C.K. Pier Badger Camp #1 Series 2009 CAMP ORDERS June 2009

Recipient of the 2001 and 2008 Marshall Hope Newsletter of the Year Award

“Deserve their Sacrifice ….. Preserve their Memory”

SU

VC

WS

UV

CW

SU

VC

W

Next Camp meeting: The next Camp meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, 1 July 2009 in Building 1 of the VA Soldier’s Home (drill practice—6:30). We will debrief the Dept. Encampment, Officers and Staff meeting and continue planning for the Kenosha and South Shore Frolics parades, Annual Picnic and National Encampment. PDC Kent Peterson will conduct the meeting’s Patriotic Presentation on “Mrs. Lincoln Visits Waukesha.”

C. K

. P

I e

r

B a

d g

e r

C

a m

p

# 1

Camp Commander’s Column

Brothers,

Summer will finally be here this month. Soon things will heat up like the weather. I would like to thank all of the Brothers and Sisters of Camp #1 and Auxiliary #4 for all the work and dedication to make the Reclaiming Our Heritage event a success for both the groups. Job well done.

We also had a very successful Department Encampment on June 6th. I would like to thank all the Brothers who attended and represented our Camp as delegates. Also Camp #2 did a great job on hosting the encampment. We had a behind-the-scenes tour of the archives area at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. The staff there was very helpful with our meeting room.

Remember we have a staff meeting June 22, 2009 at Bldg. #1 at the Soldiers Home district. All elected and appointed officers are recommended to attend, also the Sisters of Aux #4 are asked to attend. See you there.

We have a couple of parades coming up in July — the Kenosha parade July 5th and the South Shore Frolics parade July 11th. If you haven’t signed up please do so at our next meeting or call Steve Michaels (414) 425-4648 to do so. Also, our annual Picnic will be at Brother Bob Koenecke’s home near Burlington. A brochure and directions will be coming soon. I hope a lot of our Brothers and Sisters will attend the picnic. We had enjoyable times at our past picnics. So sign up and get to know your Brothers and Sisters a little bit better and have a good time.

See you at our July meeting. Drilling practice at 6:30p.m.

Camp Commander Tom Brown

.

Camp 1 Chaplain Dean Collins thanks Cushing’s Battery Commander Rich Young for a job well done at the Memorial Day program at Calvary Cemetery.

SONS OF UNION VETERAN S OF THE CIVIL WAR CAM P ORDERS JUNE 2009 PAGE 2

The following was originally published in the June 1999 Camp Orders as one in a series of articles about the life and times of our Camp's namesake.

Col. Pier was a prolific writer and his work contributes greatly to our understanding of his life and ex-periences. As a young student in Fond du Lac, he excelled at composition. His talent and aptitude for writing were first publicly demonstrated while in 3-months service in the 1st Wisconsin Infantry.

During the opening months of the Civil War, Pier wrote highly interesting weekly letters to the Fond du Lac Saturday Reporter, signing them "Trewloc" (Colwert spelled backwards).

After the war, he pursued a law career, but his interest in writing continued. In 1870, Pier bought 66% of the Fond du Lac Commonwealth. For a year or more, he frequently contributed to its editorial columns. He retained part ownership of the paper until 1874.

Five years later, his "Soldier Chapters" printed in the Milwaukee Sunday Telegraph and elsewhere were by far the best ever produced in Wisconsin. His pen was tireless in agitating and promoting the great Wisconsin Soldiers Reunion of 1880. During the 1880s, he devoted much time to patriotic and political speech writing. His efforts advanced veterans' issues and the Republican Party.

The colonel was Secretary of the Executive Board of the 1889 National GAR Encampment in Milwaukee. This required his writing skills, responding to numerous inquiries and communicating with newspapers.

Afterwards, Col. Pier's love of the Order was continually apparent in his frequent releases to the Milwaukee Sentinel, regarding GAR activities. Beyond informing the citizenry, his writings would provide future researchers with an insight into the man and his time.

Remembering Col. Pier By P C-in-C Steve Michaels

Camp and Auxiliary Photo Album

Above, Sister Allison Michaels helped make sure everyone could veteran’s graves with U.S. flags at Calvary Cemetery.

At left, Bro. David Howard and PCinC Steve Michaels pre-sented JROTC awards at Greenfield High School in April. Also presenting at the cere-mony was Sr. Toni Howard.

MORE PHOTOS ON PAGE 4

Pres. Lincoln (Rev. Robert Rotgers) and Sgt. Ryan Shogren (both at left) were key-note speakers at the Memorial Day program.

Camp 1 Treasures from the Archives

SONS OF UNION VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR CAMP ORDERS JUNE 2009 PAGE 2 PAGE 3

We’ve been fortunate that several archival items from Camp 1’s early history have survived. They’re all interesting, as these give us a glimpse into the past and the Camp’s rela-tionships with others at the time. Most, due to their fragility, are not readily available to the membership. At our June 3rd meeting, I showed some of the treasures, which I’ve been honored to safeguard for the last decade.

Gifted Acquisitions Among our treasures are those with some provenance, traced to donors documented on the item itself. These “gifted acquisitions” include Volume 2 of the Roster of Wis-consin Volunteers in the War of Rebellion 1861-1865. Inside the cover is the name “E.B. Wolcott Post 1 GAR,” stamped with the reference that the book was donated to the Camp in 1934. Presumably volume 1 was also gifted, perhaps the in-dex too, but these two volumes have been lost. In 1934, Mil-waukee’s Post 1 was declining quickly and seven years, would be but a memory.

Two volumes of Harper’s Weekly (1861 & 1864) and two volumes of Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Parts 1 & 2) were gifted to the Camp in 1924 by Mr. Ben Sherer, whose father, a civil War veteran had purchased them in 1880. The Camp’s name is embossed on the binding. It’s unknown if this was the complete donation or if volumes were lost during the ensuing years.

Camp Historical Material A great many historical insights can be gleaned from the Camp’s minute books. The earliest are from Badger Camp 1 and date from the Camp’s organization in 1892. C.K. Pier Badger Camp 1’s later minute books from the 1930s include newspaper clippings and obits about Civil War veterans …an

interesting set of footnotes to the Camp’s activities.

Mystery Acquisitions

When Camp 1 and the other local Allied Orders were evicted from Centennial Hall in the early 1980s, officers spirited some away some small, easy-to-carry treasures. Their provenance is not clear, but we they are no less his-torically significant.

• GAR Dept. Commander Griff Thomas cabinet photo pair (shown at bottom left) shows him as a 17-years old in 1864 and a 68-year old in 1915 and lists some of his accomplishments. Thomas assisted C.K. Pier in orga-nizing the 1880 Soldiers & Sailors Reunion.

• A small hand-painted picture of Lyman “Tangle” McCracken, Co. A, 1st WI Infantry (3 mos.) seen at right.

• A gavel, presented to Old Glory Cir-cle 21, Ladies of the GAR, by GAR PDC John Martin. The gavel is made from wood from the Ander-sonville stockade.

• Albert Woolson chrome pieces, be-lieved to be from an ashtray, are from 1954, two years before the last Union soldier’s death.

Purchased Acquisitions In rare instances, our Camp has the opportunity to pur-chase material impor-tant to the history of Milwaukee’s Sons and GAR organizations. About a decade ago, the Camp purchased Min-ute Books from E.B. Wolcott GAR Post 1 for 1910 and 1922 from an estate. These might have been lost other-wise and represent the GAR’s care in docu-menting its history. Each page is typewrit-ten, probably from handwritten notes.

The following was excerpted from a Patriotic Presentation delivered by PCinC Steve Michaels at the Camp’s June 2009 meeting.

22 June Officers and Staff Meeting, 7 p.m., Bldg. 1 1 July Camp and Auxiliary meetings, 7 p.m., Soldier’s Home Bldg. 1 4 July Independence Day 5 July Kenosha Civic Veterans Parade, 2 p.m. step-off 11 July South Shore Frolics Parade, 11 a.m. step-off 26 July Camp & Auxiliary Annual Picnic, Burlington (home of Bro. Bob Koenecke) 13-16 Aug. 128th National SUVCW Encampment, Louisville

Preserving the Memory of the Grand Army of the Republic and our Ancestors who Fought to Preserve the Union

C . K . P I E R B A D G E R C A M P # 1

For information on C.K. Pier Badger Camp #1 or Auxiliary #4 contact:

PCinC Steve Michaels 6623 North Cape Road

Franklin, WI 53132-1227

Phone: (414) 425-4648 E-mail: banner@suvcw.org

Visit us on the Web at

http://www.suvcw-wi.org

Member’s Birthdays in July: Congratulations to: 2—Steve Michaels 9—Patrick Fallon 14—Dr. Ron Washburn 15—Bill Upham, Jr. 16—Tom Brown 31—Vic Share

Camp Calendar

Newsletter Editor: PDC Kent Peterson

A. Dr. Phineas D. Curley, pastor of Washington's New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, which Lincoln attended, delivered the sermon at the president's funeral.

CIVIL WAR TRIVIA Q. Who preached the sermon at President Abraham Lincoln's

funeral?

More photos—top left, AP Anne Michaels presented the poem “Company K” at the Dept. Encampment memo-rial service. Above, PCC Bill Doan and Pat Kulas talked to ROH visitors about Civil War weaponry. At left, the “hot dog” line at our ROH booth went on and on and on all weekend!