My earliest recollection of the Grand Army goes back to my grammar school days when veterans of the Civil War, though few in number and bent with age, would visit the schools prior to Memorial Day. They would be accompanied by younger veterans of the Spanish American War and World War I. Here were men who had answered Lincoln’s call for volunteers, who had
fought under McClellan at Antietam and with Meade and Hancock at Gettysburg, who marched with Sherman
to the sea, and had been with Grant at Appomattox…names which I had read in my history book. Was it any wonder that as a young boy, I looked to these aged heroes with fascination and awe?
There was a Grand Army man, who lived in our neighborhood, who walked to the local shopping avenue.
Occasionally, after lunch, on my way back to school, I would join him, and ask questions about the Civil War. I
told him of my great grandfather, who fought in that war and was wounded at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
In the morning of Memorial Day, we would travel in the family car to the home of my maiden great aunt…my
grandfather’s sister. My grandfather would join us and we would go to the cemetery, where they would plant
geraniums on the graves of their parents. There was always a flag in a GAR veteran’s marker, placed there by
some veterans’ organization. After returning to my aunt’s house for lunch, my grandfather would leave for
some mysterious place called the “Post Hall.”
My biggest thrill came when I was considered old enough to accompany him on this mysterious journey.
How exciting it was when I first visited Post 2, GAR Hall at 667 N. 12th Street. What a magnificent building
it was. The floor in the entryway was of white and black tile. To the right was the doorway to the library with its
many books on the Civil War. On the left was the wide stairway leading to the second floor. Among various
Civil War mementos in the hallway was a cannonball embedded in a tree trunk.
From the hallway, one entered a large room with glass cases along the wall, filled with relics. There was a
large fireplace in the center of one wall over which hung a large replica of a GAR badge and crossed muskets.
There were captain chairs with the names of Grand Army men, members of the Post, engraved in brass
plates. It was in this hall that tables were set up for those occasions when food would be served. The kitchen was
behind this room.
I was fascinated by a ship of bones on the mantel, a model made by prisoners in Libby Prison. The model
eventually disappeared like many other relics. On one side of the hallway on the second floor of the
building was a large office, and on the other side, a storage room. Beyond the hallway was a large
auditorium in which the Grand Army and the Sons and Auxiliary met. The center of the room was carpeted in
red. Benches on either side were elevated in tiers. There were the four stations of the Order with the Altar in the
center. In front of the Commander’s station was a miniature cannon in a glass case. Hanging on the walls
were portraits of Civil War generals and to the right was the mounted head of “Old Baldy,” General Meade’s horse
which he rode during the war. There were stacked muskets and drums at the front of the room. There were
two large brass cannons at the front, one on either side of the rostrum or Commander’s station. Regimental flags of
the Union along with captured flags of the Confederacy were in cases. The windows had stained glass emblems
of the various army corps along with other emblems.
Hanging from the ceiling in the center of the room was a magnificent chandelier made up of cannons, stacked
muskets, and crossed swords, all in miniature. In a recess in the wall, behind the rostrum, or Commander’s station,
hung a large portrait of Abraham Lincoln. On either side, at the front, hung two large oil paintings, one of a
Civil War soldier and the other of a Union sailor. |
