(Above) Drawing of Dr. Benjamin F. Stephenson. (Photo source Wikipedia)

By Gerald Sonnenberg, Hecker Camp 443
Dept. of Illinois Patriotic Instructor, editor

This year was unique in that we celebrated the Nation’s 250th birthday. In addition, 2026 was also the 160th anniversary of the establishment of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR).

It was in Decatur, Illinois, on April 6, 1866 that Illinois native Dr. Benjamin Franklin Stephenson and Virginia native, Chaplain Reverend William J. Rutledge established the first post of the GAR; a fraternal organization composed of Veterans of the Union Army, Navy, Marines and Revenue Cutter Service who served in the American Civil War.

Born in Wayne County, Illinois, Stephenson himself served in the Union Army as chief surgeon of the 14th Illinois Infantry Regiment during the war. Rutledge served as the regiment’s chaplain.

While not the first organization founded by Civil War Veterans, what started as an association for Union Civil War Veterans to preserve friendships, maintain connections from their shared wartime suffering and provide charity and support, grew to become the first massive, nationally structured fraternal organization for Union Civil War Veterans.

Posts were formed when a minimum number of Veterans (usually 15) applied formally to create a post. The new posts were assigned a sequential number within a department based on their chronological admission into that organization, and most posts adopted formal names which honored comrades, battles or commanders; but it was not allowed to have more than one post in a department honoring the same individual.

At its peak in 1890, the GAR had 410,000 members and thousands of “posts” around the nation. Illinois had close to 800 active posts in the state at that time. That year was also when the GAR was most active in its Civil War commemorative and monument dedication ceremonies.

Stephenson died on Aug. 30, 1871 at age 47, but Rutledge would live until April 15, 1900. He would go on to see the GAR become one of the first and, ultimately, the largest advocacy group at the time in American politics, supporting voting rights for black Veterans, promoting patriotic education, helping to make Memorial Day a national holiday, lobbying Congress to establish regular Veterans’ pensions, and supporting Republican political candidates. The GAR was also the father of Veteran Service Organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion today.

Why it was established
Through their own experiences, Stephenson and Rutledge wanted soldiers—who had grown closely allied through the trials and dangers of the war—to stay connected after being mustered out of service.

Just as President Lincoln stated in his second inaugural address, “To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan,” the GAR was designed around its foundational motto of, “Fraternity, Charity and Loyalty” to look out for former soldiers, care for disabled or needy Veterans, and aid widows and orphans.

The GAR was dissolved in 1956 after the death of its last member, Albert Woolson. However, the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW), established in 1881 to carry on after the GAR Veterans passed, is the legal successor to the Grand Army of the Republic and proudly carries on.

It is an American congressionally chartered fraternal organization that carries out activities to preserve the history and legacy of the boys in blue who fought during the Civil War.

More information about the establishment of the GAR is available here.