(Above) The remains of the unit flag belonging to this author’s great-great-grandfather, the 102nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

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

I am sometimes asked why I put so much effort into the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW). I answer by talking about sacrifice. Not mine, but of my great-great-grandfather’s, his three brothers and the hundreds of thousands who fought to save this country and end slavery. The commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 also reminded me of a way to better explain why I’m a member.

Our Hecker Camp newsletter is called Lest We Forget because the phrase basically refers to something that should not be forgotten. It comes from a poem by British writer Rudyard Kipling. It also sounds like a warning of sorts, and it is. “Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it” is a phrase too many choose to forget.

While most Americans remember where they were on 9/11, I have heard much regarding one-third of Americans, (100,000,000 people) not being born when the attacks took the lives of nearly 3,000 innocent victims.

They stressed that because of these deaths and the resulting deaths from the wars that followed, that this is all the more reason to continue to commemorate their sacrifice. What’s more is, because of carcinogens in the rubble from the twin towers in New York City, about 9,000 more people have since died from related illnesses.

We remember these people because these victims of Muslim extremist hate were men, women and children; mothers, fathers, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, etc., mostly American, but from other nations as well. We also learn lessons when things like this happen.

Can generations right now imagine a time when we will not commemorate and remember their sacrifice? Probably not, and I hope not. However, I’m sure that our ancestors in the 1880s and 1890s were thinking the same thing about the Civil War.

There were hundreds of thousands of members of the Grand Army of the Republic or GAR. This fraternal organization, established in 1866, of Veterans of the Union Army, Navy, Marines and Revenue Cutter Service who served during the American Civil War became one of the most influential Veterans’ groups in U.S. history. It gave us today’s Memorial Day, for one thing, and its political and advocacy work shaped the federal policies, funding and infrastructure that enabled Veterans’ medical care and influenced military pensions. It was the father of Veteran Service Organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion today.

The GAR established the SUVCW in 1881 so their children and ours could carry on preserving the history and legacy of heroes who fought and sacrificed to save the Union. More than 360,000 Union men died and nearly 300,000 were wounded. In all, about 750,000 Americans died during the conflict, North and South. It resulted in the end of slavery, efforts toward equal rights and citizenship of Black Americans and former slaves. It ushered in a multitude of changes in this nation.

Fictional books have been written about what would have happened throughout the world if the Union had lost. All of them, that I’ve read, resulted in a disaster for the world as we know it.

My college history professor and advisor always said “what iffing” is a waste of time because facts are facts. They don’t change. That’s true. However, I think “what iffing” is important in teaching us lessons and giving us an opportunity to realize the significance of what actually happened.

Have you ever had a near accident? What if you had not stopped at the stop sign and driven through that intersection? We could go on and on about “what ifs” like this in our personal lives, but the Civil War is much more. It’s about preserving the world’s “last best hope on earth,” as said by President Abraham Lincoln in his Annual Message to Congress on Dec. 1, 1862. I don’t think his statement is an exaggeration.

Forgetting the sacrifice of Union soldiers and sailors is like not celebrating Independence Day or forgetting about the allies that saved the world from Nazi oppression. In fact, each June, citizens of France, Belgium and other countries freed by the Allies still recognize those sacrifices from World War II and tend to the graves of the Allied dead, including Americans, eighty years later.

The big cause of the Civil War doesn’t exist because no Americans alive today owned slaves or were slaves or remember it firsthand. Just like no one alive today fought in the American Civil War or remembers it firsthand. An event that significant must be remembered. While we had a revolution for independence, winning the Civil War solidified us as a nation and, subsequently, changed the world.

For me, being a descendant of a Union soldier (actually several) is a responsibility to help protect and teach about their sacrifice and the results thereafter. That’s the biggest reason why I’m a part of the SUVCW. If I can educate through my writing, marching in parades, displays, decorating graves and proudly wearing my uniforms, that’s the least I can do after their sacrifice.

If you are a fan of the movie National Treasure, the main character refers to himself and his sidekick as “treasure protectors” trying to protect the Constitution from being stolen. We in the Sons and similar organizations are really history protectors with a big responsibility to safeguard our nation’s history for our children and theirs to come.

Lest we forget.