The Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.)

The Grand Army of the Republic was an organization for Union Civil War veterans.

John Johnson wearing his G.A.R. medal

John Johnson appears to have been a proud member of the Grand Army of the Republic.  He wore his G.A.R. medal for photos, and his name is listed in several G.A.R. rolls.

The Grand Army of the Republic Badge was authorized by Congress to be worn on the uniform by Union veterans.

John Johnson G.A.R. 1883

John Johnson & Abel German G.A.R. 1889

The G.A.R. was organized in 1866 as a way for Union veterans to connect with others who had experienced and survived the Civil War.


To my knowledge, John Johnson did not attend any of the Civil War reunions.  I wonder, though, if the his large framed portrait was taken to one of the reunions...I don't know.




From Wikipedia:

The "Grand Army of the Republic" (G.A.R.) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army(United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), Marines and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service who served in theAmerican Civil War for the Northern/Federal forces. Founded in 1866 in Decatur, Illinois, and growing to include hundreds of posts (local community units) across the nation, (predominately in the North, but also a few in the South and West), it was dissolved in 1956 when its last member, Albert Woolson (1847-1956) of Duluth, Minnesota, died. Linking men through their experience of the war, the G.A.R. became among the first organized advocacy groups in American politics, supporting voting rights for black veterans, promoting patriotic education, help to make Memorial Day a national holiday, lobbying the United States Congress to establish regular veterans' pensions, and supporting Republican political candidates. Its peak membership, at more than 490,000, was in 1890, a high point of various Civil War commemorative and monument dedication ceremonies. It was succeeded by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (S.U.V.C.W.), composed of male descendants of Union Army and Union Navy veterans.

Some GAR artifacts found online: