My great grandfather was a retired Union soldier -US Civil war. I think an organization that he belonged to might have been called the Grand Army of the Republic. His picture was in a newspaper, wearing a large round metal. He served with a Virginia/West Virginia Company. Is it possible to see a picture of what that metal might have looked like? Or to know something about the organization?
Hi Celinda
If you Google "Grand Army of the Republic" you should be able to find quite a bit about the organization. Here is a Wikipedia site: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Army_of_the_Republic On there you will see a picture of one of the most common GAR medals
- If you refer to a discussion on this US Militaria Forum it discusses some of the differences in the medal: https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/3871-show-your-gar-medal/
- Since you mention a "large round medal" I'm wondering if he is wearing the WV Civil War medal. This is an image of the 3 medals that were issued by the state of WV to CW veterans or their next-of-kin.(from a 2019 article in Time Magazine)
https://time.com/5567482/civil-war-medals/
“In 1866, the West Virginia legislature passed a resolution authorizing the distribution of medals for officers and soldiers who were honorably discharged, killed in battle or who had died of causes related to battle wounds."
- What is amazing is there are reportedly over 4000 CW medals that were never claimed & the State of WV is looking for the descendants of these CW veterans to pass on their medals! See this link for a list of names of veteran''s medals that were not claimed & info on how to submit proof of your connection to the veteran - https://wvculture.org/west-virginia-civil-war-medals/
- If you would like to let us know your GGF's name we can do some more searching for information on him & if you haven't requested his Service & Pension Records (if there is one) it would be worthwhile to do so.
- If you have the image where he is wearing the medal & it looks different from the WV State Medal, please try & post a picture & we can see if people can identify it.
- This has some info on the GAR in WV: https://wvpublic.org/february-20-1883-the-grand-army-of-the-republic-met-in-clarksburg
- You may want to expore what records are available at the WV archives: https://wvculture.org/research/archives-and-history-research-databases/
- Also there is a GAR Library & Museum in Philadelphia (a neat place to visit & do research). https://garmuslib.org/ - They are always looking for members & they often do monthly or frequent programs (in person or Zoom) related to the CW https://garmuslib.org/future-events
I hope this helps. In some ways I hope he is not wearing the WV Medal & that you would be able to claim his medal.
PMcG
The GAR was a fraternal organization of former Union soldiers. Their main medal looked like this:
Lisa Sharik
