He was the first Allen County resident to die in the Civil War.įrom its beginning the Mart Armstrong post was involved in local Memorial Day plans, and adamant that the day be observed properly. Mart Armstrong, who was killed at the Battle of Shiloh in western Tennessee April of 1862. was organized on April 18, 1882, and named in honor of Capt. continued to operate until 1959, when the final member died at the age of 109. According to the website for Ohio History Central the G.A.R. It was responsible for making Memorial Day, or Decoration Day as it was known for the practice of decorating veterans’ graves, a national holiday.Īt its peak, the G.A.R.
Presidents were members of the G.A.R., which was very strong in Ohio. The organization lobbied Congress for pensions for veterans and provided financial assistance and retirement homes for disabled or destitute veterans. was founded on April 6, 1866, to provide the veterans with political influence and opportunities to meet socially. “Many of them were bent with age and marched with difficulty even by the aid of a cane,” the newspaper added, “yet off came the hats and reverently were they placed over the breast until after the colors were left in the rear.” “Perhaps a thousand veterans kept step to the tones of their various drum corps and as the bands would play patriotic airs, cheers from the crowd would inspire the aged soldiers to quicken their step and not notice the beating sun pouring down on their gray locks,” the Lima Daily News wrote June 19, 1908. The encampment drew an estimated 25,000, including veterans as well as their families and friends from throughout Ohio, and culminated with a parade on June 18, 1908. The Lima chapter of the G.A.R., known as Mart Armstrong Post 202, was host of the event that year.
Late that spring the men, veterans of the Union Army, most well into their 60s with their ranks thinned by time, gathered for the annual state encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.).
1861 GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC MEDAL FULL
LIMA - By 1908 the men newspapers called “the gallant boys in blue,” who had marched off to war full of youthful bravado in 1861, had grown gray.