Thousands of Civil War veterans moved to Dakota Territory after the war, most of them former Union soldiers. Many were members of The Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization that advocated for veterans' rights. The GAR also looked after the welfare of its members and their families, and provided an important forum for social interactions between veterans.
Steven Morgan is a history instructor at Mitchell High School. Some years ago, Morgan wrote an article about the GAR in South Dakota that was published in the South Dakota State Historical Society journal.
SDPB spoke with Morgan about the article and the importance of the Grand Army of the Republic in South Dakota History.
Steve Morgan:
The GAR here in South Dakota was founded in 1883 and it was founded for the same purposes that the national organization was founded, which was fraternity charity and the loyalty. And so these veterans, came together at their meetings locally, which were called posts at the community level. At the state level, they were called departments. So they held an annual department encampment. And then of course there was a national encampment as well. Not all of these veterans would travel to a national encampment, you know, because you had expenses. So it took some money to get to a national encampment. but South Dakota usually had a small delegation at the national encampment every year, you know, throughout its existence anyway. And I believe these veterans really needed this organization because they needed to share the experiences they had during the Civil War.
Because as I said earlier, some of these guys had to have experienced trauma. And if you know a little bit about the Civil War, there's no transition time between mustering out and going back home. These guys, some of them didn't even stick around for their discharge papers. The war was over. ‘I'm fine. I'm going home’ kind of thing. And, especially being out here, the Great Plains is very remote and isolated. It had to have been very tough for some of these veterans. And I think the GAR, the Grand Army of the Republic was their way to help them cope with the experiences that they went through. And they could commiserate with these other guys with these other veterans.
SDPB:
You point that out in your article that there also was a significant political component.
Steve Morgan:
You are very correct. In fact, when this organization was founded nationally in 1866, I believe there were a couple of guys - Benjamin Franklin Stevenson and John Alexander Logan - saw the potential of this group being a huge voting bloc. And I believe that John Logan used the Grand Army of the Republic as an opportunity to further his political ambitions. So there was a political component to it, even here in South Dakota. When I read the journals of the annual state encampments, you could see there was quite a bit of politicking going on and networking going on. So the organization was used that way as a, you know, as a feather in the cap. it was a part of their politicking and networking here.
SDPB:
And I suppose a lot of them had crossover interests. They were also Freemasons and, you know, probably involved in their churches or parishes. So
Steve Morgan:
Exactly right. Yes. They were crossovers. A lot of them were Masons and Odd Fellows. So there was crossover there. And when I read through some of the letters of (governor) Arthur C. Mellette, I was astonished by how many veterans wrote him and would mention, first thing, ‘I'm a veteran. I'm in the GAR. I would sure like a postmaster-ship in Frankfurt or Redfield or whatever the case may be. So that organization was used for some political opportunities and they got those jobs and they got those jobs.
SDPB:
They were political appointees many times?
Steve Morgan:
Right. Remember this when South Dakota became a state. Now we're talking 1889. If you put the admission of South Dakota into the national context of what's going on, there's this fight amongst Democrats and Republicans over patronage and the and the spoils system. And so they're bickering back and forth. And that Republican party was fractured between those stalwarts and the half-breed Republicans: those that wanted to hold on to patronage and those that wanted to get rid of it. And so I believe that there were quite a few of stalwart Republicans out here in Dakota. And what later became South Dakota. So when you look at South Dakota's admission into the union and you put it in that national context, not only of the whole struggle for getting rid of patronage, but the whole struggle between North and South over what's the correct memory of the Civil War. It is no accident for me that Arthur Mellette, a Civil War veteran, and a member of the GAR was the last appointed territorial governor. And the first popularly elected governor of the state of South Dakota,
SDPB:
So, do you think that way things were set up in that system of patronage and this strong Republican political base at the time, do you think that really carries over into what we are today as a state politically?
Steve Morgan:
I do, politically. I believe that when South Dakota was admitted to the Union, that these stalwart Republicans, these conservative Republicans were setting the tone. And if you look, the second governor was another Civil War veteran and another GAR member that was Charles Sheldon. I know that South Dakota has always had an independent and a populous streak but I believe that they were setting the tone.
Speaker 1:
Let me ask you a little bit more about the activities of the guys within the GAR. You pointed out some, that they were very, very much about taking care of one another. Yes. can you give me an example of that?
Steve Morgan:
In my article, I tell the story about George Johnson, Redfield veteran member, the GAR there, he wanted to go to the national encampment in Minneapolis that year. I think it was 1884 or 1886. They raised enough money and Johnson gets there. He happens to have an accident. Somehow his leg gets crushed under a trolley car or a street car, and the leg has to be amputated. The other members of the GAR, the South Dakota delegation, came home. They raised enough money - over about $3,000 – to not only pay all the hospital expenses and the expenses for the amputation, but whatever money was left over they gave to his wife for procurement of, you know, putting food on the table for however long that money lasted. so they would do all kinds of things. When the Women's Relief Corps (the GAR auxiliary) here in South Dakota organized and was added as an exemplary to the Grand Army of the Republic in about 1886 or 87, they were the main catalyst for keeping the Grand Army of the Republic in South Dakota going because they would do bake sales, they would hold host pageants and charge admission, they would host plays, patriotic plays, and charge admission. So they were the backbone, as far as I'm concerned for the Grand Army of the Republic. And those veterans were very thankful for those women for that auxiliary group. As I kept reading in the journals’ later years into the 1890s, I would see that it was a, a woman of the Women's Relief Corps that would bring to the attention of a local GAR post that comrade so-and-so out there, farming, you know, who was a GAR member, was in need of food, or he needs a horse, or he needs a milk cow. And so they would bring resources together as much as they could and help these people.
SDPB:
Now, the GAR also advocated strongly for veterans' rights, if you will. That the hospital in Hot Springs was one of their major accomplishments.
Steve Morgan:
Yes. It was one of their major accomplishments. And that had been a goal. I think, of the South Dakota delegation of the GAR from very beginning. As soon as the, the South Dakota GAR is founded in 1883, these boys are talking about, ‘we need a soldier's home here.’ And, of course, they had to fight with some Democratic Territorial governors who saw it the other way and said, ‘these veterans should go back to their home state if they want to enter a soldier's home. And if they need help for their disabilities.’ And these South Dakota boys said, ‘no, we want one right here in our own state. ‘
SDPB:
And this is going to eventually get us into a topic I know you want to talk about: they also were very good about burying one another.
Steve Morgan:
Yes. Many times, they paid for funeral expenses of, of some of these farmers who were just subsistance living and couldn't afford a burial. They did that many, many times,
SDPB:
And now we've got some number of Civil War vet graves out there. And some of the headstones, you can tell who it is and some, not so much,
Steve Morgan:
It saddens me because there are so many that are in disrepair. Some markers are not even there anymore. I had someone tell me the other day, they know of a Civil War veteran in Montrose with no marker. They have an approximate idea of where that veteran is buried but they're not sure because the marker is missing.
SDPB:
I'm just going to ask you if there's anything that you want to add.
Steve Morgan:
I think the other thing that we should talk about is, probably their most enduring legacy was setting up Memorial Day. And that had been an issue with even the national Grand Army of the Republic since it was founded. And even though there are so many origin stories, really, it makes no difference where the origin came from. The fact that these guys agitated the federal government for many, many years to make Memorial Day a federal holiday and institutionalize that in American society speaks a lot about these men. And, it also speaks towards the idea that this was their way of showing white, Southern veterans the correct history because when they eulogized these men at a funeral or at a burial it's during those conversations and that dialogue where these men are expressing a little bit of animosity towards the South and are expressing what the correct history is about the Civil War and what the Civil War meant. So I think that's their most enduring legacy.
The other thing we should probably talk about real briefly is a federal pensions, because that was another big issue for these guys. Many of these guys, of course, they were criticized for bringing federal pensions up during the 1880s in the 1890s. But I explained in my article that it wasn't until the 1880s and 1890s, when these guys aged that their disabilities, however big or small, were all of the sudden exacerbated because of their age.
SDPB:
Now, just, just one more thing on that note. And it's clarification for me. There were pensions given to American soldiers even after the Revolution. Am I right?
Steve Morgan:
Yes. There were individual pensions given to Revolutionary War soldiers
SDPB:
So they were not creating the idea that, ‘hey, we served our country and now that our country owes us something. That was not new, correct?
Steve Morgan:
Right. But, but there was no permanent established federal legislation on it. They were individualized pensions, or they were land scripts that they would get for their service in the war. They would get a land grant script, which allowed them to come out and settle, and far more than 160 acres, more than what the homestead act provided. The group of veterans that founded Gettysburg (South Dakota), that's what they did. They put their land scripts together. So they, they had quarters of land or a section of land. And that's how they founded the community of Gettysburg. So yes, so pensions were not anything new, but what was new was a permanent federal statute that called for pensions. And that provided for the graduation, you know, the increase in, in pension money, according to rank or disability.