The Railsplitter The Newsletter of the Department of Illinois, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War SUMMER 2019 OFFICERS: UPCOMING ENCAMPMENTS: INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Commander The schedule for future Encampments and Chaplain’s Corner Harry Reineke IV, PCC their hosts are as follows: Patriotic Instruction Chief of Staff “Keyboard Klacking” from the DSVC Steve Westlake, PDC, PCC Oct 2019, Camp #49, Sycamore A Word from the Dept. Secretary Senior Vice-Commander May 2020, Camp #443, Belleville Camp News Joe Hutchinson, PCC Oct 2020, Camp #1, No. Cook County Junior Vice-Commander And MORE! Gary Gunderson, PCC Future scheduling T.B.D. Secretary Steve Aarli, PCC COMMANDER’S CORNER: www.suvcwil.com and give your feedback to Treasurer myself or Brother /elch at Bill Johnson My dear Brothers, navcb234gmail.com. Council /e hope that this new, mobile- Tom Osteicher, PCC It will be a short col- friendly pla5orm will make future updates, Gene Walker umn from me this issue, as I edits, and changes-of-hands easier, and that Leigh Franklin am preparing for Fall Route the new site will be pro6table for our De- Patriotic Instructor Picks at work, and the day partment and Camps. Michael J. Zafran aer picks, I go to the Naonal I would be remiss if I didn8t greatly Chaplain ncampment. thank Brother Paul 9eien, PDC for the great Jerome Kowalski Reports are bring wri"en, plans are work he8s done for years with the old Graves Registration being made, but I did want to give you each Steve Aarli, PCC pla5orm and site. :nowing what I know a heads up on what a couple of your Broth- Civil War Memorials now, it was really a great and heavy task he ers and commi"ees are doing around our Steve Anderson had. Department. Historian Lastly, it is me for someone to step Your Stephenson Memorial Pla)a Terry Dyer, PDC, PCC up to be our agle Scout coordinator. Broth- commi"ee is working hard to ensure that Guide er Jim Lyon, PDC is seeking a Naonal 01ce, several "misplaced" brick orders will be man- Patrick McConnell and I8d like him to be able to focus on that ufactured and set at the site very soon. This Guard when it comes around. He8s also asked to has been a headache for all involved, but I Rob Hauff step down. It would be great if someone Color Bearer have spoken with commi"ee chairman could take over this role for our Department. Leigh Franklin Brother Terry Dyer and he assures me that The Boy Scouts are, historically, great friends GAR Highway Officer we are back to "onward and upward" with of the Allied 0rders of the GAR. /e8d like to vacant this pro,ect. keep it that way. ROTC Coordinator I encourage each of you to do what That8s all from me this me. Please Nick Kaup, PDC, PCC you can to solicit donaons -bricks are nice keep our delegaon traveling to the Naonal Eagle Scout Coordinator too, but cash donaons are be"er. to the ncampment in your thoughts and prayers, Jim Lyon, PDC, PCC pro,ect. /e are raising funds very slowly, Department Councilor that we all may travel safely and that the and each of us wants to see this completed Ron Clark, PDC, PCC ncampment proves "peaceful and harmoni- sooner rather than later. Department Organizer ous". 0ur new Department Signals Nick Kaup, PDC, PCC 01cer, Brother Bobby /elch, has built a Steve Westlake, PDC, PCC In Fraternity, Charity, and Loyalty, brand new website for the Department. Signals Officer Maintaining the old website was not Robert Welch Harry /. Reineke IV, PCC very streamlined or easy, he determined Real Sons Liaison Department Commander. Joe Hutchinson, PCC aer his appointment, so with my permis- Fraternal Relations sion he started from scratch. Leigh Franklin Please visit this new site at The Railsplitter SUMMER 2019 Page 2 CHAPLAIN’S CORNER: comes to a halt - because the medical Brothers and Sisters of the Allied Orders community deems that there is nothing were the lever that moved The Almighty Hospice. I find they can do to repair the damage or bring to allow me to continue on. He is appar- the word frighten- the patient back to a normal life. ently not finished with me yet. ing. Back in February of this year, I National Treasurer David Ten years was preparing myself mentally to enter McReynolds went into Hospice last week, ago my Mom and Hospice. Heart, thyroid and digestive as well as Wisconsin PDC Brian Dad were in Hos- problems were so acute that only a miracle McManus’ wife. Please pray for their pice, just six was going to save me. families - that the Lord gives them the months apart. Well, that miracle happened; one strength to get through these difficult They were both 91 of the five surgeons in the Midwest who times. If you agree with me - say Amen. years old. was capable and successful at reversing a Hospice is a place, in your home 16 year old gastro bypass surgery did the In Fraternity, Charity and Loyalty, or medical facility where you go to die. procedure on me - and my recovery began. Morphine is administered and nutrition I am sure that the prayers of my Chaplain Jerry AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA PATRIOTIC INSTRUCTION: of the Gettysburg Address in 1863. Lincoln’s assimilation of the Declaration of Independence would shape the future of the na- While researching how Americans, during the Civil tion. War era, celebrated Independence Day, I found that the practice of celebrating the Fourth of July quickly leveled off following Lincoln asserted that the authors of the Declaration of Independence understood the second paragraph as setting a the ratification of the Constitution. benchmark for free men whose principles should be realized “as Citizens became complacent about their freedom and fast as circumstances…permit.” They wanted that benchmark to only considered discrete aspects of the Declaration of Independ- be “familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, and ence when it served their purposes, one of the most important constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, being equality. constantly approximated and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value For example, in the 1780’s several slaves won their of life to all people and all colors everywhere.” In response to freedom by arguing before the Massachusetts Judicial Court that Calhoun’s assertion that independence could have been declared the provision of the state’s bill of rights, crafted similarly to the without insistence on human dignity and inalienable rights, the Declaration of Independence, that all men were born free and fact that the forefathers had made its inclusion all the more glori- equal made slavery illegal. Similarly, in the early 1800’s work- ous. ers, farmers, women’s rights advocates and others used the words of the Declaration of Independence to give grounds for Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address stated briefly and elo- their quests for equality. quently beliefs that he had developed throughout the ten years prior to the speech, integrating points that reverberated those of However, these proclamations of men’s equal birth earlier Americans such as the Republicans of the 1790’s, eulo- aroused dissent especially in southern states. Virginia’s John gists Peleg Sprague and John Sergeant in the 1820’s, Virginian Randolph claimed that the notion of equality was “a falsehood, John Cooke, and Benjamin Wade in the 1850’s. Lincoln’s ideas and a most pernicious falsehood, even though I find it in the were not just his own but were an “expression of the American Declaration of Independence.” mind”, of course not representing all people’s beliefs, but what He went on to say that man was born in a condition of many had come to accept. “perfect helplessness and ignorance” and was dependent upon As Lincoln's and succeeding generations believed that others. South Carolina’s John C. Calhoun corroborated saying the Gettysburg Address consoled, inspired the people to continue that, “There was not a word of truth,” in the idea that men were their fight, and, above all, celebrated democracy and Union. So, created equal. He felt that the founding fathers had committed a Americans on July Fourth celebrate not only the Declaration of great error in this verbiage and said that separation from Britain Independence, but the collective work of many great patriots could have been justified without the use of the words, “all men who over the ensuing years have toiled to maintain our freedom are created equal.” and continually fight for equality for the people of our great Abraham Lincoln, a former one-term Congressman country. from Illinois, was politically energized by these arguments. Lin- Submitted by Michael Zafran, coln, who heretofore had little interest in the Declaration of Inde- pendence, took up the mantle of equality for all, making the ar- Department of Illinois Patriotic Instructor guments of equity in the Declaration of Independence his priori- ty. He reshaped the ideals of the founding fathers in his speech- es, promoting the logic of equality, culminating in the eloquence The Railsplitter SUMMER 2019 Page 3 KEYBOARD KLACKING go, (South Padre Island near Brownsville). However, from this From DSVC Joe Hutchinson point on “the winds of war,” a tempest in the Gulf, and perhaps a little of the wrath of God were to change their plans in an unex- Anyone with any interest in Civil War history has heard pected and possibly a historic surprise. about the major battles and knows at least a couple names of For five days, from June 9 to 13, the ships sailed south- generals.