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 in the SUVCW is open to any man, 14 years of age (6 to 14 for Junior members), who:^[1]

“

1. is directly descended from a Soldier, Sailor, Marine or member of the Revenue Cutter Service (or directly descended from a brother, sister, half-brother, or half-sister of such Soldier, etc.) who was regularly mustered and served honorably in, was honorably discharged from, or died in the service of, the Army, Navy, Marine Corps or Revenue Cutter Service of the United States of America or in such state regiments called to active service and was subject to the orders of United States general officers, between April 12, 1861 and April 9, 1865;^[2]

2. has never been convicted of any infamous or heinous crime; and

3. has, or whose ancestor through whom membership is claimed, has never voluntarily borne arms against the government of the United States.

”

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.