CIVIL WAR GAR REPRESENTATIVE BADGE 1901 1907 LOT

Lot of US Civil War Badges to include 1) 41ST NATIONAL ENCAMPMENT SARATOGA SPRINGS 1907 GAR BADGE. G.A.R., Saratoga Springs, N.Y., 1907. Copper colored metal pin clasp with "41st National Encampment Saratoga Springs 1907" Copper colored representative plate hangs from the pin clasp with red, white, and blue enamel flags and glued paper images of the Saratoga Monument and the Grant Cottage. Shield-shaped plate hangs from the representative bar with an image of Grant in the center and "Let Us Have Peace" at the bottom. Brass and white enamel city seal of Cleveland hangs from the pin clasp. Metal badge with the G.A.R. insignia. "Cleveland 1901" on the face of the badge. This example was formerly part of the MOLLUS museum collection inventory 86.43.11 Civil War Library Museum in Philadelphia. 2) 1901 35TH NATIONAL ENCAMPMENT CLEVELAND GAR MEDAL CIVIL WAR VETERANS. Both badges are in excellent condition. The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), and the Marines who served in the American Civil War. It was founded in 1866 in Decatur, Illinois, and grew to include hundreds of "posts" (local community units) across the nation (predominantly in the North, but also a few in the South and West). It was dissolved in 1956 at the death of its last member, Albert Woolson (1850–1956) of Duluth, Minnesota. 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, helping 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 410,000, 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 (SUVCW), composed of male descendants of Union Army and Union Navy veterans.