08/21/2019
Seeking Dormant Grand Army of the Republic Posts (GAR)/Women’s Relief Corps (WRC) Delegates!
A NOTE ABOUT SER SESHSH AB HETER-CM BOXLEY, COORDINATOR OF FRIENDS OF FORKS OF ROADS SOCIETY INC’S FOCUS FOR 12th ANNUAL BLACK AND CIVIL WAR LIVING HISTORY PROGRAM 2019
Over a dozen or so years ago my person was able to add an amendment to the by-laws of Friends of the Forks of the Roads Society Inc addressing the hidden history of enslaved and non-enslaved Afrodescendants who served in the United States military and or supported the Union cause in the interests of striking a blow to end chattel slavery and gain their and others’ freedom (mission is to honor/commemorate the historical legacy of those who served in the United States Colored Troops in what was and those who supported what was the greatest enslaved/non-enslaved rebellion in the history of the United States).
This has meant resurrecting, rescuing, reconstructing, preserving, presenting and interpreting the denied, omitted, left-out, white-out and hidden history and humanity of enslaved and non-enslaved Foreparents and Ancestors of today’s American Afrodescendants of the Mississippi Valley states. (1)
Thus my person created the Black and Blue Civil War Living History “Theater without Walls” vehicle as a method for showing and telling this half that should have been publically told decades ago by the various institutions and agencies that educate the public in the Mississippi Valley.
Each year many local persons volunteer as living history role actors on stage and in period clothing to show and tell stories about African descent sailors, nurses, soldiers, cavalrymen and civilians who either officially served in the Union military and or supported the Union in a variety of capacities of which “without such support the Union would not have won the American Civil War.”
Our annual Blacks in Blue Civil War programs and events have touched thousands of people over the years.
We have brought alive via living history untold numbers of local self-emancipated (runaway) enslaved persons who were Union soldiers, sailors, artillerymen, cavalrymen, nurses, spies, scouts, guides, pioneer-men (engineers), fortress builders, cooks, washers, ironers and so on.
We have presented them as freedom fighters in life or death (no surrendering) battles, skirmishes, guerilla engagements and the likes.
These self-emancipated freedom fighters were the key to the Union army’s defeat of the confederate army from Memphis to the gulf of Mexico in the Tennessee Valley, the Mississippi Valley and the Gulf and on out to Texas.
Self-emancipated enslaves in Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas were part of the reportable 209,000 plus African descent soldiers from other southern states, the northern states, Canada and beyond who achieved the “double victory” of the Civil War.
They helped preserve the Union of the United States and won their and other enslaved peoples’ freedom. They made it possible for the first civil rights for the masses of African descent people to happen in the history of the United States.
They made it possible for enactment of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments into the U. S. Constitution.
So while my person has focused on the military history of Blacks in blue exclusively over the past years, I’ve decided to dedicate our 2019 program to focus on the surprisingly forgotten history of Black civil war Union veterans’ involvement in the Department of Mississippi and Louisiana Grand Army of the Republic and its Women Relief Corps Auxiliary.
“The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union military who had served in the American Civil War” (1861-1865).
“Many national organizations of Union veterans sprouted-up after the Civil War ended.
The Grand Army of the Republic (G. A. R.) was the largest and most powerful of these groups of Union veterans in the United States.
Founded on April 6th, 1866, at Decatur, Illinois, by former army surgeon Benjamin Franklin Stephenson, its proclaimed purpose was Fraternity, Charity, and Loyalty, and its basic unit was the local posts, with membership theoretically open to any honorably discharged Union veteran.
The 30th of May officially called “Decoration Day” was established by the G. A. R. in 1868 as the Day to go to the cemetery in remembrance of their Civil War comrades. It was eventually dovetailed into what is now called Memorial Day.”
Decoration Day known in the Mississippi-Louisiana Region as “the 30th of May” by African descendant Union Military veterans was celebrated and commemorated for decades dating back to the 19th century.
Since Decoration Day aka 30th of May was changed to the "fourth Monday in May nationally as “Memorial Day,” in Mississippi and Louisiana memory of the Union Civil War soldiers, particularly the African Americans, has faded into forgotten memory.
No they did not come marching home! No there were no welcome home parades! There were no homes to come home to!
But those heroic Union military African descent freedom fighting veterans were the builders of the “Africans in America Community” as it has come to be known today.
They were leaders, developers of churches, schools, colleges and family. They created an agricultural economy. They became participatory politicians and organizers of social structures, fraternal orders, and benevolent societies. They were the first educators and citizens that brought today’s Afrodescendants “up from chattel slavery.”
“The National Woman's Relief Corps (WRC- or NWRC) was OFFICIALLY chartered in 1883, after the Union veterans' organization named the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) finally convinced the many small women's organizations to unify under one name. We are the oldest national women's patriotic organization in America. Our organization officially pre-dates all other patriotic organizations by official national charter except for the SUVCW (Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War).
The WRC began as a group intended to serve as auxiliary to the GAR, and we still maintain that identity. However we added over the decades more to our mission statement. We now understand we are to not just keep the memory of the "Boys in Blue" alive but we are to also honor all veterans of all wars of the USA. All the things that we did then we still do, but we are always able to modify and modernize” said Kathy Bower, current Secretary to the National Woman’s Relief Corps in a recent email to Ser Boxley.
Affected by faded memory of Mississippi-Louisiana African descent Civil War Union military veterans is the local still active Women’s Relief Corps based in Vidalia, Louisiana.
Here is an extract from an amended role play script my person prepared for a past Black and Blue Civil War Living History event:
We are members of the Woman’s Relief Corps Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Parson Brownlow Lodge #23. Our Grand Army of the Republic Lodge is located at 604 North Magnolia Street in Vidalia, Louisiana.
We are the only active Woman’s Relief Corps in the Miss-Lou region.
Our Woman’s Relief Corps was organized on June 13, 1898 under the Department of Louisiana and Mississippi by vote of the 24th National Convention.
We became a chartered Relief Corps April 16, 1907. This past April of 2019 our Relief Corps was one hundred and twenty-one years old.
We are authorized and empowered to perform all acts necessary to conduct our organization within the rules and regulations of the Woman’s Relief Corps.
The Woman’s Relief Corps is a patriotic organization whose express purpose is to perpetuate the memory of the Grand Army of the Republic.
With the entire above background introduction let my person say that with the help of this year’s Black and Blue program’s keynote presenter Cheryl Wilkinson of California I have a list of various GAR Posts that were once active in the Department of Mississippi and Louisiana.
Thus my person is seeking to recruit volunteer persons both males (GAR) and females (WRC) who will commit to be delegate representatives from each GAR/WRC locations shown below. As delegate representatives your persons are to attend the 12th Annual Black and Blue Civil War Program’s GAR/WRC encampment round-table reenactment on October 26, 2019 at Historic Jefferson College rain or shine. The College is located just off U. S. Highway 61 north, just east of Natchez, Mississippi.
Agreeing to be a delegate representative from a particular GAR/WRC Post location should inspire ya to do a bit of research in search of information about that GAR Post and or the GAR/Women Relief Corp history.
Your persons along with all the others of us are to do the best we can do to educate each other and those in attendance and the general public by remembering why we have forgotten them!
My person will be calling ya’ll, but why not help and call my person first or email: 601-442-4719 [email protected]
A List of Grand Army of the Republic Department of Louisiana and Mississippi Posts Names and Locations
Organized as the Department of the Gulf, May 15, 1884 and changed to: Department of Louisiana and Mississippi, June 13, 1888
Louisiana
McDonoghville = Jefferson = Algiers = Orleans Parish
Morgan City = O P Morton = St. Mary Parish
New Orleans La: = Orleans Parish= Joseph A. Mower, Andre Cailloux….Al Jackson potential delegate
C. J. Bassett, U. S. Grant, J. H. Crowder, Phil Sheridan, Ellsworth, R. W. Shaw, Oscar Orrillion
Carrollton = Farragut
St. Bernard Parish = Martin R. Delaney
Houma = Gen. Canby = Terrebonne Parish
Bayou Goula = Fairchild = eastern Iberville Parish
Plaquemine = Plaquemine = Iberville Parish
Thibodaux = Abraham Lincoln = Lafourche Parish
Lafayette = Gen. Phelps = Lafayette Parish
Baton Rouge = Cyrus Hamlin = East Baton Rouge Parish
Port Hudson = Custer = East Baton Rouge Parish, maybe Dennis Dahmer a delegate
Port Allen = William Kinley = West Baton Rouge Parish
Jesuit Bend = Gen. Steel = unincorporated community in Plaquemines Parish
Jennings = Jennings = Jefferson Davis Parish
Water Proof = R. B. Hayes = Concordia Parish
Vidalia = Parson Brownlow Post #23, organized November 26, 1892 in Vidalia, LA = Concordia Parish = Vidalia La. Women Relief Corps Auxiliary Parson Brownlow No. 23 Post /The Parson Browlow G. A. R. Lodge no. 23 building still stands at 604 N. Magnolia Street in Vidalia. The annual “30th of May” or “Decoration Day” march across the Mississippi River to Natchez and joined by those waiting at the old toll bridge columns then on out to the National Cemetery starts from this G. A. R. lodge).
Shreveport = James A. Garfield = Caddo Parish
Lake Providence = Lake Providence = East Carroll Parish = Baba Kahan & Porter Johnson potenials
Mississippi
Natchez = John A. Logan Post #24, organized December 2, 1892 in Natchez, MS,
Natchez, Brigadier General Thomas E. Ransom # 16 Post organized in late 1891
Port Gibson = James Lynch = Mayor Reeves & Milton Chambliss delegates = Claiborne County
Warrington = Fred Douglas = Warren County
Vicksburg = Warren County Brig-Gen. (Army ret.) Rober Crear delegate
Vicksburg, R. B. Elliot, E. D. Edwards
Bovina = T. W. Stringer = = Warren County
Jackson = Charles W. Cady = Hinds County = ask Norman Fisher, Eldridge Henderson,
Duncansby = Duncansby = Issaquena county
Chatham = Dan Ullmann = Washington County
Greenville = Greenville = Washington County
Shelby = W. T. Sherman = Bolivar County
(1) “Ignorance or concealment of major historical events constitutes an obstacle to” Equal History Memory, preservation, presentation and interpretation, thus “constitutes an obstacle to mutual understanding, reconciliation and cooperation among peoples” ….UNESCO “Slave Route Project” email narrative
Dress for Males = four button black suit and or two button with a black vest, my person have replica Union kepi cap. Females: White dress or two piece white outfit, white hat. Let’s talk about this!