Stephenson Grand Army of the Republic Memorial
The Stephenson Grand Army of the Republic Memorial, also known as Dr. Benjamin F. Stephenson, is a public artwork in Washington, D.C. honoring Dr. Benjamin F. Stephenson, founder of the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization for Union veterans. The memorial is sited at Indiana Plaza, located at the intersection of 7th Street, Indiana Avenue, and Pennsylvania Avenue NW in the Penn Quarter neighborhood. The bronze figures were sculpted by J. Massey Rhind, a prominent 20th-century artist. Attendees at the 1909 dedication ceremony included President William Howard Taft, Senator William Warner, and hundreds of Union veterans.
Stephenson Grand Army of the Republic Memorial
Benjamin F. Stephenson
Stephenson Grand Army of the Republic Memorial circa 1910s
Relief bust of Stephenson
Grand Army of the Republic
The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army, Union Navy, and the Marines who served in the American Civil War. It was founded in 1866 in Decatur, Illinois, and grew to include hundreds of "posts" across the North and West. It was dissolved in 1956 at the death of its last member, Albert Woolson.
GAR Uniform Hat Badge from Post No. 146, "RG Shaw Post", named after Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and established by surviving members of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment in 1871 (R. Andre Stevens Civil War Collection)
GAR marker, beside a veteran's grave in Portland Street Cemetery, South Berwick, Maine
Department of Massachusetts GAR Post 144, Dedham Massachusetts 1886
A replica of the USS Kearsarge displayed at the 1893 GAR National Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana