Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War
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Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) is an American fraternal organization, the legal successor to the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). It is a Congressionally Chartered Corporation with headquarters in the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The GAR created SUVCW in 1881 to ensure the preservation of its own mission following the death of the last Union Civil War veterans. It is based on the principles of the GAR -- Fraternity, Charity, and Loyalty.
Full membership of SUVCW is open to any man who can prove ancestry to a member of the GAR or to a veteran eligible for membership in the GAR. Associate membership is available to men who do not have the ancestry to qualify for hereditary membership, but who demonstrate a genuine interest in the Civil War and agree to support the purpose and objectives of the SUVCW.
Today, the National Organization of the SUVCW, headed by an annually elected Commander-in-Chief, oversees the operation of 26 Departments (each consisting of one or more states), a Department-at-Large, a National Membership-at-Large, and over 200 community-based Camps. SUVCW has 6,360 male members, to whom it distributes its quarterly publication The Banner.
Local camps are responsible for decorating graves on Memorial Day in addition to continuing to preserve history. Many camps seek to complete their mission in a number of ways. For example, members of Alden Skinner Camp 45 have organized and now maintain the New England Civil War Museum.
