Eyewitness 1939: Aged Civil War vets parade through town
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Marlin J. Warner, 94, of Grand Rapids, Mich., danced with Mrs. T.S. Rufenact, the daughter of one of his Civil War comrades, during the 1939 GAR Encampment in Pittsburgh.
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Jacob Mooker sought no special treatment because of his age. The 97-year-old Union Army veteran marched from Pittsburgh's North Side through Downtown, past a reviewing stand on Grant Street.
He was among 140 "Boys in Blue" who attended the Grand Army of the Republic's 1939 National Encampment in Pittsburgh. He was the only member of the veterans' contingent to walk the two-mile length of the parade route. "If I can't walk the full way, what's the point of me marching at all," he told a reporter for the Post-Gazette in a story that appeared Aug. 31, 1939.
The rest of the marchers -- average age 95 -- rode in open cars along most of the route. About 40 cane-carrying veterans, however, got out of their vehicles and walked past the reviewing stand. "The tap, tap, tap of the canes on the pavement could be heard even above the applause of the spectators," writer Gilbert Love wrote in that same day's edition of The Pittsburgh Press.
Like his former comrades, Mooker, a resident of Valparaiso, Ind., made a slight concession to his advanced years. He used a walking stick, fashioned from the trunk of a discarded Christmas tree and decorated with red, white and blue streamers, Love wrote.
The Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of men who had served in Union forces during the Civil War, had almost 500,000 members at its peak. By the time of its 73rd meeting in Pittsburgh, its rolls were down to 1,700 old soldiers.
Members had a busy agenda during the six-day event. In addition to participating in the parade, about 100 attended the opening of the Allegheny County Fair at South Park. The veterans told stories and sang songs during a program at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland. At their business meetings, they passed resolutions protesting the soon-to-be-released film version of "Gone with the Wind."
GAR members voted to "absent themselves" from any theater showing the "defamatory film," which was based on Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel. They specifically objected to the film's presentation of Gen. William T. Sherman's march across Georgia and the portrayal of a Union soldier as a "hideous marauder, attacking women," according to a Sept. 1 story in the Post-Gazette.
They also opposed other measures to "palliate the treason of the South." Those included a Congressional bill to provide $25,000 for a statue of Stonewall Jackson and an offer from the United Daughters of the Confederacy to present a Robert E. Lee Memorial Sword to a West Point cadet each year.
Mrs. Walter D. Lamar, president-general of the Confederate Daughters, warned that the GAR's actions "may cripple the fine relations between the Grand Army of the Republic and the Confederate Veterans ..."
"Gone with the Wind" was still in the final stages of production when the GAR took its stand, and neither its supporters nor detractors had yet seen the film. It would have its premiere in December 1939.
As they wrapped up their encampment, the Civil War veterans shared space in Pittsburgh newspapers with another conflict. "POLISH CITIES BOMBED" was the Post-Gazette's banner headline on Sept. 1. World War II had begun with the German invasion of Poland.
First Published May 29, 2011 3:44 pm
