Historical Portrait
DeWitt County Civil War Veteran Drummers
Archive record
Six Civil War veteran drummers from DeWitt County at 1912 reunion in Clinton, Illinois. Public domain historical photograph from Internet Archive.
About this photograph
Six Civil War veteran drummers from DeWitt County gathered at a reunion in Clinton, Illinois in 1912, fifty years after the war's end.
The Grand Army of the Republic, founded in 1866 as a fraternal organisation for Union veterans, ran reunions and memorial observances for decades. Members wore distinctive uniforms and badges to such gatherings, which explains why late portraits of Civil War veterans often show elderly men in regalia rather than wartime dress.
By 1912 the surviving veterans were in their late sixties at youngest, most considerably older. The reunion offered a chance for men who had served as boys to gather with others who shared that history. The organisation had grown into a substantial political force over the intervening years, campaigning for veterans' pensions.
The photographer is unknown. The photograph shows the six men together, identified as drummers, though the record provides no names or details of their service. DeWitt County sent men to various Illinois regiments during the war, but which units these drummers served in, or when, is not stated.
Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.
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