Brief History of the Grand Army of the Republic

 The organization of the GAR was based upon three objectives: fraternity, charity, and loyalty. The first ideal; fraternity, was encouraged through regular, locally scheduled meetings and joint gatherings with members from other posts. Their "campfire" was the most popular activity. Here, a group of comrades sat in their hall or around dinner tables, singing old war songs, recounting wartime experiences, and swapping accounts of their deeds. The annual state and national meetings, called encampments, attracted thousands of members.  

To promote its second objective, charity, the veterans set up a fund for the relief of needy veterans, widows, and orphans. This fund was used for medical, burial and housing expenses, and for purchases of food and household goods. Loans were arranged, and sometimes the veterans found work for the needy. The GAR was active in promoting soldiers' and orphans' homes; through its effort's soldiers' homes were established in sixteen states and orphanages in seven states by 1890.

 Loyalty, the third ideal, was fostered through constant reminders to those who had not lived through the war of the significance of the GAR in reuniting a divided nation. The organization spent much of its time soliciting funds for monuments and memorials, busts and equestrian statues of Union soldiers and heroes, granite shafts, tablets, urns, and mounted cannon. The GAR also encouraged the preservation of Civil War sites, relics, and historic documents. Cannons and fieldpieces were placed in many towns or courthouse squares and parks. The members also gave battle-stained flags, mementos, to local museums. 

 The GAR's principal legacy to the nation, however, is the annual observance of May 30 as Decoration Day, or more recently, Memorial Day. General John A. Logan, Commander-in-Chief of the GAR, requested members of all posts to decorate the graves of their fallen comrades with flowers on May 30, 1868. This idea came from his wife, who had seen Confederate graves decorated by Southern women in Virginia. By the next year the observance became well established. Members of local posts in communities throughout the nation visited veterans' graves and decorated them with flowers and honored the dead with eulogies. The pattern thus set is still followed to the present day. It was only after the first World War, when the aged veterans could no longer conduct observances, that the Civil War character of Decoration Day was replaced by ceremonies for the more recent war dead. 

 Albert E. Smith Jr., Reference Librarian, Library of Congress Researcher and Reference Services Division 

 The Major General James A. Garfield Camp 62 is honored to have the current Commander and two other members as Companions of the Loyal Legion, Rhode Island Commandery. 

 Since its inception, the MOLLUS membership has included nearly 12,000 Civil War officers including such notables as Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip Sheridan, George Armstrong Custer, Nelson Miles, Winfield Scott Hancock, David G. Farragut, and five U.S. Presidents including U.S. Grant, Rutherford Hayes, Chester Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley. 

 From the beginning, only veteran commissioned officers of the Unites States Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, regular or volunteer, who had served during the Civil War and who had been honorably discharged could become First Class Companions.  The Order’s Constitution also allowed for primogeniture whereby the first-born son of the officers could belong as Second Class members. The Constitution also allowed for First Class Hereditary Companions who were the direct descendants of deceased veteran officers. 

 A mass meeting of Philadelphia veterans was held on April 20, 1865, to pledge renewed allegiance to the Union and to plan for the participation in the funeral arrangements for the President. The Philadelphia officers who served as an Honor Guard for President Lincoln’s funeral cortege. In late May of 1865, they met again in Constitution Hall to establish a permanent organization of officers and former officers patterned after the Society of the Cincinnati established after the Revolutionary War. The name they chose was The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS)and its motto,

Lex Regent, Arma Tuentur : Laws Rule, Arms Defend.