CIVIL WAR GAR REPRESENTATIVE BADGE 1919 1927 LOT

Lot of two Civil War National Officers badges of the GAR Grand Army of the Republic for the years 1) 1919 Columbus Ohio Badge is surmounted by a large spread-winged eagle over crossed cannons and artillery shells. Reverse has the original pin. Suspended from this top piece is a gold silk ribbon approx. 5.00 inches long. The top bar has several drops. The first is of brass and is very colorful with a full color US flag above a laurel wreath with a red, white and blue “GAR.” Across the bottom of the drop is riband with “REPRESENTATIVE” in plain brass with a blue enamel background. The second drop is of white metal and shows large columned building with figures of men below it and a riband that reads “COLUMBUS, O. 1919.” The final drop is a bronze circular disc with a bust of General Sherman. Reverse of the drop has “53RD NATIONAL ENCAMPMENT GAR SEPT. 7-13, 1919 COLUMBUS, OHIO.” 2) GAR BADGE 61st NATIONAL ENCAMPMENT 1927 GRAND RAPIDS. The item is brass cut. The top bar has a clasp with an eagle grasping two cross cannons. In the eagle’s talons is a saber. The top piece show signs of oxidation. Suspended from the eagle is a rectangular plate that reads “G A R” in red, white, and blue enamel, with “REPRESNTATIVE” in enameled blue. The second hanging medallion has a dark patina, and is shaped like a shield with monuments at the Grand Rapids Veterans Memorial etched on the front. In the top left corner is a wolverine, appropriately placed because of the state nickname “Michigan Wolverines.” On the reverse there is a maker’s stamp. The final item is a coin with the image of Frank A Walsh. The top of the coin reads ‘FRANK A WALSH’ and the bottom reads ‘COMMANDER IN CHIEF.’ On the reverse, encircled in laurel branches are the words “61ST/ NATIONAL/ ENCAMPMENT/ G.A.R/ SEPT. 11TH-16TH 1927/ GRAND RAPIDS/ MICH.” A faded yellow ribbon is also suspended from the top bar. The ribbon is extremely fragile and exhibits signs of fading and fraying. The badge from top bar to bottom of ribbon measures 5 ¾”.Frank Walsh enlisted in the Union army at the age of 15. He enlisted with Company H, 67th Illinois Volunteer Infantry in April of 1862 and was selected for prisoner exchange at Vicksburg to which he did not return till the fall of 1862. He would muster out and reenlist with Company G, 46th Illinois Infantry. He would become a machinist and entrepreneur and later elected to GAR Commander-In-Chief in 1926. 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.