United Confederate Veterans
Abbreviation | UCV |
---|---|
Successor | Sons of Confederate Veterans |
Formation | June 10, 1889 |
Founder | Joseph Shipp |
Extinction | May 30, 1951 |
Type | Veterans' organization |
Purpose | Social, literary, historical, benevolent |
Publication | The Confederate Veteran |
Affiliations | United Daughters of the Confederacy |
The United Confederate Veterans was an association of ex-Confederate soldiers and sailors, founded in New Orleans on June 10, 1889.[1][2]
History
Background
There had been numerous local veterans associations in the South, and many of these became part of the UCV. The organization grew rapidly throughout the 1890s culminating with 1,555 camps represented at the 1898 reunion. The next few years marked the zenith of UCV membership, lasting until 1903 or 1904, when veterans were starting to die off and the organization went into a gradual decline.[3]
Purpose
The UCV felt it had to outline its purposes and structure in a written constitution, based on military lines. Members holding appropriate UCV "ranks" officered and staffed echelons of command from General Headquarters at the top to local camps (companies) at the bottom. Their declared purpose was emphatically nonmilitary - to foster "social, literary, historical, and benevolent" ends.[4]
Reunions
The national organization assembled annually in a general convention and social reunion, presided over by the Commander-in-Chief. These annual reunions served the UCV as an aid in achieving its goals. Convention cities made elaborate preparations and tried to put on bigger events than the previous hosts. The gatherings continued to be held long after the membership peak had passed and despite fewer veterans surviving, they gradually grew in attendance, length and splendor. Numerous veterans brought family and friends along too, further swelling the crowds. Many Southerners considered the occasions major social occasions. Perhaps thirty thousand veterans and another fifty thousand visitors attended each of the mid and late 1890 reunions, and the numbers increased. In 1911 an estimated crowd of 106,000 members and guests crammed into Little Rock, Arkansas—a city of less than one-half that size. Then the passing years began taking a telling toll and the reunions grew smaller. But still the meetings continued until finally in 1950 at the sixtieth reunion only one member could attend, 98-year-old Commander-in-Chief James Moore of Selma, Alabama.[6]
The Confederate Veteran
In addition to national meetings, another prominent factor contributed to the growth and popularity of the UCV. This was a monthly magazine which became the official UCV organ, the Confederate Veteran. Founded as an independent publishing venture in January 1893, by Sumner Cunningham, the UCV adopted it the following year. Cunningham personally edited the magazine for twenty-one years and bequeathed almost his entire estate to insure its continuance. The magazine was of a very high quality and circulation was wide. Many veterans penned recollections or articles for publication in its pages. Readership always greatly exceeded circulation because numerous camps and soldiers' homes received one or two copies for their numerous occupants. An average of 6500 copies were printed per issue during the first year of publication, for example, but Cunningham estimated that fifty thousand people read the twelfth issue.[7]
See also
- Confederate Memorial Hall
- Confederate monuments
- Grand Army of the Republic
- Memorial Day
- Southern Cross of Honor
Notes
References
- Hattaway, Herman (Summer 1971). "Clio's Southern Soldiers: The United Confederate Veterans and History". Louisiana History (Louisiana State University) XII (3): 213–42.
- United Confederate Veterans. Adjutant General's Office (1907). Minutes of the United Confederate Veterans I. New Orleans. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
Further reading
- Confederate Veterans of Mississippi. Adjutant General's Dept. (1891). Proceedings of the Second Annual Grand Camp, United Confederate Veterans of Mississippi at Natchez, October 7-8, 1891. Jackson, Mississippi: The Clarion Printing Establishment. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- Linney, C. B.; Bolton, Channing M. & Holliday, John Z. (1920). Richey, Homer, ed. Memorial History of the John Bowie Strange Camp, United Confederate Veterans. Charlottesville, Virginia: Michie Company Press.
- United Confederate Veterans. Adjutant General's Office (1907). Minutes of the United Confederate Veterans II. New Orleans. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- United Confederate Veterans. Adjutant General's Office (1909). Minutes of the United Confederate Veterans III. New Orleans. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- United Confederate Veterans. Adjutant General's Office (1910). Minutes of the United Confederate Veterans IV. New Orleans. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- United Confederate Veterans. Adjutant General's Office (1910). Minutes of the United Confederate Veterans V. New Orleans. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- United Confederate Veterans. Adjutant General's Office (1920). Minutes of the Thirtieth Annual Meeting and Reunion of the United Confederate Veterans. New Orleans: Rogers Printing Co. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- United Confederate Veterans. Adjutant General's Office (1926). Minutes of the Thirty-sixth Annual Meeting and Reunion of the United Confederate Veterans. New Orleans: Rogers Printing Co. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- United Confederate Veterans. Adjutant General's Office (1896). Organization of 850 United Confederate Veteran Camps. New Orleans. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- United Confederate Veterans. Adjutant General's Office (1897). Organization of 1026 Camps in the United Confederate Veteran Association. New Orleans. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- United Confederate Veterans. Adjutant General's Office (1903). Organization of 1523 Camps in the United Confederate Veteran Association. New Orleans. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- United Confederate Veterans. Adjutant General's Office (1908). Organization of Camps in the United Confederate Veterans. New Orleans: Hyatt Stat'y Mfg. Co. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- United Confederate Veterans. Adjutant General's Office (1910). Organization of Camps in the United Confederate Veterans. New Orleans: J. G. Hauser. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- United Confederate Veterans. Adjutant General's Office (1912). Organization of Camps in the United Confederate Veterans. New Orleans: J. G. Hauser. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- United Confederate Veterans. Adjutant General's Office (1914). Organization of Camps in the United Confederate Veterans. New Orleans: A. W. Hyatt Stat'y Mfg. Co. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- United Confederate Veterans. Adjutant General's Office (1921). List of Organized Camps of the United Confederate Veterans Corrected to August 31, 1921. New Orleans: Rogers Printing Co. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
- United States. Cong. Senate (1918). Proceedings of the Twenty-seventh Annual Reunion of the United Confederate Veterans, the Eighteenth Annual Convention of the Confederated Southern Memorial Association, and the Twenty-second Annual Reunion of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Washington: Government Printing Office. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
External links
- 1911 Confederate Veterans Questionnaires at the Arkansas History Commission
- 1911 Confederate Veterans Reunion Registration Forms at the Arkansas History Commission
- 1914 Confederate Veterans Convention at The World Digital Library
- Confederate Veteran Organizations at the New Georgia Encyclopedia
- Minutes of the Annual Meetings and Reunions of the United Confederate Veterans at the Online Books Page
- Organization of Camps in the United Confederate Veterans at the Online Books Page
- United Confederate Veterans (UCV) at the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture
- United Confederate Veterans Association Records at Louisiana State University
- United Confederate Veterans Collection at James Madison University
- United Confederate Veterans Reunion of 1911 at the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture
- United Confederate Veterans Reunions held in Memphis at Historic-Memphis
- United Confederate Veterans Tennessee Division Records at the Tennessee State Library and Archives
- United Confederate Veterans Virginia Division Records at the Library of Virginia