1886 Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic

San Francisco Daily Morning Call Newspaper
Participants at the 1886 Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic
National Staff, Dept. of Arkansas Through Dept. of Michigan

Copyright © 1997 by Jim W. Faulkinbury, CGRS, all rights reserved

On August 4th, 1886, the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) held its twentieth annual convention or "encampment" in San Francisco, California. To honor this event, the San Francisco Daily Morning Call of 3 August 1886 printed a special "Grand Army Edition" containing twenty-eight pages rather than the normal four to ten pages. Within these pages are not only contained a brief history of the achievements by the Union Army and Navy forces during Civil War, but also biographical sketches of 748 delegates and officers of the G.A.R. These biographies covered such prominent participants to the convention as Rutherford B. Hayes (Delegate at Large and from Ohio and ex-President of the United States), General William Tecumseh Sherman (Delegate from Missouri), and Clara E. Barton (military nurse and invited guest of the G.A.R.) to William H. Jones (Junior Vice-Commander of the Dept. of Delaware) who was born a slave in Brunswick, Virginia, served as a private in the Thirty-second Regiment of United States colored troops, and rose to the office of Junior Vice Departmental Commander in the G.A.R

The biographical sketches were organized by G.A.R. Departments of which there were thirty-seven. Most of the biographies contain the date and place of birth. All list details of the military and subsequent careers of these men (and the women of the Ladies Relief Corps). Some contain additional genealogical data but most do not. The majority of the sketches were printed in the paper of August 3rd but some of the sketches were submitted too late for publication in that paper and were subsequently printed in the paper of August 4th. This compilation lists the names, G.A.R. positions, and birth information provided for these men and women.