Salt Lake Tribune | 1909-05-02 | Page 5 | Early Commanders-in-Chief of G. A. R.

II 1 EARL7 COMMANDERS-IN-CHIEF OF THE G. A. R. 4f - '' , ; IGEOBGE S. TVTRTg.'R.TT.T. The above group of early command-re-in-chaef of tlio Grand Army includes in-cludes the oldest living head of the order in the person of Louis TVagncr, who was elected at the encampment bold in Dayton. Ohio, in 1SS0. He is hence tho dean of commanders. Of the others, George S. Morrill is dead. It 3K probable that Mr. Warner. Mr. Van Dervoorfc and Mr. Beath will all bo present at the coming encampment. Mr. -Beath, is known, as the lawgiver of tho G. A. R. and has served as a member ot the committee on rules and regulations regula-tions of the order for thirty years. Most of that time ho has been chairman chair-man of tho committee. Louis Wagner, elected commander-in-chief at tho fourteenth -National cn-oompmenr., cn-oompmenr., held at Dayton, Ohio, .Tunc 8, 9, 1880. He was born at Giessen, PATTI. VAN DEBVOORT. Germany, August 1, 1851S. Tin served under Pope in Virginia during the war, and in this service was badly wounded and was assigned fo command camp William Pcnn, Pennsylvania, for the organization of colored troops, where ho did most effective service in training train-ing and forwarding some . '5,000 colored col-ored soldiers, lie was brovcttcd brigadier brig-adier general in Mnreh, 1S65. All of his predecessors as commanders-in-chief of the Grand Army of the .Republic ;ire dead. ITc is now the dean of tho order. George S. Merrill, elected commander-in-chief at the fifteenth National en-campmont, en-campmont, held at Indianapolis, Ind., Juno 15, in, 1SS1. He was born in. Methuen. Maps., in ISHi). He was the proprietor of the Lawrence American i newspaper in I860, lie served with General Banks in the Louisiana expedi- I ROBERT B. BEATH. Hon: participated in the sioge of Port Hudson, and in other operations iu the Department of the Gulf. He died February Feb-ruary 17. 3000. Paul Van Dcrvoort. elected command-ed-in-ehief at the sixteenth National encampment, held at Baltimore, Md.. June 21. 23, 1SS2. He was born iu Ohio. 3S-IG, and died in Cuba, July 29; 1902. Ho served in I ho Sixty-eighf h Illinois infautrv and the Sixteenth Illinois Il-linois cavalry during I he war. Ho was taken prisoner and confined for nearly a 3'ear in Andersonvillc and other sout.Li-crn sout.Li-crn prisons. After the war he served over ten years in the railway mail service. Robert B. Beath, elected commander-in-chief at the seventeenth National encampment, en-campment, held at Denver. Colo., July 25, 2(i. SSV. He was burn in Phila- LOUIS WAGNER. I delphia, January 20, ISM), and served an apprenticeship as a machine black- I smith. He served in tho Twenty-third Pennsylvania volunteers, and in the Eighty-eighth Pennsylvania volunteers. Ho was wouuded at Bull Bun; served as captain of the Sixth United States colored troops in the Army of the James; was badly wounded in the charge of tho brigs do on Now Market Heights, Virginia, September 29, ISO'I; resulted in the amputation of his right leg below the knee; was assigned to dutv iu the Frcodmcn 's bureau in North Carolina. For ihirty years Comrade Com-rade Beath has been regarded as the law giver of tho Grand Army of the Republic. For that length of timo he has been on the commit teo on rules and regulations, and most of that timy as chairman of that committee.