G.A.R. National Encampment Chattanooga TN

[ken1967]

In 1913, the G.A.R. held a national encampment in my hometown of Chattanooga, TN. This was only one of two times that they met south of the Mason-Dixon line.

 

From my collection, an original program, veteran's delegate badge, and Women's Relief Corp badge from the event.

 

Enjoy!

Ken

[SARGE]

A very neat assemblage of Chattanooga reunion items.  I think this meeting was during the time when leaders were attempting to reconcile North and South veterans as their numbers thinned and time had passed.  The effort was not entirely successful though.  

 

[KevinBeyer]

This looks like the start of a great collection.  It's really interesting that the reunion badge depicted on the cover is slightly different than what was executed by the badge maker.

 

The condition of your two badges is nice.

 

Kevin

[ken1967]

Kevin, I had noticed the difference as well. It would be great to find the badge committee information with the design specs to see who was in error.


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[collectsmedals]

Great badges, and I have never seen one of the programs before. Wonderful! I love seeing the old G.A.R. encampment medals.

[ken1967]

Here is a link to an electronic version of the program (less the fold out regional map). 

https://archive.org/stream/officialsouvenir01chat?ref=ol

[collectsmedals]

Thank you for posting the program scan. I have been to Chattanooga but never knew they had an encampment there.

[ken1967]

More additions to this Chattanooga GAR reunion collection. 

[KevinBeyer]

Ken,

 

For those that aren't familiar with G.A.R. and Allied Order reunion badges, could you identify what we are seeing here?

 

I started off just like this with my G.A.R. Chicago 1900 National Encampment collection.

 

This is the formation of a really nice collection. 

 

Kevin

 

[ken1967]

Thanks Kevin, I'm really excited on how this Chattanooga focused collection has grown this year. Below are the pieces I've collected for this annual reunion so far:

 

Obviously there's the program for the reunion event, then the medals, etc from L to R: Reunion Medal for G.A.R. Members, Women's Relief Corp Reunion Ribbon, Reunion Member of Staff medal, Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic Reunion medal, Women's Relief Corp Reunion medal, and a GAR membership coat button. 

 

Each sub-organization to the main G.A.R. org has their own interesting history and most produced medals, ribbons, buttons, or other items to allow the participants to show their memberships at each reunion event. I probably still have several more to locate to complete this focused collection.