the department usually reached its greatest strength. Representation in the national encampment ·was based on the December 31st membership returns. Depart1nent of Minnesota, Journal, 1886, p. 93. No doubt the census enun1erators, state or federal, failed to discover some ex-soldiers. On the other hand, it is not i1npossible that some men 1nay have claimed or had claimed for them, a military record to ·which they were not en­ titled. The totals reported by the census takers included only a handful of naval veterans, 157 in 1905. GROWTH AND DECLINE 31 It should be remen1bered, in this connection, that the Grand Army had a following among veterans considerably greater than the nun1ber of n1en who were in good standing, that is, who had not at the mon1ent been suspended or dropped. In December, 1890, for instance, while only 8201 members were in good stand­ ing, an additional 1 1 o 1, suspended by their posts for nonpay­ n1ent of dues, ,vere still reckoned n1embers of the order who needed only to pay their back dues to be restored to all the priv­ ileges of membership. Furthermore, there were at that time eight posts with an estimated n1embership of 202, delinquent through the failure of their officers either to report to department head­ quarters or to pay the required per capita tax. Thus one might be justified in taking 9504 rather than 8201 as the total mem­ bership of the G. A. R. in the state at the end of the year 1 890. Sin1ilarly in 1895, including the 841 members remaining sus­ pended, the total membership of the department an1ounted to 87 I 8.39 Of all the veterans outside the ranks of paid-up members of the Grand Arn1y, the most annoying to the department officers

39 Similar allowances need to be n1ade in dealing with the really con­ servative reported men1bership totals of the national organization. In a circular of information issued, March 13, 1893, Commander in Chief Weissert analyzed the rules regarding suspended and dropped members and urged, as did other commanders in chief and department command­ ers from time to time, that posts remit the dues O"wed by members genuinely unable to pay. This was frequently done. National Encamp­ ment, Proceedings, 1893, p. 381-382. Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1891, p. 64; 1896, p. 76. Although the largest number of members ever reported by post number 1, Stilhvater, was 126 in 1887, the post actually enrolled a total of 206 members at some time during the years 1880- 1891 inclusive. ,:vilkin post number 19 of Mankato enrolled 273 men between 1883 and 1891, but reported no 1nore than 177 in good standing at any given date. The weak Taylor's Falls post never had more than 23 members in good standing; yet it mustered 42 men between 1881 and 1888. The membership of each post for a given year is usually reported in the next Journal of the department encampment. The total number of members admitted by posts I to 2 1 during the years 1880 to 1891 inclusive is found in a manuscript Roster of the Department of Min­ nesota, in G. A. R. Papers. This volume includes all that was completed of an attempt, made in 1891, to list, with their service records and other data, all members admitted into the department from its reorganization to that date. 32 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN were no doubt those who wore the badge or the lapel button of the order, but declined to become members in good standing. Charles H. Taylor of Long Prairie, department commander in 1913-1914, found twenty-one veterans in a single village, and was obliged regretfully to report that they not only had refused to apply for a post charter, but that they persisted in ,vearing "the bronze button as an emblem of the club they had organ­ ized." The recalcitrance of the group, he charged to the "bane­ ful influence of one man." The commander, who was apparently unaware that such a law had already been enacted, urged that legislation be sought which would prohibit the wearing of the button by men not comrades in good standing. He predicted that many veterans would "return to our ranks rather than take off the little bronze button. " 40 Year after year department commanders appealed to the posts, and even to friends outside the order, to help cut down the lists of suspended members. Year after year, of course, the suspen­ sions continued; sometimes, no doubt, because the organization failed to arouse the interest of the member; sometimes because increasing ill health made it impossible for the veteran to par­ ticipate longer in post meetings; less often, probably, because he actually lacked the means to pay his dues; and sometimes be­ cause he was allowed to postpone payment until the arrears amounted to a formidable sum. On some occasions, apparently, posts were only too glad of a financial excuse to suspend or drop troublemaking members, or those whose behavior or reputation made them less than desirable as companions. As the twentieth century wore on and many of the smaller posts were aban­ doned, considerable numbers of ex-soldiers were left at such a distance from the nearest post that active membership, at any rate, ,vas hardly practical.41

40 Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1914, p. 43; 1895, p. 78; Minne­ apolis Tribune, July 10, 1899; Minnesota, Revised Laws, 1905, p. 1087- 1088. 41 National Encampment, Journal, 1886, p. 29; 1890, p. 7; 1894, p. 54; Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1891, p. 60; 1898, p. 50; 1907, p. 50- 51; 1909, p. 48; 1913, p. 41; Proceedings, 1903, p. 47; 1905, p. 57-58; Adam Marty to Orton S. Clark, October 22, 1903, G. A. R. Papers. CHAPTER III

GOOD FELLOWSHIP AMONG COMRADES

OR lvIOST CITIZENS, no doubt, the local post of the G. A. R. represented the Grand Army quite as fully as the localF parish represented the church, and the local politicians, the Republican or the Democratic party. First and last, the reorganized department of l\1innesota char­ tered some 2 2 9 posts in two hundred different communities. The comn1unities were of all sorts and conditions, from metropolitan Minneapolis and St. Paul to the tiniest sort of villages, whose resident veterans had to be reinforced by farmers from the ad­ jacent townships in order to muster sufficient strength for even a weak post organization. Indeed, except in the Twin Cities, practically all of the posts had a sizeable rural membership. Most of them, strong and weak alike, were founded between 1880 and 1890. Only twenty-seven were established after 1890; only four after 1900. The last one added to the roll was Billy Mortimer post number 192, mustered in Minneapolis, April 22, 1911, prac­ tically as a successor to Oliver P. Morton post, whose prolonged internal dissensions had led Department Commander Philip G. Woodward to annul its charter.1 The numbers abandoned by defunct posts were often reas­ signed to new organizations. In Minnesota some numbers were used ultimately by three different units. The posts selected and often changed their own names, subject to a limitation which forbade choosing the name of a living person, and which pro­ hibited the use of the same name by two posts in a given depart-

1 Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1911, p. 45-46. Significantly enough, Morton post had been established in 1888, largely as a result of dissension in the older L. P. Plummer post. Minneapolis Tribune, March 1 1, 1888. Data regarding the establishment, membership and dis­ bandment of posts is scattered here and there in the / ournal of the de­ partment encampments, and in the annual department Roster. 34 1:'HE Cl\7'IL vV AR VETERAN 1nent. 2 If a defunct post \Vas reorganized it was allo\ved to use its old name and number, unless these had previously been as­ signed to another unit. Thus the department roster son1etin1es fails to show the one or even two false starts which preceded the establishment of a relatively permanent organization in a particular locality. In other cases it is necessary to trace t\vo or three post numbers in order to study the history of the G. A. R. in a single Minnesota con1munity. Still more confusing is the fact that posts were sometimes permitted to change their 111eeting place f ron1 one village to another, more convenient to the majority of the n1embers. No posts were ever established beyond Duluth along the North Shore or in any of the Range towns of l\11innesota's n1in­ ing frontier, with the exception of a small and frequently con­ tentious organization at Grand Rapids. 3 Red Lake Falls and Crookston constituted the extreme northern and northvvestern outposts of the i\1innesota departn1ent, though they shared ,vith the rather ,veak posts at Bemidji, Bagley, Grand Rapids, Ada, and Akeley the responsibility of representing the Grand Arn1y north of the 4 7th parallel. In the southern and central portions of the state, the posts ,vere quite evenly distributed. At the turn of the century, the department's 6z 58 men1bers in good standing were divided among 176 posts. Of these, the two largest were .i\1organ post of Minneapolis, ,vith 2 7 1 men1- bers, and Acker of St. Paul, ""rith 2 32. The smallest, ,vith head­ quarters at the southern Minnesota village of Fillmore, had been reduced to six comrades. Seventy-nine posts reported t,venty­ four or a smaller number of 1nembers in good standing. Fifty­ nine posts had from twenty-five to forty-nine me1nbers, thirty­ one fron1 fifty to ninety-nine, and only seven clain1ed a hundred or more. The latter, in addition to Morgan and Acker posts, in­ cluded Culver post of Duluth, Rawlins of l\tlinneapolis, Garfield of St. Paul, vVilkin of Mankato, and Custer post of Rochester. 4

~ Rules and Regulations, 1881, p. 4. 8 The internal troubles of the Grand Rapids post may be traced in the letters of various members of the post to the assistant adjutant generals and department commanders, 1899, 1900, and 1904. G. A. R. Papers. 4 Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1901. At various times the larger posts had been considerably larger. Morgan post had in 1888 GOOD FELLO\\lSHIP 35 For greater or lesser periods of time, the G. A. R. members in the second rank cities of the state, Stillwater, vVinona, and Duluth, as well as those in St. Paul and .i\linneapolis, ,vere di­ vided an1ong two or n1ore posts. A second post, established at Stillwater in 1 890, flourished for t\vo full decades before it was reunited with the parent organization. At ,vinona, not usually as good a G. A. R. to,vn in proportion to its size as Still\vater, the junior post held on only from 1891 to 1898. Culver post nun1ber 128 at Duluth, though founded nine years after Gorman post number 1 3, soon forged ahead of the earlier organization. They were finally reunited in 192 5. For two or three years in the mid-nineties, a third post, named for ex-President Ruther­ ford B. Hayes, struggled along in Duluth, the booming "Zenith City." In addition to the two strong posts, Acker and Garfield, three numerically weaker organizations were maintained for a tin1e at St. Paul. Winthrop post lasted only from 1884 until 1887, while Bircher (later Gettysburg) and Ord posts, both organized in 1886, kept their banners flying until 1901 and 1902 respectively.

reported just over five hundred members. By 1902 it had mustered a total of over eleven hundred, and by 191 o over fifteen hundred since its reorganization in 1881. Acker had n1ore than once passed the three hun­ dred mark. They were the only ones, however, whose paid-up member­ ship ever exceeded two hundred. Twenty-five others, including the two posts at Duluth, Garfield post, St. Paul, and six additional Minneapolis posts, had at one time or another reported over a hundred members in good standing. The sixteen larger outstate posts included those at Austin, Albert Lea, Spring Valley, Rochester, Owatonna, St. Peter, Mankato, Winona, Red Wing, Anoka, St. Cloud, Alexandria, Fergus Falls, Mar­ shall, Litchfield, and Stillwater. That the men who directed the reorgan­ ization of the department in the early 188o's had a reasonably clear idea of where the organization's potential strength lay is suggested by the fact that all but two of the first ten posts which they established are in­ cluded in this list. Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1881-1885, p. 4-5, 26; Proceedings, 1889, p. 63; Minneapolis Tribune, March 10, 1902; July 18, 1910; H. D. Carter (comp.), Roster, Morgan Post, p. 104. In April, 1902, Morgan post made an exceedingly frank and public bid for trans­ ferred members, at the san1e time reducing its transfer fee to one dollar. This was the amount then asked by all the other Minneapolis posts ex­ cept Rawlins post, which charged three dollars. "Allied Orders" col­ umn in Minneapolis Tribune, April 14, 1902; John A. Rawlins post, By­ Laws and Roster, 1902, p. 4. THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN Between 1881, when Morgan post was revived, and 1888, eleven posts were organized in Minneapolis. Their number was reduced to ten, however, in 1891, when Washburn and Nobles, two neighborhood units on the south side of the city, consoli­ dated under the name of Appomattox post. Of the other nine, five in the early nineties held their meetings in the central busi­ ness section of the city, while four, like Appomattox, might be classed as neighborhood posts. Although the Grand Army was supposed to be an organization in which neither a comrade's former military rank nor his present social position should cut any figure, Rawlins post, chartered in 1884, was in fact what the American Legion has frankly termed a "business and profession­ al man's post." In each of the Twin Cities, the several posts met regularly on different evenings. Whatever the reason for this, the result was that a n1an whose business or other engagements prevented his attending the meetings of a particular post might readily find another whose sessions were held on one of his open nights. Relations between the several Minneapolis posts seem to have been generally friendly, though there was apparently some feeling of resentment against the "silk-stocking" Rawlins group. Visits of one or more Twin City posts to another were quite common. In 1895, Rawlins post itself took the initiative and proposed to visit each of the others in Minneapolis. In 1900, Appomattox, Bryant, and Morton posts, with their relief corps, held a series of joint open meetings. 5 While the G. A. R. was at the height of its strength, in 1889 and 1890, a majority of its Minnesota posts held regular meetings twice monthly. Even at that time, however, sixty-three country posts scheduled only one meeting a month. On the other hand, thirteen posts, all but four of which had their headquarters in

5 Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1892, p. 71; Roster, 1898; Davison's Minneapolis Directory, 1890-1891, p. 106-107; John A. Rawlins post, Roster, 1898, 1900; Minneapolis Tribune, January 21, February 25, March 4, 11, 1895; March 12, 1900; October 23, 1905; Minneapolis Jour­ nal, August 28, 1900; E. B. Gray, Madison, Wisconsin, to C. C. An­ drews, January 20, 1887, Andrews Papers; interview with Mrs. Birdie Williams, secretary of the department of Minnesota, August 10, 1937; Minutes, Minneapolis Post Commanders Association, 1896-1899, G. A. R. Papers. GOOD FELLOWSHIP 37 1'1inneapolis, held one regular meeting a week. A majority of the posts n1et on Saturday afternoon or evening, no doubt be­ cause on that day the farmer members were most likely to be in town.6 Saturday afternoon meetings, by the end of the nineties, were likely to meet a new sort of competition. At any rate that was the experience of the Paynesville post of seventeen members, whose comn1ander referred to a football game as the reason for the absence of a quorum at the regular meeting in October, 1899. Another bit of evidence that factors other than old age had a share in causing the difficulty post officers encountered in se­ curing a quorum is contained in a letter written, the same month, by a member of another rural post to Assistant Adjutant Gen­ eral B. 1\1. Hicks. It was explained that the post could not round up a quorum for a special evening meeting with Hicks, since the members' homes were badly scattered, and since some who were out hunting were not expected back until about the time of the proposed meeting. 7 One of the more serious obstacles to the maintenance of a successful post consisted of internal dissension, a condition which prevailed in many small posts as well as in some of the urban organizations. Incompatibility of temperament, the fail­ ure to refrain from saying cutting things, too often regarding the shortness of a comrade's military record, or the minor char­ acter of the service which he perfarmed, may be counted among the chief causes of trouble. Even the printed records of the de­ partment contain a considerable amount of evidence to show that the ideal of fraternity was not always strong enough to con­ quer discord within the ranks of the several posts. What has been preserved of the correspondence of the various assistant adjutant generals and other prominent G. A. R. leaders reveals that the amount of internal stress and strain in many posts was

6 Department of Minnesota, Roster, 1889. 7 H. M. Piper, Monticello, to Hicks, October 20, 1899; Samuel R. Roach, Paynesville, to Hicks, November 6, 1899, G. A. R. Papers. After 1889, five comrades in good standing constituted a quorum in posts hav­ ing less than fifty members. For larger posts the quorum remained eight. National Encampment, Journal, 1889, p. 181. THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN considerably greater than appears on the face of the published record.8 Many small posts met even less frequently than their by-laws and the rules and regulations of the national organization re­ quired. In many cases, such meetings as they did hold, even as early as 1900, took place in a very informal manner at the office or store of one of the members. At the turn of the century, the post at Jordan in the lVlinnesota valley was meeting only once every three months, on "pension days," namely the fourth of January, April, July, and October. Its adjutant reported that an attempt to hold monthly n1eetings would lead to the loss of the distant members, some of whom lived twelve miles from to,vn.n On the other hand, son1e small town posts, perhaps because of the energetic leadership of their officers, or the stimulus of an active woman's relief corps, maintained a vigorous existence for many years. "Our Pension Day lVIeetings," wrote L. B. Can­ tleberry of the Villard post in 1904, with more show of enthus­ iasm than of punctuation, "are Red Hots-Regular Camp Fires and quarterly Hoo Wrays [sic] Every one comes on Pension Day Including the Widows that Don't Belong to the W. R. C. One of our comrades has captured one of them already Success Did You Say I Guess yes." The attempt of the Villard post to capitalize the quarterly pension days for the promotion of good fellowship among veterans and strengthening the Grand Army organization was, of course, quite in accord with the advice of department officers. i\ more striking case, illustrating the revival

8 P. D. Winship, Park Rapids, to J. K. Mertz, January 2, 1898; C. C. Fuller, Edgerton, to B. M. Hicks, July 25, 1899; J. J. Hemstreet, Water­ ville, to Hicks, December 9, 1899; C. S. Turner, Mazeppa, to Hicks, December 24, 1899; Adam Marty to 0. S. Clark, October 23, 1903; Harrison Lyons, Verndale, to Clark, January 24, 1904, G. A. R. Papers; J. C. Turner, Faribault, to H. A. Castle, July 2 1, 1892; J. R. Parshall, Faribault, August 1, 1892, to Castle; other letters of same date, Castle Papers. 9 Charles E. Morrell, Jordan, to Hicks, January 19, 1900; J. W. Sedinger, Rush City, to Hicks, December 9, 1899; Cyrus Smith, Bemidji, to Hicks, January 8, 1900; Albert Smith, Brownsdale, to Hicks, October 24, 1899; E. E. Fairchild, Kasson, to L. G. Nelson, January 24, 1904, G. A. R. Papers. Posts ,vere presumably required to hold one regular n1eeting a month. Grand Anny Blue-Book, 1899, p. 115. GOOD FELLOWSHIP 39 of a virtually defunct, small town post, occurred at Aitkin on the upper Mississippi, between 190 3 and 1907. Under the ene\.. _ getic leadership of a newcomer, VV. H. Harrison, the post, whos\~ seven or eight men1bers had voted to surrender their charter, was able within five years to boast a total of fifty n1en1bers in good standing .10 One of the n1ost vigorous posts in the department was that at Litchfield, whose name commemorated the services of Frank Daggett, second commander of the department. This post, an unusually large one for a town whose population in 1895 was only 2044, early received the plaudits of department officers for its enterprise in raising funds to build its own post hall. In 1 899, the con1n1ander replied to a proposal that a recruit be mustered on the occasion of the annual inspection by saying with pardon­ able exaggeration, "so far as a muster is concerned we have mustered every old soldier in Meeker County."11

10 Cantleberry to 0. S. Clark, January 16, 1904; Jerry Patten, Morton, to B. M. Hicks, April 5, 1899; Frank E. Seavey, Aitkin, to Hicks, July 25, 1899, G. A. R. Papers; Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1909, p. 105-106. In his annual address, March 12, 1903, Department Commander Perry Starkweather had offered the following suggestion: "There are four days in the year when it might be well if the Grand Army of the Republic would keep 'open house.' These days are the fourth of January, April, July and October. Some of you will recognize these dates as pen­ sion days. Would it not be pleasant if the Posts, particularly those in the smaller towns, should on these days open their doors, spread a mid­ day lunch-if it could be conveniently arranged-invite in the veterans who come to the city to make out their pension papers, have a notary in attendance who will care for the legal technicalities, and so combine business with both pleasure and profit. For nothing is more profitable than to make people happy, and certainly all who partook of the hos­ pitality so extended would be sure of a good time. According to the most accurate data at hand it would appear that there are today within the state of Minnesota some twelve to thirteen thousand soldiers of the civil war who are drawing pensions. Surely this is a large field from which to draw our recruits. Let us try to bring them in closer touch with their comrades,-£rom being guests they will soon be hosts." Pro­ ceedings, 1903, p. 46. 11 John Knight to B. M. Hicks, October 26, 1899, G. A. R. Papers; Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1886, p. 42. For Daggett's G. A. R. service, see above, p. 14-15. The 1895 census sho,ved 203 veterans in Meeker County, while the Litchfield and Dassel posts, only ones in the 40 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN Some G. A. R. leaders seem to have believed that the mainten­ ance of a successful post depended largely upon such things as the verbal accuracy and ceremonial precision with which the ritual of the organization was performed, the use of martial music, and the wearing of uniforms and side arms at post meet­ ings. Others, like the popular William Warner, congressman from Kansas City and commander in chief of the G. A. R., 1888-1889, had a different solution for the problem raised by "tedious and uninteresting" post meetings.

Have more open meetings . . . rather than the regular order of busi­ ness, which at times becomes monotonous to the most enthusiastic com­ rade. The best elixir of life is found in the social gatherings, where wit, humor and good feeling abound. Such a meeting is impossible without the presence and active assistance of woman; there£ore it is that the Post which has the most efficient Relief Corps can give the best entertain­ ments, and have the largest attendance at its regular meetings. . . .12

Long before Warner's administration as commander in chief, however, Grand Army posts had sponsored open meetings and "camp.fires." At .first rather rare events, they were arranged with increasing frequency, until by the mid-eighties they had become a characteristic part of G. A. R. activity. Such affairs often had a rather mixed set of purposes. They were intended, indeed, to entertain the post members, their families, and the general pub­ lic; and for many a community no doubt served that purpose admirably, in a day when performances patently designed to amuse were less abundant than in the fifth decade of the twen­ tieth century. Sometimes they were planned with a view to rais­ ing money for a post's relief fund. Generally they were intended county, had in December, 1894, but 136 members. In December, 1899, the figure was 119. The census of 1905 reported ninety-two Civil War veter­ ans in the county. At that time, the Litchfield post had seventy-four members in good standing; the Dassel post had passed out of existence. Minnesota, Fourth Decennial Census, 1895, p. 277; Fifth Decennial Cen­ sus, 1905, p. 29, 68; Department of Minnesota, Roster, 1895, 1900, 1905; Journal, 1895, p. 89-90. 12 National Encampment, Journal, 1889, p. 44. Compare ibid., 1891, p. 364; Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1889, p. vi; Journal, 1892, P· 73; 1893, p. 91. GOOD FELLOWSHIP 41 to glorify the Civil War veteran and his part in saving the country from disunion and perpetual internecine strife. They ,vere intended to stimulate veterans outside the G. A. R. to ap­ ply for membership in the order. They were intended to teach the rising generation the lessons of true patriotism, a respon­ sibility vvhich weighed heavily upon the consciences of many Grand Army leaders. They were intended, broadly speaking, to "sell" the G. A. R. and its point of view on history and cur­ rent affairs to the community at large.13 A typical campfire program included war-time reminiscences and miscellaneous speech-making by the battle-scarred veterans, varied with patriotic music. Recitations and declamations were frequently contributed by the young sons and daughters of the old soldiers ..A .. t an all-T,vin City campfire held in St. Paul, l\'larch 2 3, 1889, some two hundred Minneapolitans were guests and participants. One of the several speakers won hearty ap­ plause by mentioning the "cheering news that Corporal Tanner had been selected as pension commissioner." A quartet of col­ ored vocalists entertained the assembled veterans during the course of a variegated program. Lunch was served by the W om­ an's Relief Corps of Garfield post, St. Paul. The menu has not been preserved, but on such occasions the refreshments frequent­ ly consisted of coffee and hardtack.14 As the campfire became a well established institution, depart- 1nent officers and other Grand Army luminaries were often brought in to deliver the principal address of the evening. In­ deed, the participation in as many as possible of such affairs be­ came, during the later nineties and the first decade of the twen­ tieth century, one of the regular duties of the department com­ mander, the vice con1manders, and particularly the assistant ad­ jutant general.15 By that time, no doubt, the increasing age and

13 Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1866-1879, p. 97; Journal, 1894, p. 226; 1896, p. 65; 1898, p. 52; 1900, p. 40-41; 1906, p. 54, 186; 1912, p. 40. 14 Minneapolis Tribune, March 24, 25, 1889; January 21, March 18, 1895; November 1, December 20, 1897; September 25, November 6, 1899; Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1892, p. 26. 15 Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1895, p. 78; 1896, p. 65; 1900, p.46; 1906, p. 187; Proceedings, 1903, p. 186. In 1896, Commander Ell 42 THE crVIL w AR VETERAN sedateness of the veterans, as well as the frequent appearance of dignitaries from a distance, served to guard the organization against complaints such as those to which an earlier commander in chief, Louis Wagner, had referred in his annual address, June 15, 1881:

Much dissatisfaction has been expressed by people, both in and out of the Grand Anny of the Republic, at the character or, perhaps better, the \Vant of character, of the campfires of some of our Posts, ,vhere the song, the story or the personal conduct of son1e present overstepped the bounds of propriety, and where a desire to appear "funny" resulted in bringing our Order into disrepute. I am sure that much of this flo\vs from mere thoughtlessness, and a simple reminder of the fact that to the outside world we are only what we show ourselves to be on these pu~ lie occasions, will result in greater care in the selection of entertainme-nt and of entertainers, and in a higher order of exercises, so that our friends may be justified in the belief that we are "good men and true," and not "lewd feJlows of the baser sort."16

Campfires were only one of the many types of open meetings which the G. A. R. posts, or their relief corps, or both, con­ ducted. In the spring of 1891, for instance, a series of rather elaborate programs was held in Minneapolis, when individual Minneapolitans of wealth or prominence presented to the several Grand Army posts in the city handsorr1e volumes for recording the personal war sketches of their members. At about the same time, came a nation-wide series of open meetings in which the

Torrance reported that he had traveled eight thousand miles and his assistant adjutant general, eleven thousand, on department business. Until 1899, railroad companies commonly allowed the commander and assistant adjutant general free passes for journeys in connection with department business. Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1896, p. 191; [Torrance] to [W.] Todd [N. Wallace], November 23, 1895, carbon copy, Torrance Papers; James J. Hill to B. M. Hicks, November 15, 1899, G. A. R. Papers. 16 National Encampment, Journal, 1881, p. 752. As late as 1908, how­ ever, Assistant Adjutant General Orton S. Clark reported having at­ tended a campfire at Aitkin the previous autumn, when a feature of the meeting was a "very realistic" sham battle between the members of the post and the Sons of Veterans, both, of course, firing blank cartridges. Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1908, p. 65. GOOD FELLOWSHIP 43 posts and their guests celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the first G. A. R. post.17 In the larger cities and even in some country towns, by the nineties, the posts and their appendages were carrying on a con­ tinuous round of picnics, excursions, bean bakes, dances, ban­ quets, card parties, lectures, and programs of mixed entertain­ ment. The reporting of these occasions, both before and after the event, ,vas a large part of the business of a group of colun1ns, ,vhich the A✓tinneapolis Tribune published each l\1onday, under the heading "The Allied Orders."18 The issue of April 1 3, 1891, selected more or less at random, reported the perfecting of an organization representing the 1\1inneapolis posts, to take charge of the 1\tlemorial Day celebration. It recorded the twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations held by Acker post, St. Paul, the Alex­ andria post, Rawlins post and relief corps, Minneapolis, and per­ haps n1ore notably, one held by the country post at Dassel, with the assistance of the Woman's Relief Corps, Sons of Veterans, children, and other citizens to the nun1ber of two hundred. Ack­ er post and corps, the Tribune's readers were informed, had re­ cently been entertained by Captain Jack Crawford, "the poet scout," for the benefit of the relief fund. The ex-soldiers who be­ longed to the First Presbyterian church of i\tlinneapolis had been the center of attention at a program called "An Evening with 'Our Veterans'." William Downs relief corps was to hold a "butterfly social," and the Morgan relief corps announced a "social dancing party." Oliver P . .i\1orton corps was to give an entertainment featuring music, recitations, and ice cream, while the women of Bryant corps planned a "social at Comrade Kel-

17 Minneapolis Tribune, March 26, 30, April 10, 13, 23, 1891. Forty­ three post adjutants' reports on the anniversary meetings are transcribed in v. 37, G. A. R. Papers. The adjutant of the post at Hastings reported that the meeting had gained his post six recruits. 18 This section was inaugurated June 10, 1888, as the "G. A. R. Col­ umn." Published at first on Sunday, it was soon transferred to the Mon­ day issue of the paper. For some years it was edited by George W. Morey, assistant adjutant-general of the department of Minnesota, 1889- 1891. It carried reports of the social activities of the G. A. R. and its "Allied Orders," copies of the orders and circulars issued by the officers of the organizations, as well as pension news and other information, presumably of interest to veterans. Only in 1916 was it discontinued. 44 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN ley's residence" to raise money for buying a flag. A dran1a en­ titled "The Commercial Traveler" was to be given the follo\ving Thursday evening for the benefit of Washburn post and corps. As an added attraction a dance was to follow. L. P. Plu1nn1er can1p number 9, Sons of Veterans, was planning its fourth an­ nual ball. Less forn1al, no doubt, was the "calico apron ball" an­ nounced by the relief corps of Schaefer post for the coming Saturday night.19 One of the oldest activities of the Grand Army of the Repub­ lic was the celebration each spring of Memorial Day. The first call for a widespread observance of this solemn festival was is­ sued in 1 868 by General John A. Logan, then commander in chief of the G. A. R. Acting upon similar instructions, repeated yearly by national and department officers, Minnesota posts, even in the seventies, regularly decorated the graves of soldiers \vho were buried in local cemeteries. Then, as later, the plan­ ning and execution of the ceren1onies was considered one of the major functions of each active post. In the earlier years of the G. A. R., the program of the day was usually a simple one, including prayers, an oration, the decoration of the graves of Union veterans, and the decoration of a cross in honor of those whose bodies rested in southern graves. 20 As years passed, the ceremonies tended to grow more elabor­ ate. By the close of the century, the memorial observances had come normally to include at least four types of activity. On the Sunday prior to lVIemorial Day, the clergy were encouraged to preach sermons suitable to the occasion, and posts commonly accepted invitations to be present in a body to hear one of them. Some posts, no doubt to show their religious impartiality, at­ tended two such religious services, one in the morning and one in the evening. The Friday preceding the day itself was quite

19 It should be remembered, as Commander in Chief Wheelock G. Veazey asserted in his annual address of the same twenty-fifth anni­ versary year, that the G. A. R. consisted largely of "men of moderate means, manual laborers" for many of whom "the post room is about the only social opportunity." National Encampment,/ournal, 1891, p. 53-54. 20 Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1866-1879, p. 85-86; Acker post, Adjutant's Record, 1: 29-36; 2: 38, 88-94, 199, G. A. R. Papers; St. Paul Pioneer, June 3, 1868; May 13, 1870; P. H. Buck, The Road to Re­ union, 116-117. GOOD FELLOWSHIP 45 con1n1only set aside for a celebration in the schools. At such exercises it was the custon1 for one of the old soldiers to give a patriotic address or a selection f ron1 his budget of war remi­ niscences. On Nlay 30th can1e the basic ceremony of decorating the graves at each cemetery within the jurisdiction of the post. In the afternoon occurred the grand Memorial Day parade, with every in1aginable uniformed organization, in addition to the Grand Army, in line. In 1891, it was reported that 6288 G. A. R. n1en1bers, 21,506 children, and 89,145 other citizens had par­ ticipated in the decorating of graves or in the processions con­ ducted by the several Minnesota posts. After the parade there was usually a public program, including solemn patriotic n1usic and recitations. An oration, preferably by a comrade or some other distinguished speaker fron1 another community, was the high light of the progran1. 21 In time, of course, as the Civil War veterans grew fewer, old­ er, and more feeble, provision had to be n1ade for trans£ erring the burden of planning and conducting i\1emorial Day celebra­ tions to other civic organizations, such as the Sons of Veterans, the camps of Spanish-American War veterans, and ultimately the American Legion. This transfer of responsibility was quite generally made during the first decade of the twentieth century. \Vhile regretted by some of the G. A. R. "boys," it received the approbation of department officers, the more so as it usually left the posts in the position of honor, while relieving them of the burdens and expense of management. 22

21 Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1887, p. 35; 1890, p. 87; 1901, p. 39; Journal, 1892, p. 85; 1894, p. 96-97. Samples of Memorial Day reports submitted by department chaplains are found in Proceed­ ings, 1889, p. 75-98; 1890, p. 112-136; Journal, 1906, p. 63-66. See also Department of Minnesota, Memorial Day Scrapbooks, 1892, 1893, 1894; Minneapolis General Memorial Day Minutes, 1897-1903; Acker post, Memorial Day Scrapbook, 1889, 1892, G. A. R. Papers. The Acker post scrapbooks show that the amount disbursed for Memorial Day expenses by two St. Paul committees headed by Joseph J. McCardy was $452.09 in 1889, and $870.79, including $300 paid to the orator of the day, Gen­ eral Stewart L. Woodford of New York, in 1892. 2-2 Department of Minnesota, / ournal, 1900, p. 84; 1906, p. 5 5; 1907, P· 82; 1908, p. 94, 105-108; 1909, p. 90; 1910, P· 40; 1916, P· 2 3; 1921, P· 17. CHAPTER IV

G. A. R. DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES

HILE THE INDIVIDUAL G. A. R. posts made them­ selves seen and heard in a variety of ways, the body whichW spoke most authoritatively for the Grand Army in Minnesota was the departtnent encampment. In its annual ses­ sions, this assembly managed the internal affairs of the organi­ zation, passed resolutions on a variety of questions, memorialized the legislature or Congress, and distributed the prizes of office for the ensuing year. During the first twenty years of the de­ partment's history, the annual encampments were held at vari­ ous places; on several occasions at Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Stillwater, and once each at Winona, Rochester, Shakopee, Man­ kato, and Faribault. The Faribault meeting of 1886 was the last encampment to be held outside the Twin Cities. Thereafter, in accordance with a well-understood unwritten rule, St. Paul en­ tertained during the odd-numbered years when the legislature was in session, while i\1inneapolis served as host in the alternate years. Until 1907, the encampments occurred regularly during the ,vinter months of January, February, or March, in spite of much agitation for a change to a milder season. Since 1907, they have always been held in June.1 Until the revival of the department in the middle of the eight­ ies, the members of the encampment usually had to be gener­ ously reinforced by the local comrades, in order to amount to much more than a large committee. The rapid growth in post membership and in the relative importance of the Grand Army led naturally, in the eighties, to a rapid increase in the number of representatives who assembled each year to take part in the department encampment. By the end of the decade, the mem-

1 Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1866-1879, p. 178; 1903, p. 102; 1906, p. 60, 136-137; ]ourna~ 1892, p. 239-243; 1896, p. 152-155; 1900, p. 45-50. DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES 47 bership of that body had passed the four hundred mark, and it had taken on many of the characteristics of a state party con­ vention. In 1890, some 409 duly qualified members of the en­ campment \Vere present. Two hundred eighteen of them were either post con1n1anders or delegates elected ad boc. A few of the ren1aining 191 ,vere department officers, but most of them were present by virtue of their rank as past post commanders. For t,venty years after 1 890, the nun1ber of con1rades present and entitled to seats in the encampn1ent never fell belo,v three hundred. On special occasions, as in 1896, when a vigorous pre­ encampn1ent campaign had been waged betvveen two strong candidates for department commander, the number on hand n1ight be considerably greater. In that year, some 61 o lawful members appeared to cast their ballots for one or the other of the rivals. 2 The increasing leisure "\vhich many veterans enjoyed as they grew older, and the rise in the number and amount of pensions received explain the continued large attendance at encampments, even after the membership of the department had begun to de­ cline. After 1 888, too, the department stood ready to refund to one delegate from each post the amount which he actually paid for railroad fare to and from the meeting.3 i\1 uch of the time of the successive encan1pments was devoted to discussing such proposals as the institution, abolition, or modi­ fication of the payment of mileage. A closely related and often debated question involved the advisability of reducing from forty cents a year to some lesser amount, the per capita tax paid by posts to the department headquarters for each member in good standing. Still another internal question which took a dis­ proportionate amount of tin1e, during some meetings, was the proposal to cut down the representation of past post command­ ers in the encampment itself. 4

2 Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1890, p. 146-147; Journal, I 896, P· 15 5. 3 Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1888, p. 124; 1890, p. 173-174; 1903, p. 63, 109-111; 1904, p. 15 7; 1905, p. 86; Journal, 1900, p. 107- 113; 1906, p. 88; 1908, p. 105. 4 The proposed reduction of the per capita tax was in fact never made until 1934, when the membership of the department had declined THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN Nlore in1portant were the den1ands of the G. A. R. upon state and federal governments. The concern of the successive en­ campments with pensions was reflected clearly in the pages of their published proceedings. Almost equally important, appar­ ently, were the steps taken to procure the establishment of the l\1innesota Soldiers' Home in the late eighties. Once the home had been opened, of course, its management served almost an­ nually as an object of fervent criticism and eloquent defense by self-constituted guardians of the interests of the less fortunate comrades. Nor were the calls of department spokesmen upon the central and the state governments exhausted when adequate pensions and suitable appropriations for the soldiers' hon1e had been duly demanded. In fact, even the casual reader can hardly fail to be impressed ,vith the number of matters discussed and the volume of business actually transacted in two and three days sessions by the de­ partment encampments during the years of the Grand Army's strength. The in1pression is heightened when one realizes that much of each encampment's time was taken up with matters fundamentally formal or petty. The commander's annual report or address might be relatively matter of fact, or it might be em­ bellished with oratorical outbursts, but in any event it vvas likely to be long. Each of the other department officers, as well as the council of adn1inistration, had a report to make, and these re­ ports were usually read in full. By 1895, no encampment was complete without a welcome from the mayor or other official representative of the entertaining city. In the twentieth century it became customary for the governor, or someone on his behalf, to give another fulsome greeting. Still more surely devoted to telling the asse1nbled veterans what they wanted to hear were the salutations extended, commonly by each member of com­ mittees of three, representing, one after another, the Woman's Relief Corps, the Sons of Veterans, the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Sons of Veterans' auxiliary, and after r 907, the Daughters of Veterans. On occasion the Spanish­ American War veterans were also heard from, and after the almost to the vanishing point, with only 189 veterans still in good stand­ ing. Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1888, p. 116-119; Journal, 1934, P· 56, 83. DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES 49

War of 191 4, the An1erican Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars began to send representatives to return thanks to the sur­ viving Civil ,var veterans for the inspiration which they had furnished the younger organizations. 5 During the years when the Grand Arn1y was a vigorously active organization, and occasionally thereafter, the chief inter­ est in the encampments centered around the choice of candi­ dates for office in the organization, particularly for the ranking position of department commander. The rivalries involved are somewhat obscure, but certainly they existed, and in some years led to an energetic campaign, resembling the strife for public office. On so1ne occasions the pre-encampment campaign con­ vinced the backers of certain candidates that they were doomed to sure defeat, and thus led to the withdrawal of the prospective losers before the ballot, or even before the nominations were made. Sometimes, too, a prospective loser ,vithdrew with an understanding that at the next election he should enjoy the sup-· port of the friends of the victor. In some instances, the issue in­ volved in the choice of a commander was primarily rivalry be­ tween St. Paul and Minneapolis, or between either or both of them and the non-metropolitan posts. In other cases, the per­ sonality of the candidates seems to have been the determining factor. In still others, an undercurrent of resentment bv the ,I rank and file against the ex-officer members of the somewhat exclusive Loyal Legion may be detected. During the mid-nine­ ties, the crucial question seems to have been whether or not the aspiring candidate for commander would agree to reappoint as assistant adjutant general the popular incumbent, "Jake" lVlertz of l\1inneapolis. 6

5 See for example, Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1907, 1923, 1925. The several "allied orders" commonly held their conventions at the same time and in the same city as the G. A. R. department en­ campment. In 192 5, to avoid any possible confusion, the official names of the Sons of Veterans and Daughters of Veterans' organizations were changed to the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, and the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War. National Encampment, Journal, 1925, p. 73-76; 1926, p. 249. 6 Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1891, p. 195-196; 1896, p. 142-157; 1900, p. 127-132; 1907, p. 150; Minneapolis Tribune, January 29, 30, 1885; February 24, 1888; January 25, 1889; February 7, 12, 13, 1894; March 50 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN Until 1904, the normal, though not invariable, practice of the .lVlinnesota encampment was to elect as department commander the man who in the previous year had served as senior vice com­ mander of the department, and who had in most cases served also as junior vice commander in the year before that. In 1904, however, while unanimously promoting Colonel Harrison \Vhite of Luverne in regular course to the position of depart­ ment commander, the encamp1nent voted to follow thereafter the practice of the national organization, which had long elected commanders in chief without reference to their previous ser­ vice in the lower offices. It ,vas intended that thereafter the honors should be passed around more generously than could be the case when a regular order of succession was followed. 7 Dur­ ing the last twenty years, as the number of aspirants for office has grown rapidly sn1aller, the encampments of the declining department have again as a rule chosen for commander a man who had previously served, usually in the preceding year, as senior vice commander. To generalize acceptably concerning the administration of an organization like the Minnesota department of the G. A. R., which in seventy-five years has had seventy department com­ manders and twenty-eight assistant adjutant generals, would seem at best a difficult undertaking. To be sure, the leadership, unlike that of most fraternal organizations, has of necessity been an aging one, although only six of the sixty-four department commanders whose ages have been ascertained had reached their thirtieth birthday when the Civil War came to a close. 8 A ma-

12, 1896; Minneapolis Ti111es, March 12, 1896; C. W. McKay to J. K. Mertz, February 8, 1895; L. M. Lange to Mertz, February 13, 1895; B. A. Man to l\1ertz, February 14, 1895; E. B. \Vood to Mertz, January 15, 1896; G. H. Holden to Mertz, February 5, 1896; J. G. Graham to Mertz, September 17, 1897; J. F. Locke to Mertz, February 17, 1898, G. A. R. Papers; W. W. Braden to H. A. Castle, February 25, 1888; J. H. Baker to Castle, March 5, 1896; Samuel Bloomer to Castle, March 5, 1896, Castle Papers. On Mertz, see below, p. 54-55, 187-190. ; Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1904, p. 105-106, 116-117; 1905, p. 107. 8 The six ,vere General John B. Sanborn of St. Paul, first department commander, General John W. Sprague of Winona, commander in 1869, Colonel George H. Johnston, 1876, Captain David B. Loomis of Still- DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES jority of the department commanders chosen between 1866 and 1879 were still young men in their thirties when elected to of­ fice. The average age at election of the men under \-vhose lead­ ership the department's membership rose during the eighties from practically nothing to its all-time 1naximum, was approx­ imately forty-six. In the nineties, the newly-elected command­ ers averaged fifty-two years of age, and in the first decade of the new century, sixty-three. From 1910 until 1919, the aver­ age was approximately seventy, and during the next decade, just short of eighty. 9 l\lost of the men who led the department in the 187o's and 188o's had died before the close of the War of 1914. By way of exception, however, perhaps the most active of the Minnesota G. A. R. leaders during the 193o's \-Vas a retired St. Paul drug­ gist, Rudolph A. Becker, who first joined the Grand Army in 1874 at the age of twenty-seven, who served as department com­ mander in 188 5, and who, \-Vith the aid of a helpful member of the \\loman's Relief Corps, perforn1ed what duties were left for the assistant adjutant general and assistant quartermaster general from 1929 until 1937.10 water, 1877, Captain Ed\\,ard C. Babb of Minneapolis, 1884, and Captain Alphonso H. Barto, 1889. As a matter of fact a large majority of the future commanders of the department were in 1865 less than twenty-five years of age. Twenty-one of them were twenty or less. Short sketches of many of the commanders are found in Warren Upham and Mrs. Rose B. Dunlap (comp.), Minnesota Biographies, 1655-1912. These may be supplemented by newspaper obituaries and post mortem sketches in the Journal of the department of Minnesota and of the national encampment. In some cases the memorial circulars published by the Minnesota com­ mandery of the Loyal Legion are useful. 9 Elisha B. Wood, a hearty Long Prairie attorney, who retired from the position of department commander just before the opening of the Spanish-American War, held a captaincy in the 14th Minnesota during that conflict. Upham and Dunlap ( comp.), Minnesota Biographies, 876. A large majority of the department commanders elected before the vVar of 1914 lived beyond the biblical limit of three score and ten years. All of those chosen after that date \Vere at least seventy when elected to office. 10 Acker post, Adjutant's Record, 2: 154; intervie,v with Mr. Becker, August, 1935; interviews with i\1rs. Birdie Williams of St. Paul, esp. July, 1935; August 10, 193 7. 52 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN l\1lost of the veterans who were chosen to head the depart­ ment were native born American citizens, although Marty was by birth a Swiss, Becker a German, Lauritz M. Lange, com­ mander in 1 89 3, a Norwegian, Patrick B. Gorman, elected in 1926, an Irishman of County Sligo, and Jacob Zuber, 1928, a native of France. "Billy" Mortimer, who became commander in 1898, Charles H. Taylor, 1913, and Thomas H. Peacock, 1929, were all born in England.11 Without exception, the commanders of the department had served in the arn1y. The only naval veteran whose candidacy was ever seriously proposed, J. F. R. Foss of Rawlins post, Min­ neapolis, was handily defeated by ex-Lieutenant Governor Gid­ eon S. Ives at the encampment of 1900, in spite of an unusually vigorous pre-election campaign.12 The marines never even fur­ nished an "also ran." At least twenty-five of the men who served in the office of department commander had been commissioned officers during the Civil War, though only four had risen, even by brevet, above the rank of major. The proportion of ex-officers was par­ ticularly and naturally high during the first fourteen years of the department's existence. It was probably something of a co­ incidence that eight of the ten commanders elected between 1903 and .1912 had been officers in the army, and ,vere members of the Loyal Legion.13

11 St. Paul Pioneer-Press, January 5, February 18, 1935; J. A. A. Burn­ quist, Minnesota and Its People, 4: 23; Departn1ent of Minnesota, Journal, 1906, p. 149; National Encampment, Journal, 1934, p. 227; Upham and Dunlap (comp.), Minnesota Biographies, 267, 768. Lange, who became a western Minnesota lawyer and register of the land office at Marshall, claimed to have immigrated for the purpose of enlisting in the Union army. \V. W. Stephenson to E. M. Stanton, March 27, 1866, Lange Papers. 12 Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1900, p. 116-120, 124; Minneapolis Tribune, February 28, 1900. Foss, ,vho ,vas president of the Nicollet National Bank, had already served a term as head of the National Naval Veterans' Association. Minneapolis Tribune, September 8, 1898; Upham and Dunlap (comp.), Minnesota Biographies, 234. 13 The Minnesota commandery of the Loyal Legion published a full roster of its members past and present, in 1906 and in 1917. Three of the higher officers who at one time or another headed the department were Brevet Major Generals Sanborn and Sprague, and Lieutenant Colo- DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES 53 The successive departn1ent comn1anders were men of various occupations, but a large n1ajority of those chosen before the ,\Tar of 1914 were business or professional men. No less than eighteen in a total of forty-four were lawyers. Few, if any, of the commanders may be classified as wage-earners, and not un­ til 1914 was a dirt farmer, Charles H. Hopkins, a homesteader near Fort Ridgeley, elected. 14 In fact, though the rank and file of the Grand Arn1y ,vere farmers and ,vage-earners, the leaders in lvlinnesota were largely drawn from the American "upper­ middle" class. l\1ost of the commanders elected before the War of 1914 held public office or employment at some time. Only a handful reached any high degree of political eminence, however. One governor, Van Sant; two lieutenant governors; one associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, Loren W. Collins; one congressman, William H. Harries, a southeastern Minnesota Democrat, swept into office at the mid-term election of 1890; and four district judges, quite exhaust the list. 15 No doubt it is something of a mistake to think of the men who held the highest office in the department as necessarily its principal leaders, although certainly a reading of the journals of the annual encampments will show that the past department commanders were usually present in numbers and notably ac- ne! George H. Johnston, all of whom were active in the department organization during its years of weakness. The other was Brevet Colonel Harrison White, pioneer merchant in the southwestern corner of the state, and department commander in 1904-1905. 14 Hopkins' election, by a margin of three votes over Watson W. Hall of St. Paul, was not urged as a recognition of the fact that farmers or ex-farmers constituted a large proportion of the membership of the department, but rather as a testimonial to his prolonged, and then re­ cently successful, efforts to procure the establishment of the Fort Ridge­ ley State Park. Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1914, p. 94-96; 1928, P· i56. 15 Governor Van Sant served as department commander in 1894, while on his way up the political ladder, but his friends, Harries and Judge Collins, were chosen department commander in 1901 and 1909 respec­ tively, after their political careers were pretty well over. The district judges were Henry G. Hicks, John Day Smith, and John P. Rea, all of Minneapolis, and Dolson B. Searle of St. Cloud. The lieutenant gover­ nors were Alphonso Barto (1874-1876), and Gideon S. Ives (1891-1893). 54 THE CIVIL \VAR VETERAN tive in the discussion of various matters. Certainly, however, the influence of no one or t\VO past con1n1anders was equal to that exercised by "Jake" lv1ertz, assistant adjutant general fron1 the r 893 encan1pn1ent until his death in the autun1n of r 898, or by Captain Orton S. Clark, whose service of nearly twenty-two years in that office \Vas like\vise ended by death, in November, 192 I. Mertz, a jovial Pennsylvania Dutchman, whose friends claimed that he could swear acceptably in two languages, combined a high degree of official efficiency ,vith an affection for his ex­ soldier comrades, a winning personality, and a collection of stories which made hin1 a favorite not only in Minneapolis, where he belonged to l\1organ post, but v1ith campfire audiences all over the state. While he had been an active worker in the Harrison and Morton Old-Soldiers' Club, and in its successor, the Union Veteran's League, before he became particularly prominent in the Grand Arrny, he was in love with his work as assistant adjutant general, or at any rate with the opportunities which it furnished for friendly social intercourse and for utiliz­ ing his skill in humorous narrative, exposition, and argu1nent. His affection for his comrades was fully reciprocated by the rank and file throughout the department. This the friends of Senior Vice Commander Joseph J. l\11cCardy, crusty, albeit witty, comptroller of the city of St. Paul, discovered to their considerable distress in 1 896. It had been generally understood, when l\1cCardy was unanin1ously elected senior vice department commander in r 89 5, that he was to succeed to the higher posi­ tion a year later. Indeed he had been placed in line in recogni­ tion of the supposed right of St. Paul, which was to be host to the national encampment in r 896, to have one of its citizens at the head of the entertaining department. McCardy, however, nearly ruined his chances for the succession when he declined to promise Mertz's reappointment. The Mertz following there­ upon proceeded to rally to the support of Captain John ("Fight­ ing Jack") Mullen of lVabasha, who was glad to agree to retain "Jake." Although the l\1inneapolis past department commanders came to the front for McCardy and although he stated categor­ ically in a pre-election caucus that he had promised the assistant adjutant generalship to no one, he \Vas able to win the election, DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES 55 finally, only by the close vote of 315 to 295. As soon as the re­ sult had been announced, ho,vever, the victorious l\tlcCardy dre,v the hearty applause of the encan1pn1ent by publicly re­ 16 appointing the popular l\11inneapolitan. Assistant Adjutant General Clark, a stocky veteran, was reap­ pointed annually until his years of service equalled those of his three nearest con1petitors combined. Clark resen1bled l\1ertz in his accuracy and earnestness as a n1eagerly paid n1anager of the departn1ent's affairs. He had son1ewhat the san1e type of popular appeal, too, in his kind-hearted, sunny disposition, which made hin1 a vvelcon1e guest wherever he traveled on department busi­ ness. He was unlike his predecessor, hovvever, in being an ac­ tive church \vorker, as superintendent of the Sunday School, rnusical director, and for thirty years ruling elder, of the First Presbyterian Church of l\,1inneapolis. He ,vas also a member, and from 1912, recorder, of the Loyal Legion commandery.17 To illustrate somewhat further the nature of the Grand Arn1y leadership in· Minnesota, it may be well to introduce two quar­ tets of intimate friends, who, first and last, exercised a good deal of influence on department affairs. The earlier group, brought together as young n1en primarily by their ,vork in the feeble .l\1innesota departn1ent of the 187o's, in 1878 constituted them­ selves, vvith their ,vives and children, the "Thanksgiving Club," or "Dinner Gang." Thereafter, for nearly a generation, they met annually for Thanksgiving dinner at the homes of the mem­ bers in rotation. This congenial group of veterans, "the big four," as it ,vas sornetimes called by the four themselves, included Judge Henry G. Hicks of l\1inneapolis, and three members of i\cker post, St. Paul, Captain Henry A. Castle, General l\1ark D. Flower, and Joseph J. l\1cCardy.18

rn See citations above, p. 50, n. 6. A sample of l\1ertz's style is found in a joyfully-received talk entitled, "\Vhen, vVhere, and How I Volun­ teered," given at the campfire held in connection with the 1897 encamp­ n1ent. Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1897, p. 196-201. See also, ibid., 1893, p. 220; 1894, p. 220-221; 1896, p. 65, 155, 157; 1899, p. 25-27, 85-86. 17 Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1907, p. 60; Military Order of the Loyal Legion, Commandery of the State of .1\tlinnesota, Circular 899, l\1ay 30, 1922; Minneapolis Journal, November 10, 1921, p. 23. 18 In 1912, the only surviving men1bers of the club, Captain Castle and Mrs. Flower, presented to the Minnesota Historical Society a scrapbook THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN Hicks was a fine, powerful figure of a man, a courtly gentle­ man, who in later years, at least, looked more like the traditional picture of a Confederate brigadier than that of a Yankee major by brevet. He had been sheriff of Hennepin County when elected third department commander in January, 1868. He was later admitted to the bar and served as judge of the district court from 1887 to 1895. On occasion a member of the state legisla­ ture, he was an active member of the Republican party, and an energetic partjcipant in Grand Army encampments until shortly 19 before his death in 191 2 • Flower was rather short and slightly built, though sufficiently handsome as a young man to inspire some punning on his sur­ name. He was the object of a considerable amount of unfriend­ ly newspaper comment between 1870 and 187 5 when he served under Governors Austin and Davis as adjutant general of Min­ nesota, in charge of the moribund militia of the state. In J anu­ ary, 1876, writing from 1\1emphis, he expressed complete will­ ingness to take a carpetbag appointment in that city for the good of his purse. Instead, however, he continued in the steam­ boat business until the next year, when the explosion of his vessel on the upper Missouri ruined him financially. Returning to St. Paul penniless and heavily in debt, he exhibited marked persistence and enjoyed considerable success in overcoming the effects of his misfortune. He alternated thereafter, as before, between public and private employment, and died at sixty-five, in 1907, postmaster of St. Paul, director of the Chicago and Great Western Railway Company, and president of the St. Paul Union Stock Yards Company. Although he was a charter member and one of the first officers of Acker post, St. Paul, he was the only one of the "big four" who never attained the rank­ ing position in the department organization. On occasion, how­ ever, he served as a member, in one capacity or another, of the department commander's staff. 20 illustrating the activities of the group. The sketches, memorials and pic­ tures contained in the volume include a good deal of information about the personal characteristics of the several members. 19 Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1913, p. 126. 20 Pioneer Press, July 15, August 23, 1875; Minnesota, Adjutant Gen­ eral, Annual Report, 1873, p. 22; 1875, p. 8; Flower to Austin, January DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES 57 McCardy, a resident of Kentucky at the outbreak of the war, and a coal dealer at Memphis, Tennessee, for six years after the conflict, went to St. Paul for his health in 187 1. He served suc­ cessively as county auditor, and city comptroller; then followed his friend, Castle, in 1904, as auditor for the post office depart­ ment of the federal governn1ent. As a candidate for elective office, McCardy was handicapped by his tendency to give vent to a keen, quick-thinking man's impatience with inefficiency, hesitation, and muddle-headedness. A soldierly figure, he may have carried a little too n1uch of the military manner into civil life. In a circle of like-minded intimates, however, he was counted a royal good fellow, whose unfeigned affection and incisive wit added a good deal to the joys of social intercourse.21 Of the co1nmanders who led the department of Minnesota during the decade of its beginnings, Captain Castle no doubt enjoyed the most successful administration. Few, if any, of his later-day successors excelled him in continuing zeal for the well­ being of the organization. He first joined the Grand Army at Quincy, Illinois, soon after its inception. He transferred his membership to Minnesota when he removed to St. Cloud, pri­ marily for his health, in 1867. In 1870, he founded Acker post at St. Paul. In January, 1871, he was elected senior vice com­ mander of the department. He held the office of commander, to which he was promoted a year later, for three full years, a record for Minnesota. His voluminous correspondence, often carried on in long hand even after the typewriter had come into general use, reveals the breadth of his personal, political, and Grand Army friendships, as well as his capacity for detail. Edi­ tor at an early day of the Anoka Union, and most of the time from 1876 until 1885 of the St. Paul Dispatch, he was untiring in "\\rinning and holding the support of the "country editors," a most useful following in the politics of the seventies, eighties, and nineties. Nor did he neglect to maintain contact in later years with the local politicians whom he had come to know through their mutual interest, during the seventies, in the

7, 1876, Austin Papers; J. B. Chaney, History of Acker Post, p. 8-9; De­ partment of Minnesota, Journal, 1907, p. 135-136. 21 Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1913, p. 128; A. R. M. [cGill] to Castle, January 5, 1904, Castle Papers. THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN G. A. R. In politics, like the other members of the "big four," he was a staunch Republican, and indeed the most active of the group. Loyally attached to the fortunes of Cushman K. Davis, he served as member, treasurer, secretary, and chairman of the Republican state central committee at various times during the seventies and eighties. At length he received his reward in the form of successive appointments, in 1 892 as postmaster of St. Paul, and in 1897 as auditor for the post office department at Washington. Castle was tall, almost slender, seldom in the best of health, yet full of nervous energy. He drove himself hard, and had the ability to get effective effort from those with whom he worked. An orator and essayist, and a little of a poet, he was in annual demand for Memorial Day addresses, and political stump speeches. In the Grand Army during the eighties, nineties, and thereafter, he was particularly concerned with keeping before his comrades the history of the organization during its early years of weakness and unpopularity, and with the establishment and management of the Minnesota Soldiers' Home, of whose board of trustees he was the first president. In his later years, he pub­ lished two stout sets of historical and biographical sketches, one dealing with St. Paul, the other with Minnesota at large. Varied as were his friendships and activities, not all of which, by any means, have been mentioned here, it is not improbable that he would prefer to be remembered as an aggressive leader of the Grand Army of the Republic, during the years when he served as department con1mander, and almost steadily thereafter until 22 his death in 191 6. The other quartet was a later development, and hardly came into being before the first had begun to disintegrate, as a result of Castle and lVlcCardy's service at vVashington. It should per­ haps be explained that there was no particular relationship, and

22 Gideon S. Ives, "Captain Henry Castle," in Minnesota History Bulletin, 2: 3-6 (February, 1917); Menzorial, Captain Henry A. Castle, 1841-1916; Henry A. Castle, "Reminiscences of Minnesota Politics," in Minnesota Historical Society, Collections, 15:553-598. The fifty-six boxes and fifty-eight volumes of the Castle Papers are almost as useful for a study of the careers of Castle's intimates as of himself. For a sample of the type of calls made upon an active past department commander of the G. A. R., see particularly Castle's correspondence for 1888. DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES 59 certainly no conflict, between the t"'O groups. The latter four­ some, all of ,vhose n1embers ultin1ately served as departn1ent commanders, and as officers of the national G. A. R. organiza­ tion, included ex-Governor Sa1nuel R. Van Sant, Judge Loren W. Collins, 1\1ajor Silas H. Tovvler, and Judge Ell Torrance. All except Judge Collins had come to i\!linnesota in the boom days of the eighties. After 190 5, all were residents of Minneapolis. Torrance, Towler, and finally, Van Sant, belonged to the elite Rawlins post. Lunching together aln1ost daily and discussing the internal affairs . of the . 1\1:innesota Republican party and the Grand Army, they constituted a solid and influential group of G. A. R. leaders. Torrance had succeeded Van Sant as depart­ n1ent commander in 1895, but preceded him as commander in chief, taking office in 1901, ,vhile Van Sant had to wait until 1 909 for similar preferment. Towler served as Torrance's ad­ jutant general, was made junior vice com1nander in chief in 190 5, but was not elected department commander until 191 7. Judge Collins, frequently a member of the national organiza­ tion's council of adn1inistration, was judge advocate general in 1907-1908, and commander of the 1\1innesota department in 1909-191 o. 23 As Castle's personal papers illuminate the careers of the sev­ eral members of the "Dinner Gang," Torrance's still more vol­ uminous collection sheds important light on the record, not only of himself, but also of his three particular Grand Army cronies. Like Castle in his historical interests, surpassing him in his zeal for preserving and collecting historical materials, Torrance was less involved in political manipulation, or in business ventures other than the practice of la"'· On the other hand, as a son of a Scotch-Irish Pennsylvania pastor, and as the affectionate broth­ er-in-law and correspondent of two Presbyterian ministers, Tor­ rance seems to have been much more absorbed in the affairs of

:!:I Torrance to James L. Davenport, January 4, 1908; Torrance to William G. Frye, January 10, 1908; July 13, 1909; Torrance to James Tanner, June 30, 1909, carbon copies in Torrance Papers. Torrance took an active part in Van Sant's gubernatorial campaigns. In return, the gov­ ernor managed Torrance's campaign for election to the highest position in the G. A. R. National Tribune, September 19, 1901. See •elo,:v, p. 2 53· 60 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN the First Presbyterian Church of lVIinneapolis than was Castle in those of the House of Hope Presbyterian Church of St. Paul. 24 Judge Torrance attained his title by serving as probate and county judge in northern Missouri, where he had practiced for son1e years before he removed to lVIinneapolis, his deliberate choice an1ong the booming cities of the upper Mississippi and Missouri valleys. He speedily became one of the prominent and successful lawyers of the 1\llinnesota metropolis. Only rarely was he a candidate for elective public office after his removal to 1\1innesota, although he served for eighteen years as a membe1 of the Minnesota State N orn1al School Board. Interested in his profession, tenderly devoted to his wife and five children, faith­ ful to his church, loyal to his party, and particularly active in the affairs of his beloved Grand Army, Judge Torrance had a wide circle of interests and of friends. Quite as good a fighter on occasion in later life as during his youth, he nevertheless grew old gracefully. During his last twenty-five years he was particularly associated with the movement for better feeling and a friendly reunion between the wearers of the Blue and the Grey. His mellow dignity, as the years crept upon him, his win­ ning countenance, his felicity in written and oral expression, and a fundan1ental S"\\'eetness of disposition endeared him to his 25 friends North and South, young and old. · As befitted a successful Mississippi River steamboat man, Van Sant was rougher in appearance, in manner of speaking, and in his sense of humor than his devoted friend, attorney, and not infrequent debtor, Torrance. He had, too, what was probably

24 At his death in 1932, Judge Torrance left a collection of some three thousand pamphlets and nearly two thousand bound volumes dealing with the Civil War and with the post-war history of the several or­ ganizations of Civil War veterans. With considerable persistence, he had collected a complete file of the journals of the national encan1pment of the G. A. R. and as far as might be, of the several departn1ent en­ campments. His heirs generously presented this unusual collection, "'·ith some ninety-two boxes of personal and professional papers, to the Min­ nesota Historical Society, where the present writer has consulted both, to his very considerable profit. Minnesota History, 13:318-319 (Septem­ ber, 1932) contains a brief inventory of the collection. 2·5 Minneapolis Journal, February 19, 1932; Pioneer Press, February 19, 19 3 2; Department of Minnesota, / ournal, 1909, p. 124-125. DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES 61 a stronger hold on the affections of the rank and file of the Grand Army, and obviously a vastly greater political following. He was outwardly, at least, an exceptionally good loser, and a considerate victor, disarn1ing in his frankness, and in his readi­ ness to return thanks to those to whon1 he attributed his political preferment. 1"'he stocky governor's political success, however, did not, in his estin1ation, rank first among his achievements. He repeatedly said, and apparently meant it, that his success in \Vinning the highest position in the national Grand Army organization gave him greater pride than had his two elections as governor of l\1innesota. Like Torrance, he was inveterate in his attendance upon the department and national encampments . ...i\t the age of ninety-two, in the sum1ner of 1936, he was a par­ ticipant in the annual tour of the l\1innesota Historical Society. All in all, he was a n1an of great vitality, of human understand­ ing, and of popular appeal. :w T O"\vler, like Van Sant, was a business man. Moving to Min­ neapolis in 1884, he was at first engaged in the wholesale grocery business, but in 1889 transferred his interests to the Minneapolis Stean1 Laundry Company, ,vhich he directed through growth and con1bination for many years. Upon Castle's retirement in 1899 from the presidency of the hoard of trustees of the Sol­ diers' Home, he assumed that position ::tnd held it until 1909. He "\Vas particularly active in the movement to admit the wives of Civil vVar veterans to the Soldiers' Home with their husbands. F ron1 191 9 until his death in 19 3o, at the age of 84, he served as con1mandant of the home. He was a Mason, a member of the Park A venue Congregational Church, and like Collins, Tor­ 27 rance, Castle and Hicks, a Loyal Legionnaire. · The "little judge," Collins, had had a long career in public affairs before he became a prominent figure in the G. A. R. Admitted to the bar in 186 5, he had practiced law at St. Cloud

:w ]. H. Baker, Governors of Minnesota, 399-417; Department of Min­ nesota, Proceedings, 1901, p. 52-53; Journal, 1908, p. 104; 1929, p. 65; inten·iew with Mr. Van Sant, June 29, 1935. See above, p. 25; below, p. 2 5 3· 27 National Encan1pment, Journal, 1930, p. 252-253; Henry A. Castle, Minnesota, 3:1570-1571; Minneapolis Journal, April 23, 1930; Loyal Le­ gion, Commandery of Minnesota, Register, 1917. 62 THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN and wherever else his services were demanded in the vast ex­ panses of northern j\!finnesota, until in 1883 he ,vas appointed judge of the huge seventh district. Four years' service there led to his appointment to the Supreme Court by Governor A. R. NlcGill in 1887. In earlier years, the judge had more than once overthrown St. Cloud's political tradition by winning election as a Republican mayor in that Democratic stronghold. Though frequently mentioned as a gubernatorial possibility, he remained on the bench until 1904. Then, too late, he resigned, a n1an of sixty-six, to seek the Republican nomination for governor as Van Sant's successor. Defeated after a particularly bitter pre­ convention campaign, he devoted most of the remaining eight years of his life to the practice of his profession, to his friend­ ships, and to his work in and for the Grand Army of the Re­ public. He died in 1912, taken ill while returning from the na­ tional encan1pment of the G. A. R. at Los Angeles.28 First and last, the lVIinnesota department contributed fifteen high officers to the national organization. Heading the list were three commanders in chief; Rea, who took office at the close of the 1887 encampment, Torrance, and Van Sant. Three senior vice commanders in chief were virtually named by the depart­ ment of Minnesota, in accordance with the tradition which per­ mitted the entertaining department to make the selection. Ac­ cordingly, Rea was designated in 1884 at Minneapolis, the popular "Jack" 1\1 ullen of Wabasha in 1 896 when the national encampment was held at St. Paul, and Thomas H. Peacock, also at St. Paul, by the feeble survivors of 1933. In 1906, the l\llin­ nesota department declined the honor, and an Indiana man ,vas selected. Towler in 190 5 and Samuel E. 1'1ahan of St. Paul in 192 7 were elevated to the rank of junior vice commander in chief. T o,vler was an unsuccessful candidate for commander in chief in 1929 at the last national encampment before his death, while Mahan unsuccessfully sought the department's nomina­ tion for senior vice commander in chief in 19 3 3. 29

2s Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1913, p. 130-131; Castle, Min­ nesota, 3: 1494-1496; Minneapolis Journal, September 27, 1912; L. YV. Collins, The Story of a Minnesotan. See belo"\v, p. 110-111, 196-197. :.! 9 A complete list of the past holders of all i111porcant national offices in the G. A. R. is found in National Encampment, Journal, 1934, p. 253- DEPAR~fMENT ACTI\TITIES The regular practice, after the position of adjutant general was n1ade appointive in 187 1, was for the co1nmander in chief to name to that office a con1racle, often an intimate friend, f ron1 his O\Vn department. Accordingly, the future Judge Daniel Fish of 1\,finneapolis served under Judge Rea in 1887-1888, To\:\rler under Judge Torrance in 1901-1902, and George 0. Eddy, also a 1\1inneapolitan, under Van Sant in 1909-191 o. To the position of chaplain in chief, the 1906 encampment elected Minnesota's outstanding cleric, the 1\,1ost Rev. John Ireland, Ron1an Catholic archbishop of St. Paul, late chaplain of the Fifth 1\1innesota reg­ iment, and a men1ber of Acker post. The Rev. George B. S1nith, chaplain of the 1\1innesota Soldiers' Home, served as chaplain in chief in 1921-1922. William Lochren, the Minneapolis judge whon1 President Cleveland made pension commissioner in 1 89 3, had served as judge advocate general of the G. A. R. under Com­ mander in Chief Wheelock G. Veazey in 1890-1891. Torrance occupied the same position for three years, 1897-1900, before his elevation to first place in the Grand Army. Judge Collins was the official legal adviser in 1907-1908 of Commander in Chief Charles G. Burton. Past Department Commander Levi Longfellow, head of a 1\1inneapolis produce firm, and a sweet singer of Grand Army renown, served as national patriotic in­ structor fron1 1912 until 1914, in 1921 and 1922, and from 1924 until his death in 1926. Finally, in September, 1939, 0. S. Pierce of Minneapolis received a nominal appointment as inspector general.ao v\Tith the other members of the Bryant post quartet of 1\1in­ neapolis, Long£ell ow was much in de1nand at campfires, encamp­ ments, and 1\1 emorial Day services. No department encampment, of course, \:\1as complete without a campfire, held usually in the evening preceding or following the first official day of the en­ campment sessions. In an auditorium decorated with flags, bunt­ ing and flowers, the veterans themselves ,vere ushered to special­ ly reserved seats, while other sections were set aside for mem­ bers of the "allied orders" and the general public. Son1etimes a

271. See also, ibid., 1906, p. 154, 156; 1929, p. 117, 125-126; Department of Minnesota, Journal, 1933, p. 13-14. 30 Department of Minnesota, Proceedings, 1904, p. 47; Journal, 1907, p. 60; Minneapolis Journal, February 27, 1926. THE CIVIL WAR VETERAN replica of an actual war-time campfire was placed on the stage or rostrum. Although the program adhered pretty closely to the regular pattern of post campfires, the audiences at such de­ partment gatherings were called upon to endure a tremendous amount of speech-making. The department commander and the commander in chief, or some representative of that dignitary, regularly participated, and the governor and mayor were likely to take a hand as well. Past commanders were frequently called on, and so were representatives of the "allied orders," and on occasion after the War of r 9 r 4, the representatives of other vet­ erans' organizations. As a rule, the speakers told the veterans what they expected and wanted to hear-about the significance of their services during the War of the Rebellion, about the contributions of the Grand Army to the development of a due spirit of patriotism, about the pensions which they deserved to receive from a presumably grateful people, and perhaps about the iniquity of some branch of the federal or state government in doing or leaving undone something in which G. A. R. leaders took an interest. A good many stories, some worth remembering for future use, were retailed, along with music, vocal and in­ strumental, and sundry patriotic recitations. The programs com­ monly continued until an hour which, by the twentieth cen­ tury, at any rate, was considerably past the usual bedtime of the aging veterans. 31 Until 1 907, the wintry season during which the annual de­ partment encampments were held tended to discourage the as­ sembling of large numbers of veterans from outside the Twin Cities, other than the actual members of the encampment. It also tended, no doubt, to prevent making the meeting the occasion of an uproarious celebration. Aside from the campfire, and the re­ ceptions usually given by the Woman's Relief Corps, the Ladies of the G. A. R., and the Sons of Veterans, the most spectacular phase of each enca1npment ,vas a short march, often from the department headquarters to the place of meeting. Nearly a thou-

31 Beginning in 1 888, it was the usu~l practice to print in the / ournal of each department encampment an account of the department campfire, often including the addresses of the evening in extenso. Good examples of campfire programs from three different periods of G. A. R. history are those of 1890, 1905, and 1929. DEPARTi\1ENT ACTIVITIES 65 sand veterans ,vere in line for the parade of the 1898 encamp­ ment. About eight hundred marched up Nicollet Avenue, Min­ neapolis, in l\1arch, 1902, "with elastic step ... and vigorous swing." In later years, the parade was eliminated, though in 191 7, during the excitement incident to American entry into the World War, the first department parade in several years was hastily improvised. "'hen in 1907 the department encampments began to be held in June, the Civil War veterans were already aln1ost too far along in years to paint the to,:vn very red, had they so desired. The opportunities afforded by the warmer weather at encampment time were largely utilized to make pos­ sible such diversions for delegates and visiting comrades as a drive around the entertaining city or an excursion to the Sol­ diers' Home.32 Almost at the beginning of its history, the Minnesota depart­ ment inaugurated the practice