History of the Grand Army of the Republic

From Major George S. Merill
Past Commander-in-Chief

From The New England Magazine, 1890

“. . . Quite generally also among the union prisoners in the south secret bands were formed for mutual protection and for aiding escape.  Some of these had signs and passwords and a form of initiation and it was not unlikely that herein was the germ of the original ritual and muster-in service of the early Grand Army.

 

There is no comradeship quite like that born of danger, awakened by common peril, strengthened by toil and privation, knit by the touch of elbow in the weary march or the dash of battle.

 

True, when the great army came joyously home, its standards torn and begrimed, yet resplendent with victory the veterans put aside their well-worn suits of blue, bade goodbye to army associations, and took up anew the peaceful applications they had laid down 4 years before, with little thought or purpose of further association as comrades of the flag.

 

But into the earliest hour of well-worn peace there came the presence of disabled veterans, suffering families, and distressed homes. The aid to these came cheerfully. . . .

 

All over the North sprang up veteran associations with varying plans although generally united in a common purpose of rendering assistance to those in need who had dared the danger and shared the conflict.

 

The country was agitated over the questions of reconstruction; the conciliatory feeling so general at the immediate time of the close of the war had been sadly smitten by the assassination of President Lincoln, and political parties were torn apart.

 

In the midst of the strife and bitterness, the Grand Army of the Republic had its birth.”