These were the flags they fought for.
The story of how Columbus became known as “the Arch City” has been told on several occasions. In the years after the Civil War, Columbus, because of its widening connections by rail, road and canal, grew from being a country town of 18,000 people to a smoky metropolis of 70,000 people by 1880.
It was that town that attracted the attention of the Grand Army of the Republic. As the major Union Army veterans organization, the GAR provided the volunteers who virtually guaranteed Republican victories in much of the country. The GAR could make or break candidates and – as a power to be reckoned with in American life – often did.
It was this group that was looking for a site for its 22nd annual Encampment. The Encampment was a convention, a reunion and a reassertion of loyalty to the Union cause. The GAR chose Columbus to be the site of its 22nd Encampment in 1888.
It was a bit of a questionable choice. Local merchants and the citizenry as a whole would welcome the arrival of the veterans until it became clear that the town of 70,000 would now be host to 100,000 to 200,000 guests for two weeks.
The questions that immediately arose were things like: How do we feed them? How do we house them? How do we protect them from brigands and from their own personal pettiness?
Remarkably, local planners and organizers worked out answers to all of these questions. To feed the multitude, event staff worked out a contract with the Butler food wholesaling company to provide meals to all veterans and their families for 50 cents a meal in one of four great dining halls of 600 seats around the town.
To house the veterans who could not or would not use local hotels, the event staff contracted to have 600 eight-person canvas tents pitched in one of five tent cities erected for use around the city. To illuminate a dark and dangerous nighttime in a town surging with newcomers, Columbus erected wooden arches down High Street, lit by gas lights that spread a warm yellow to orange glow over the downtown. The arches remained after the Encampment, and Columbus soon became well known as the Arch City.
So what exactly did 100,000 veterans and another 100,000 family members and friends do for a week in the capital city? The large tent cities housed men and their families by regimental units and permitted veterans to meet old friends and make new acquaintances. And if one did not wish to attend meetings, meals and campfires, there always were diversions and options in the yellow glow of the shops and services of the Arch City.
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On Sept. 9, 1888, more than 50,000 veterans of the Union Army in uniforms of one sort or another lined up in formation and marched through downtown Columbus and past a reviewing stand on Broad Street on the north side of Statehouse Square. On the reviewing stand were former President Rutherford B. Hayes, Commanding Gen. William T. Sherman and GAR commander Gen. John Logan among other notable veterans.
The parade of men took four and a halfhours to pass the reviewing stand and was the largest gathering of Union veterans since the Grand Review in Washington in 1865. In 1888, the average Union veteran was economically and physically fit and in the prime of adult middle age. The GAR reunions continued until well into the 20th century with several state and national gatherings in Columbus. But never again would there be this many men bonded by struggle gathered together in one place.
And the parade began with a flourish. Immediately behind the few notable horsem*n leading the parade came a marching group of roughly 500 men carrying battle flags of the Union and the flags of captured Confederate units, as well.
It was an emotional moment for the veterans and former friends and foes alike. America had had its flag for many years, and new ones had been made or commissioned by local people who were sending their sons off to war. Many of the flags carried the names of battles fought and campaigns undertaken. Many of the flags had been carried in the forefront of conflict and bore the stains of blood and conflict. And all of them were carried proudly by the men who had carried them once to war to the tune and pace of a brass band marching with the veterans.
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The flags were a stirring and memorable sight to see.
And one can see them still. For many years, the furled flags were kept in racks in the rotunda of the Statehouse. For a time in the 20th century, they were put in storage and forgotten. Ultimately, they came into the possession of the Ohio Historical Society, now the Ohio History Connection, at its then new museum in 1970 adjacent to the Ohio Expo Center & State Fair. And it is there – the Ohio History Center – they can be seen.
They are a memorable reminder of a time of turmoil.
Local historian and author Ed Lentz writes the As It Were column forThisWeek Community NewsandThe Columbus Dispatch.
