SENATE MILITARY AND VETERANS' AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION No. 59

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  MAY 16, 2019

      The Senate Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee reports favorably Senate Joint Resolution No. 59.

      This joint resolution designates May of each year as “Civil War Veterans Recognition Month” in honor of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.

      It is a fitting time to recognize and establish a permanent commemoration of the Union Civil War veterans and the two organizations that have supported them and their memory – the Grand Army of the Republic and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War – because July 1 to 3, 2013 marked the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, a battle which proved to be the turning point of the Civil War and ensured the Union’s victory in the conflict. 

      The Grand Army of the Republic was a fraternal organization, established in 1866 and composed of veterans of the Union Army, the United States Navy, the United States Marines, and the United States Revenue Cutter Service.  It dissolved when the last member of this organization died in 1956.  In 1881, the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War was established, in recognition of the importance of the sacrifice and service of Union Civil War veterans but separate from the Grand Army of the Republic in deference to the sacredness of the veterans’ personal devotion and the toll of their actual war experience.  This organization is the legal successor to the Grand Army of the Republic and is still in existence today.