National Encampments for Grand Army of the Republic

[Gypsy Heart]

First National Encampment, Indianapolis, Ind.
November 20, 1866
Second National Encampment, Philadelphia, Pa.
January 15, 1868
Third National Encampment, Cincinnati, Ohio
May 12-13, 1869
Fourth National Encampment, Washington, D.C.
May 11-12, 1870
Fifth National Encampment, Boston, Mass.
May 10-11, 1871
Sixth National Encampment, Cleveland, Ohio
May 8-9, 1872
Seventh National Encampment, New Haven, Conn.
May 14-15, 1873
Eighth National Encampment, Harrisburg, Pa.
May 13, 1874
Ninth National Encampment, Chicago, Ill.
May 12-13, 1875
Tenth National Encampment, Philadelphia, Pa.
June 30, 1876
Eleventh National Encampment, Providence, R. I.
June 26-27, 1877
Twelfth National Encampment, Springfield, Mass.
June 4, 1878
Membership: 31,016
Thirteenth National Encampment, Albany, N.Y.
June 17-18, 1879
Membership: 44,752
Fourteenth National Encampment, Dayton, Ohio
June 8-9, 1880
Membership: 60,634
Fifteenth National Encampment, Indianapolis, Ind.
June 15-16, 1881
Membership: 85,856
Sixteenth National Encampment, Baltimore, Md.
June 21-23, 1882
Membership: 134,701
Seventeenth National Encampment, Denver, Colo.
June 25-26, 1883
Eighteenth National Encampment, Minneapolis, Minn.
June 23-25, 1884
Nineteenth National Encampment, Portland, Maine
June 24-25, 1885
Membership: 294,787
Twentieth National Encampment, San Francisco, Calif.
August 4-6, 1886
Membership: 323,571
Twenty-first National Encampment, St. Louis, Mo.
September 28-30, 1887
Membership, 355,916
Twenty-second National Encampment, Columbus, Ohio
September 12-14, 1888
Membership: 372,960
Twenty-third National Encampment, Milwaukee, Wis.
August 28-30, 1889
Membership: 397,974
Twenty-fourth National Encampment, Boston, Mass.
August 13-14, 1890
Membership: 409,489
Twenty-fifth National Encampment, Detroit, Mich.
August 5-7, 1891
Membership: 407,781
Twenty-sixth National Encampment, Washington, D.C.
September 21-22, 1892
Membership: 399,880
Twenty-seventh National Encampment, Indianapolis, Ind.
September 6-7, 1893
Membership: 397,223
Twenty-eighth National Encampment, Pittsburgh, Pa.
September 12-13, 1894
Membership: 396,083
Twenty-ninth National Encampment, Louisville, Ky.
September 11-13, 1895
Membership: 357,639
Thirtieth National Encampment, St. Paul, Minn.
September 3-4, 1896
Membership: 340,610
Thirty-first National Encampment, Buffalo, N. Y.
August 25-27, 1897
Membership: 319,456
Thirty-second National Encampment, Cincinnati, Ohio
September 5-6, 1898
Membership: 305,603
Thirty-third National Encampment, Philadelphia, Pa.
September 6-7, 1899
Membership: 287,918
Thirty-fourth National Encampment, Chicago, Ill.
August 29-30, 1900
Membership: 276,612
Thirty-fifth National Encampment, Cleveland, Ohio
September 12-13, 1901
Membership: 269,507
Thirty-sixth National Encampment, Washington, D.C.
October 9-10, 1902
Membership: 263,745
Thirty-seventh National Encampment, San Francisco, Calif.
August 20-21, 1903
Membership: 256,510
Thirty-eighth National Encampment, Boston, Mass.
August 17-18, 1904
Membership: 247,340
Thirty-ninth National Encampment, Denver, Colo.
September 7-8, 1905
Membership: 232,455
Fortieth National Encampment, Minneapolis, Minn.
August 16-17, 1906
Membership:235,823
Forty-first National Encampment, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
September 12-13, 1907
Membership: 229,932
Forty-second National Encampment, Toledo, Ohio
September 3-4, 1908
Membership: 225,157
Forty-third National Encampment, Salt Lake City, Utah
August 12-13, 1909
Membership: 220,600
Forty-fourth National Encampment, Atlantic City, N. J.
September 22-23, 1910
Membership: 213,901
Forty-fifth National Encampment, Rochester, N. Y.
August 24-25, 1911
Membership: 203,410
Forty-sixth National Encampment, Los Angeles, Calif.
September 9-14, 1912
Membership: 191,346
Forty-seventh National Encampment, Chattanooga, Tenn.
September 18-19, 1913
Membership: 180,227
Forty-eighth National Encampment, Detroit, Mich.
September 3-4, 1914
Membership: 171,335
Forty-ninth National Encampment, Washington, D. C.
September 30-October 1, 1915
Membership: 159,853
Fiftieth National Encampment, Kansas City, Mo.
August 28-September 2, 1916
Membership: 140,074
Fifty-first National Encampment, Boston, Mass.
August 20-25, 1917
Membership: 135,931
Fifty-second National Encampment, Portland, Oreg.
August 18-24, 1918
Membership: 120,916
Fifty-third National Encampment, Colombus, Ohio
September 7-13, 1919
Membership: 110,357
Fifty-fourth National Encampment, Indianapolis, Ind.
September 19-25, 1920
Membership: 103,258
Fifty-fifth National Encampment, Indianapolis, Ind.
September 25-29, 1921
Membership: 93,171
Fifty-sixth National Encampment, Des Moines, Iowa
September 24-29, 1922
Membership: 85,621
Fifty-seventh National Encampment, Milwaukee, Wis.
September 2-8, 1923
Membership: 76,126
Fifty-eighth National Encampment, Boston, Mass.
August 10-15, 1924
Membership: 65,382
Fifty-ninth National Encampment, Grand Rapids, Mich.
August 30 to September 5, 1925
Membership: 55,817
Sixtieth National Encampment, Des Moines, Iowa
September 19-25, 1926
Membership: 47,179
Sixty-first National Encampment, Grand Rapids, Mich.
September 11-16, 1927
Membership: 38,801
Sixty-second National Encampment, Denver, Colo.
September 16-21, 1928
Membership: 32,614
Sixty-third National Encampment, Portland, Maine
September 8-13, 1929
Membership: 26,219
Sixty-fourth National Encampment, Cincinnati, Ohio
August 24-28, 1930
Membership: 21,080
Sixty-fifth National Encampment, Des Moines, Iowa
September 13-18, 1931
Membership: 16,587
Sixty-sixth National Encampment, Springfield, Ill.
September 18-24, 1932
Membership: 13,066
Sixty-seventh National Encampment, St. Paul, Minn.
September 17-22, 1933
Membership: 10,138
Sixty-eighth National Encampment, Rochester, N. Y.
August 12-18, 1934
Membership:7,807
Sixty-ninth National Encampment, Grand Rapids, Mich.
September 8-14, 1935
Membership: 6,244
Seventieth National Encampment, Washington, D.C.
September 20-26, 1936
Membership: 4,391
Seventy-first National Encampment, Madison, Wis.
September 5-10, 1937
Membership: 3,325
Seventy-second National Encampment, Des Moines, Iowa
September 4-9, 1935
Membership: 2,443
Seventy-third National Encampment, Pittsburgh, Pa.
August 27 to September 1, 1939
Membership: 1,701
Seventy-fourth National Encampment, Springfield, Ill.
September 8-13, 1940
Membership: 1,039
Seventy-fifth National Encampment, Columbus, Ohio
September 14-19, 1941
Membership: 763
Seventy-sixth National Encampment, Indianapolis, Ind.
September 13-18, 1942
Membership: 518
Seventy-seventh National Encampment, Milwaukee, Wis.
September 19-24, 1943
Membership: 393
Seventy-eighth National Encampment, Des Moines, Iowa
September 10-15
Membership: 249
Seventy-ninth National Encampment, Columbus, Ohio
September 30 to October 4, 1945
Membership: 163
Eigthtieth National Encampment, Indianapolis, Ind.
August 25-30, 1946
Membership: 103
Eighty-first National Encampment, Cleveland, Ohio
August 10-14, 1947
Membership: 66
Eighty-second National Encampment, Grand Rapids, Mich.
September 28-30, 1948
Membership: 28
Eighty-third National Encampment, Indianapolis, Ind.
August 28 to September 1, 1949
Membership: 16

 

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[civilman1]

Gypsy...Could you shed a little more light on this for me.I see alot of Wash D.C.'s....Thank's!

 

[Gypsy Heart]

This is the list of Encampments from the Library of Congress.
Information concerning specific national encampments can be found in the Journal of the National Encampment........ (LC call number: E462.1.A17) for the year the encampment was held.......

 

[stryker-one]

Does that mean that the last encampment they held was 1949--is that like the last meeting of the survivors of that organization?




Stryker

 

[Gypsy Heart]

The final Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic was held in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1949 and the last member, Albert Woolson died in 1956 at the age of 109 years.





In 1940, the Grand Army of Michigan encampment consisted of six veterans who refused to vote the Army out of service and went on to elect a new commander, pledging to carry on to the last man. The members were Augustus Chappell, 96, Albert C. Easterbrook, 92, Eugene Owens, 92, Martin J. Warner, 93, Orlando LeValley, 93, and David Plumadore, 95. During a parade of veterans of three wars, the six left the cars they had been riding in and walked in a faltering line of blue for the last block.

LeValley was the last native-born Michigan survivor of the GAR. He died in 1948 at age 99. He was born in 1848 in Lapeer County, tried unsuccessfully to enlist at the beginning of the war in 1861 at age 13, and finally got in at 16. He fought under Thomas against Hood at Johnsonville, Tenn. He died on the 80-acre farm he settled in 1876.

In 1951, the last Grand Army member in Michigan, Joseph Clovese, died at 107. Clovese was born a slave, one of a family of 15. He ran away and joined the Union Army and served with the 63rd Negro Infantry, taking part in the siege of Vicksburg. He came to Pontiac in 1948 from New Orleans to live with a niece.
.........................
As the ranks of the army grew thinner, their partisanship declined as well. In 1938, on the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, almost 2,000 veterans from both North and South returned to the battlefield and shook hands across the memories of the dead.

In 1956 the very last soldier of the Grand Army of the Republic, Albert Woolson, died at the age of 109 in Duluth, Minnesota, and with him died the last ember of a thousand camp watchfires.

---------------------------------------------------
from The New York Times, August 2, 1956:

Last Union Army Veteran Dies;
Drummer at 17, He Lived to 109

Albert Woolson of Duluth
Also Was Sole Survivor of
Grand Army of Republic

DULUTH, Minn., Aug. 2---Al-
bert Woolson, the last member
of the Civil War's Union Army,
died today at the age of 109.
Mr. Woolson, who answered
President Lincoln's call to arms
and marched off to war as a
drummer boy when he was 17,
had been hospitalized for nine
weeks with a recurring lung con-
gestion condition. He lapsed into
a coma early Saturday and did
not regain consciousness. Since
then, he had been fed intrave-
nously and received oxygen
through a nasal tube.
Members of his family were at
his bedside when he died in St.
Luke's Hospital.
Full-scale military funeral
services will be conducted at the
National Guard Armory here
Monday at 2 P.M. Burial will be
in the family lot at Park Hill
Cemetery here.
Only three veterans of the
Civil War, all members of the
Confederate forces, survive. They
are Walter W. Williams, 113, of
Franklin, Tex.; John Salling,
110, of Slant, Va.; and William
A. Lundy, 108, of Laurel Hill,
Fla. Informed of Mr. Woolson's
death, Mr. Lundy said "I regret
very much the passing of Mr.
Woolson."
Mr. Woolson's last comrade of
the Union Army, James A. Hard
of Rochester, N.Y., died in 1953
at the age of 111.
In Washington, President Eis-
enhower said today the death of
Mr. Woolson "brings sorrow to
the hearts" of Americans. The
President said:
"The American people have
lost the last personal link with
the Union Army.
"His passing brings sorrow to
the hearts of all of us who cher-
ished the memory of the brave
men on both sides of the War
Between the States."
With Mr. Woolson's death, only
the Confederate veterans will get
a medal being prepared for the
last survivors of the Civil War
unless the law is changed or
broadly interpreted. Last month
Congress passed a law directing
the Secretary of the Treasury to
prepare gold medals with suit-
able inscriptions honoring the re-
maining veterans of the North
and South.
Representative John A. Blatnik,
Democrat of Minnesota, pushed
for a quick award of the decora-
tion to Mr. Woolson when the
old soldier became critically ill.
But Mr. Blatnik's office said to-
day the Treasury would be un-
able to get the medal finished
before Oct. 1. There is no definite
provision in the law for a post-
humous award.
Mr. Woolson married Sarah
Jane Sloper in 1868. She died
in 1901. Three years later he
married Anna Haugen, who died
in 1948. Survivors include six
daughters, Mrs. John Kobus,
Mrs. Arthur Johnson and Mrs.
Robert Campbell, all of Duluth;
Mrs. Adelaid Wellcome, Mrs. F.
W. Rye and Mrs. J.C. Barrett,
all of Seattle, and two sons,
Dr. A.H. Woolson of Spokane,
Wash., and R.C. Woolson of
Dayton, Wash.
The Kobus family had lived
with Mr. Woolson for several
years. Mrs. Kobus said late to-
day that instead of floral me-
morials the family preferred con-
tributions to the Albert Woolson
Scholarship Fund at the Duluth
Branch of the University of Min-
nesota.
------------
Outlasted 2,200,000
Mr. Woolson was the sole offi-
cially listed survivor of the
more than 2,200,000 men of the
Union armed forces. He also was
the last survivor of the Grand
Army of the Republic, an organi-
zation of Union veterans that
exerted wide influence in Amer-
ican politics for many years
after the Civil War.
Mr. Woolson's great age car-
ried him into what was virtually
another world of warfare as well
as of politics. As a boy, he could
have spoken with venerable men
who had fought in the Revolu-
tionary War. Veterans of the
War of 1812 were numerous in
his youth. When the war in
which he served began in 1861,
the commanding general of the
Army was Winfield Scott, a
hero of the War of 1812.
The War with Mexico started
in 1846, the year before Mr.
Woolson was born. Last year,
when he was 108, several de-
pendents of veterans of that con-
flict still were receiving Govern-
ment benefits.
This year, Mr. Woolson could
include himself among the more
than 19,000,000 living persons
who had served in the United
States armed forces. Of these,
as of May 2, 2,715.896 were
receiving cash compensation or
pension payments from the Gov-
ernment. This included some but
not all of the 826,657 former
members of the armed forces
receiving education benefits.
Mr. Woolson, who had been
a bugler-drummer rather than a
rifleman, might have been ex-
cused if, in his later years, he
had only a passing interest in
the progress made in the art of
war between the period of his
Civil War service and the middle
of the twentieth century. In 1865
the most expert rifleman could
kill no more than two or
three persons in a minute. In
1945, when Mr. Woolson was in
his noneties, an estimated total
of 100,000 persons were killed
by atomic bombs.

Civil War Still a Live Topic

In 1956, ninety-one years after
Appomattox, popular interest in
the war in which Mr. Woolson
had fought showed few signs of
diminishing. Biographical studies
of Civil War figures from Lin-
coln down to generals such as
"Fighting Joe" Hooker were in
bookstores, and a dramatic read-
ing of Stephen Vincent Benet's
"John Brown's Body" had been
presented successfully on Broad-
way within a year or two.
Mr. Woolson fought in no Civil
War battles, although he
drummed to their graves many
who had. When he was 106 he
remembered it all pretty well.
He recalled himself as a drum-
mer boy of 17 in a rakish blue
forage cap in the precise line of
drummers who beat out the res-
onant slow step on muffled
drums or, again, thudded the
quick step--most likely "The
Girl I Left Behind Me."
"We went along with a bury-
ing detail," he said. "Going out
we played proper sad music, but
coming back we kinda hit it up.
Once a woman came onto the
road and asked what kind of
music that was to bury some-
body, I told her that we had
taken care of the dead and
that now we were cheering up the
living."
Mr. Woolson was born in
the New York farm hamlet of
Antwerp, twenty-two miles
northeast of Watertown, on Feb.
11, 1847, the same day Thomas
Alva Edison, the inventor, was
born. James K. Polk, the dark
horse Democrat, was in the
White House and the issues that
were to bring about the Civil
War were being drawn into
focus.
Willard Woolson, his fath-
er, was a carpenter in Water-
town and apprenticed his son to
this trade. The senior Woolson
had, however, a second vocation.
He was a musician in the band
of a traveling circus. When Pres-
ident Lincoln called for 75,000
volunteers in 1861, the father
and his fellow musicians enlisted
as a body.

Traced Father to Minnesota

When his family did not hear
from him for more than a year
they traced him through Army
records to a hospital in Minne-
sota. The younger Woolson and
his mother undertook the diffi-
cult journey by Great Lakes
boat and stage coach to Win-
dom, where they found the fath-
er suffering from a leg wound
received at the battle of Shiloh.
Shortly after the family was re-
united his leg had to be ampu-
tated and he died.
Mr. Woolson and his mother re-
mained in Windom and the boy
went to work as a carpenter.
But it was wartime. The sound
of drum and bugle was in the
air and it was agony for a spir-
ited boy--mostly especially one in
the drummer-bugler tradition--
not to be in uniform.
Minnesota's manpower was
stretched thin to furnish its
quota for the Union forces and
at the same time to hold back
the Sioux Indians, who went off
the reservation in 1863. Mr.
Woolson recalled the day he left
for the Army he had seen thirty-
eight Sioux hanged in Mankota.
In the South, the war was
dragging out its course. It had
been a war of maneuver and
field entrenchment, but by 1864
the Confederates were beginning
to dig in to save manpower and
the Union needed heavy artil-
lery. Col. William Colville or-
ganized a Minnesota heavy ar-
tillery regiment of 1,800 men.
Mr. Woolson got his mother's
consent and was accepted into
Company C, First Minnesota
Volunteer Heavy Artillery. His
military service dated from Oct.
10, 1864.
Enlisted as a rifleman, he
wanted to be assigned as drum-
mer and bugler, but Company C
already had its quota of one field
musician.
"I got the job by knocking
his block off," Mr. Woolson re-
called many years later.
Late in 1864, the regiment
joined the Army of the Cumber-
land in Tennessee. It was com-
manded by Maj. Gen. George H.
Thomas, known to history as
"The Rock of Chickamauga,"
but more familiarly to his men
as "Pap."

Recalled Firing Cannon

Minnesota's ponderous cannon
and their north-country canno-
neers waited hopefully at Fort
Oglethorpe to be called into ac-
tion, but the call never came.
Mr. Woolson got to fire a
cannon, though. It was the out-
standing recollection of his Civil
War service.
The bored gunners of the First
Minnesota Heavy Artillery pre-
pared to fire one of their pieces
just to hear the noise. Mr. Wool-
son recalled it thus:
"The colonel handed me the
end of a rope and said: 'When I
yell you stand on your toes, open
your mouth wide, give a yell
yourself and pull the rope.' I
yanked the lanyard and the can-
non went off and scared me half
to death."
The First Minnesota sat out
the spring and early summer of
1865 in the shadow of Lookout
Mountain, near Chattanooga, and
in August the regiment was or-
dered home. Mr. Woolson re-
ceived his discharge on Sept. 7,
1865. He again practiced car-
pentry.
Veterans of both the Union and
Confederate armies were return-
ing to their homes or perhaps
seeking new homes in the West.
He was but one of thousands re-
turning to civilian life and, in
the case of Union veterans,
an organization was soon formed
that was to make the former
wearers of the blue the most po-
tent force in their country's pol-
itics for the next twenty years.
This organization was the
Grand Army of the Republic, of
which Mr. Woolson became the
last member in 1953. He had
been named senior vice com-
mander in chief in 1950. The first
G.A.R. post was formed at
Decatur, Ill., in April, 1866.
Mr. Woolson was still in his
'teens when the G.A.R. was
founded, and it is probable that,
in common with most of the
younger veterans, he did not join
it for many years. The G.A.R.
had a tinge of the secret society
popular in the day. There was
an oath and a ritual, and the or-
ganization was ostensibly free
from politics and dedicated to
good works. In a few years, how-
ever, it became one of the prin-
cipal instruments for keeping the
Republican party in power and
for obtaing pensions and Gov-
ernment job preferences for Union
veterans.
The G.A.R., as Mr. Woolson
first knew it, was dominated by
such figures as Maj. Gen. John
A. Logan, a swarthy Illinois poli-
tician nicknamed "Black Jack."
A gallant and successful general
and a thundering orator with a
black mane, he never failed to re-
mind his hearers that while "not
all Democrats were rebels, all
rebels had been Democrats."
Mr. Woolson was a member of
the G.A.R. in 1890, when it
reached its peak of membership of
408,489. Its political influence
had declined in the Eighties, al-
though it was a force to be
reckoned with until the turn of
the century.
Mr. Woolson did not receive a
pension until 1900. Immediately
after the Civil War, pensions
were limited to men who had
suffered physical disability, but
in time they were extended to
all with recognized Civil War
service with the Union forces.
Unsuccessful attempts were
made from time to time to ob-
tain Federal payments for Con-
federate veterans. In the South
the states paid small pensions
to their Civil War veterans.
At his death, Mr. Woolson
was receiving a pension of $135
a month. He was then getting
no other benefits, but was
entitled to hospitalization and
out-patient care.
In May, records showed
that 5,784 widows and children
of Union veterans were receiv-
ing pensions or payments under
special acts of Congress.

Formed Drum Corps

Mr. Woolson and Robert
Rhodes, an old friend who had
been bandmaster of the Second
Minnesota Volunteer Infantry,
formed a drum and bugle corps
in 1867. Mr. Woolson beat his old
Civil War drum.
"We played fine lively music,"
he said. "Nothing sad."
With the passing of years, the
G.A.R.'s, as they came to be
called, became older men and fi-
nally old men. Their fellow coun-
trymen seemed to recall them
only on Memorial Day, which
their organization had helped to
establish. The National Encamp-
ments of the G.A.R., lively and
often more or less rowdy affairs
in the early days, became quiet
get-togethers.
Mr. Woolson and his comrades
wore the blue uniform coat and
slouch hat of the G.A.R. and
marched in the Memorial Day
parades as long as they could.
Finally they became very old
men sitting quietly in the sun.
There were other veterans of
later wars to tell of the deeds
they had done.
Mr. Woolson was one of six
Union veterans attending the
last National Encampment of
the G.A.R. in Indianapolis in
August, 1949. Here these last
survivors of the organization
voted to disband it.
With Mr. Woolson's death the
Grand Army of the Republic
passed out of existence. Its
records will be turned over to the
Congressional Library in Wash-
ington, and its flags, badges and
official seal to the Smithsonian
Institution.
In the Nineties, Mr. Woolson
moved to Duluth and it was
there that he discovered he had
a knack for storytelling to sup-
plement his brisk bugle and
drum. He would drop into a near-
by school, tell a couple of fanci-
ful tales, give a little lecture on
thrift and pass out a few bright,
new pennies.
In 1952 the children of Du-
luth's schools turned the tables
on him. They collected 27,652
pennies and commissioned an oil
portrait of Mr. Woolson that
was hung in the City Council
chamber.
The aged veteran liked to say
that he was born a Republican.
He voted for President Lincoln
when he was 17 under a special
dispensation that gave the ballot
to soldiers. He admitted he
voted for the Democratic ticket
once. That was for Franklin D.
Roosevelt in his first bid for the
Presidency. Mr. Woolson did not
retire until 1930.
In his later years, Mr. Wool-
son liked to recite poetry and his
favorite poem was "After the
Battle, Mother." And it is un-
likely that his school children
friends for several generations
let him forget that great senti-
mental poem of the post-Civil
War period, "The Blue and the
Gray," by Frances Niles Finch.
It ends:
"Under the sod and dew,
waiting the judgment day,
Love and tears for the Blue,
Tears and love for the Gray."