Welcome to page one, the "HISTORY PAGE OF ELISHA DYER CAMP No.7", Rhode Island Department Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW).    View this page first to see the general historical background of Camp 7 and interesting features about the SUVCW.    We have a longer continuing history than any other local level SUVCW Camp in Rhode Island, since the R.I. Department (State Level) SUVCW was Chartered in 1888.    Click the Sidebar Links to see all three (3) of our history pages; Page 2, "THE HISTORY OR CAMP 7 AND OUR COMMANDERS PAGE" and Page 3 "ELISHA DYER MEMORIAL-TRIBUTE PAGE".    You can get to pages 2 & 3 below or return to the top of this page and also get to "THE HISTORY OR CAMP 7 AND OUR COMMANDERS",
and our "ELISHA DYER MEMORIAL-TRIBUTE PAGE" in Flash Media.    Also, try clicking our link embedded in the brick wall of "Fort Sumter" below to find out how to become a member of Camp 7.    We are especially proud to present the Dyer Memorial Flash Media Page.    It is our tribute to Elisha Dyer Sr. and Elisha Dyer Jr.
~ Lending True Meaning To The Camp 7 Tradition Emphasizing A Special GAR~SUVCW Fidelity Between Father & Son ~
Honor Your Son, Your Father, Your Grandfather, as well as Your Civil War Ancestor, and become a member of Camp 7.

      Elisha Dyer Camp No.7, R.I. Department Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War is a fraternal, patriotic, educational and non-profit veterans organization, that descends from the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR).    The GAR was the organization that represented the interests of all Union Civil War Veterans.    The R.I. Department SUVCW was incorporated under State Laws in 1893.    The National SUVCW was granted a Federal Charter by act of the United States Congress in 1954 (U.S. Law 605-Chapter 774).    Elisha Dyer Camp No. 7 was authorized by the R.I. Dept. GAR and Chartered by the SUVCW in 1909.    As the legal heir to the GAR, the SUVCW is entrusted to carry on for the GAR and perpetuate the memory of the GAR.

      Camp No. 7 is the largest and oldest Rhode Island Camp of RI SUVCW Members, serving the central region of the State.   For 70 years the Headquarters of the RI Dept. Grand Army of the Republic (RI GAR); RI GAR Posts 1, 4, 10, 12 & 13; The RI Dept. Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (RI SUVCW); the RI Dept. Auxiliary to the SUVCW (RI ASUVCW); RI SUVCW Elisha Dyer Camp No. 7; RI ASUVCW Elisha Dyer Auxiliary No. 2; the RI Women's Relief Corps (RI WRC); and the RI Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic (RI LGAR), were at the "Old Arsenal" at 176 Benefit Street in Providence.   The Benefit Street Arsenal is today the lagest repository of GAR-SUVCW, and Allied Orders of the GAR, memorabilia and Civil War Artifacts in the State, as inventoried by the RI National Guard and the RI State Archives, by order of the RI Secretary of State and the Adjutant General of the RI National Guard in 1995.   A large amount of RI GAR-RI SUVCW records and material is also on loan at the RI Historical Society.   Camp 7 and Auxiliary 2 have plans to reorganize and re-locate all Post 4, Camp 7 and Auxiliary 2 records and memorabilia at the RI GAR Civil War Museum, Library & Research Center, at the Governor William Sprague Mansion Carriage House facility in Cranston, RI, when building rennovations are completed.   RI MOLLUS also has plans to locate its headquarters at the Sprague Mansion Carriage House as well.
   Camp 7 Officers are elected at the Annual Camp 7 Veterans Day Bivouac-Convention by the Camp 7 Membership or Commandery.   The Annual Camp 7 Veteran's Day Bivouac is held on the closest Saturday to November 11th, Veteran's Day.   The Annual Camp 7 Bivouac, observing Veteran's Day or Armistice Day, has been a tradition of Camp 7 since the end of World War I.   The Camp 7 administration is made up of elected and appointed officers of Camp 7.   Camp 7 is the oldest Camp under the R.I. Department SUVCW and one of only two RI SUVCW Camps actually started by GAR Civil War Veterans and their sons.   The RI Dept. SUVCW was provisionally chartered by the National SUVCW organization in 1886 and was permanently chartered by National in 1888.   Past RI GAR Department Commander Theodore A. Barton was the first RI Department SUVCW Commander and he was the founder of the SUVCW in Rhode Island.   Camp 7 was chartered by the National SUVCW in 1909, and founded by Albert M. Bennett, a veteran of Battery E, 1st Regiment, R.I. Light Artillery during the Civil War and member of RI GAR Arnold Post No. 4 for many years after the war.   Since the founding of the R.I. Dept. SUVCW in 1886 Camp 7 has had more of its men elected R.I. SUVCW Department Commander than any other Camp in the history of the Department.

FILI VETERANORUM

      R.I. SUVCW Elisha Dyer Camp No. 7 has a rich tradition.    It ranks among the oldest SUVCW Camps in the country that actually link to the Civil War through an unbroken existance.    Named after two R.I. Civil War Veterans and R.I. Governors, Elisha Dyer Camp No. 7, Rhode Island Department Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War is the oldest and largest Camp in the State, serving Providence, Cranston, Warwick, Johnston, parts of West Warwick and Coventry.    Camp 7 is also the SUVCW successor Camp to R.I. GAR Arnold Post No.4.    Camp 7 today is one of only two R.I. SUVCW Camps started in 1909 by the Civil War Veterans of the former Rhode Island Department Grand Army of the Republic, (GAR Arnold Post No.4) for the SUVCW.    Therefore, Camp 7 also descends from GAR Arnold Post 4.    The GAR was the Veterans organization that represented all Union Civil War Veterans in America.    RIGAR Post No. 4, was named after Capt. William A. Arnold by the Rhode Island Civil War Veterans to memorialize the service of Battery A, First Regiment, Rhode Island Light Artillery (Arnold's Battery) which stood its ground on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, on Cemetery Ridge at the focus of Pickett's Charge, and helped to turn the tide of the Civil War; saving America from being permanently divided.    The well known skill and deadly accuracy of R.I. Battery A, as well as their coolness under fire, ranked Battery A, of the 1st R.I. Light Artillery Regiment among the very best of the volunteer light artillery units in the Civil War.

      On September 18, 1926, RI SUVCW Elisha Dyer Camp No. 7 was awarded legal documentation of a court rendered verdict, notarized and legally certified in N.Y. District Court deeming Camp 7 the Post 4 designated SUVCW successor to RI GAR Arnold Post No. 4.    The document was signed by RI GAR Post 4 Comrades Nicholas Ross, Post 4 Commander, Fernando Jaques, Post 4 Sr. Vice Commander and attested by James McCaffery, Post 4 Secretary; and the action of Post 4 was approved by RI Dept. GAR.

      Camp 7, first began as the children and the uniformed cadet corps of RIGAR Arnold Post No.4 in 1879.    When their children grew up they were granted Assiciate Status in Post 4.    By 1900, the Civil War Veterans of RI GAR Post 4 began to ask themselves, who will carry on and decorate the graves of their comrades after they are gone.    The children of Post 4 had grown and continued to support their fathers, the men who fought to save the Union, 1861 - 1865, so the Post 4 Comrades began the process of passing their legacy to Camp 7.    In 1909, RI GAR Comrades Bennett and Brown officially formed Camp 7 to carry on for Arnold Post 4 as its SofV,USA - SUVCW successor.    Who better to carry on for Post 4 than their sons.    Camp 7 assisted Post 4 until its last days in the 1930s and continues its secred duty to Post 4 today.    Currently Camp 7 conducts Civil War education programs supported by the Battery A, Unit Association, of the R.I. GAR Civil War Museum.    Battery A also assists Camp 7, as a ceremonies Civil War period uniformed unit and helps with Living History Educational Visitations for R.I. Public Schools.    In this way Camp 7 carries on the patriotic tradition of the veterans of Battery A and Grand Army of the Republic Arnold Post No. 4.    Through the R.I. GAR Civil War Museum, Library & Research Center, Battery A provides members of Elisha Dyer Camp No.7 and Auxiliary No.2 the opertunity to be involved in uniformed Civil War period events.    You can also go back and click our Website "ENTRY" Webpage to see the link buttons to get to the R.I. GAR Civil War Museum, Library & Research Center, Battery A, 1st Regiment R.I. Light Artillery, Unit Association Home Page for more information.

      Elisha Dyer, "Senior" (The Father) served as Adjutant-General of the R.I. State Guard and 2 terms as Governor before the Civil War 1858 - 1861.    He was succeded by Governor William Sprague, Rhode Island's "Boy Governor", or President Lincoln's Number One War Governor".    During the war Elisha Sr. served as Captain. of Co. B, of the 10th "Ward" R.I. Volunteer Infantry Militia, Emergency State Guard.    As an Ex-Governor, he volunteered to fight when the 10th RIVI was called up and mustered without prior training by Governor William Sprague and sent to Washington, near Tennallytown, MD.    They formed and left Rhode Island on May 23,1862, to defend the Capitol against the menace of Stonewall Jackson, who had completely fooled and shocked all Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley, Northern Virginia and Maryland.    The initial threat of Jackson to the Nation's capitol ended after the 7 Days Battles in Virginia, however service of the 10th was extended to continue guarding Washington due to the Union disaster at the 2nd Battle of Bull Run.

An extremely rare Civil War artifact on display at the Rhode Island State House.
One of only three known to exist today ~ at West Point, the Condederate Museum & RI State House.
Presented to the People of Rhode Island by Captain Elisha Dyer and the Veterans of his Comany.
Placed in the State House in 1903 by the Veterans & the Rhode Island Historical Society for all time.

      Elisha Dyer, "Junior" (the Son) enlisted as 4th sergeant of the R.I. 1st Light Artillery Battery, (Captain Charles Tompkins Battery), April 15, 1861.    At the outbreak of the Civil War, the 1st RI Light Artillery Battery, RIM, was famous for being one of the best trained State Militia artillery unit in the country.    It was known as the "Mother of All Rhode Island 90 Day Militia Field Artillery Batteries".

      The National Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) is a United States Congressionally Chartered 501c4 Civil War Veterans-Fraternal-Hereditary organization and it is descended by Deed of Conveyance from the National Grand Army of the Republic (GAR).   The GAR was the Post-War Veterans organization that represented the intrests of all Union Civil War Veterans in America, honorably discharged from service after the Civil War, 1861 - 1865.   The last surviving officer of the National GAR, Albert Woolsen, turned the GAR over to the SUVCW in 1954.   The SUVCW is therefore the 4th oldest Veterans organization in America, as recognized by the United States Congress and the U.S. Defense Department.   The National SUVCW was founded by GAR Member and Civil War Veteran, Major A. P. Davis in 1881, to serve the GAR on the National Level and in all States as well.   Today there are SUVCW Departments in 26 States and Camps at Large in the process of forming or re-forming Departments in 5 other States.   Currently there are about 10,000 men in the SUVCW across the country.   The National SUVCW is organized into three administrative levels:  The National SUVCW organization or Encampment Commandery; the State SUVCW Departments or Commandery of Camps; and Local SUVCW Camps where most members of the Order maintain their affiliation or membership.   The foundation or corner stone of the National & State levels of the SUVCW are its local Camps.
For additional information on membership in Camp 7 and/or outside of Rhode Island, including assistance in veterans affairs, the educational and patriotic goals of the Order, maintaining the monuments and locating the graves of Union Civil War Veterans in Rhode Island and across the country, plus more about the history of the Civil War and Grand Army of the Republic; as well as the four "Allied Orders of the GAR" nation wide, visit the National SUVCW Website HERE .

      In the 1930s there were 26 Camps under the R.I. Department Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (RI SUVCW).    Today there are only 5 remaining SUVCW Camps in the R.I. Department.    Camp No. 7 is the largest and oldest Rhode Island Camp of RI SUVCW Members, serving the central region of the State.    For 70 years the Headquarters of the RI Dept. Grand Army of the Republic (RI GAR); RI GAR Posts 1, 4, 10, 12 & 13; The RI Dept. Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (RI SUVCW); the RI Dept. Auxiliary to the SUVCW (RI ASUVCW); RI SUVCW Elisha Dyer Camp No. 7; RI ASUVCW Elisha Dyer Auxiliary No. 2; the RI Women's Relief Corps (RI WRC); and the RI Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic (RI LGAR), were at the "Old Arsenal" at 176 Benefit Street in Providence.    The Benefit Street Arsenal is today the lagest repository of GAR-SUVCW, and Allied Orders of the GAR, memorabilia and Civil War Artifacts in the State, as inventoried by the RI National Guard and the RI State Archives, by order of the RI Secretary of State and the Adjutant General of the RI National Guard in 1995.    A large amount of RI GAR-RI SUVCW records and material is also on loan at the RI Historical Society.    In 2000, Elisha Dyer Camp 7 and Elisha Dyer Auxiliary 2 began making plans to reorganize and re-locate all RI GAR Arnold Post 4, Camp 7 and Auxiliary 2 records and memorabilia at the RI GAR Civil War Museum, Library & Research Center, at the Governor William Sprague Mansion Carriage House facility in Cranston.    RI MOLLUS also has plans to locate its headquarters at the Sprague Mansion Carriage House as well.
    The Department administration is made up of elected and appointed representatives or officers from each RI SUVCW Camp.    Department Officers are chosen each year in April at the Rhode Island Department Annual Appomattox Day Encampment-Convention or Commandery of Delegates chosen by each Camp in the Department.    The Department Encampment is held on the closest Saturday to the yearly observance or anniversary of the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Rebel Army to the Union Army under General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, in the McClean House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865; which ended the bloodiest fighting of the American Civil War.    Camp 7 Officers are elected at the Annual Camp 7 Veterans Day Bivouac-Convention by the Camp 7 Membership or the Camp Commandery.    The Annual Camp 7 Veteran's Day Bivouac is held on the closest Saturday to November 11th, Veteran's Day.   The Annual Camp 7 Bivouac, observing Veteran's Day or Armistice Day, has been a tradition of Camp 7 since the end of World War I.    The Camp 7 administration is made up of elected and appointed officers of Camp 7.    The Rhode Island Deprtment SUVCW is the 11th oldest Department under the National SUVCW.    Camp 7 is the oldest Camp under the R.I. Department SUVCW and one of only two RI SUVCW Camps actually started by GAR Civil War Veterans and their sons.    The RI Dept. SUVCW was provisionally chartered by the National SUVCW organization in 1886 and was permanently chartered by National in 1888.    Past RI GAR Department Commander Theodore A. Barton was the first RI Department SUVCW Commander and he was the founder of the SUVCW in Rhode Island.    Camp 7 was chartered by the National SUVCW in 1909, and founded by Albert M. Bennett, a veteran of Battery E, 1st Regiment, R.I. Light Artillery during the Civil War and member of RI GAR Arnold Post No. 4 for many years after the war.    Since 1867, only 3 Rhode Islanders have served in the highest office of the Order, as Commander-in-Chief (CnC) of either the National GAR or the National SUVCW.    They were: Major General, RI Governor & U.S. Senator Ambrose E. Burnside, elected CnC, at the 5th National Encampment of the National GAR in Boston, Massachusetts, May 8 - 9, 1872; Arthur B. Spink, elected CnC, at the 22nd National Encampment of the National SUVCW in Atlantic City, New Jersey, September 15 - 17, 1903; and Harold E. Arnold, elected CnC, at the 78th National Encampment of the National SUVCW in Long Beach, California, August 16 - 20, 1959.    For more information about the R.I. Department SUVCW and other SUVCW Camps in Rhode Island, click HERE.

      Elisha Dyer Camp No.7, members are active in setting up and taking part in many school educational programs, actively flagging Veterans graves for Memorial Day, working on a grave registration database, documenting the GAR Post 4 Membership, history and Proceedings in R.I., hosting services remembering RI Civil War Veterans and assisting in the process of opening a new Camp 7 headquarters at the R.I. GAR Civil War Museum, Library & Research Center in Cranston.    Camp 7 is working with the Cranston Historical Society and the Governor Sprague Mansion Museum to house the Camp 7 and Post 4 records and collections at a new facility in the Sprague Mansion Carriage House and make them available to the people of Rhode Island in the near future.    Today, Camp 7, accepts up to 1/3 of its membership as Associates without lineage to a Civil War Veteran and as a hereditary member, neither you nor your Civil War Ancestor have to be native to R.I. to join Camp 7.    For more information on becoming a member of Camp 7, please contact Henry C. Duquette, Camp 7, Secretary-Treasurer.

The images above are: Left, The 1915 Annual Encampment badge or ribbon of the RI Department S of V, USA (or RI Dept. SUVCW), which also commemorated the 50th Anniversary of the American Civil War.    It was also made for RI Delagates to wear at the National S of V Encampmant, held in 1915 in Washington D.C.    Rhode Islanders of the Order marched with their fathers of the GAR up Pennsylvania Avenue to commemorate the "Grand Review", originally marched before the President and Congress by all victorious Union troops at the war's end in 1865.
The image in the middle, is a RI GAR Slocum Post No. 10 ribbon-badge commemorating the 1889 Annual Post Bivouac or annual meeting.    In the later 19th Century the RI GAR, and the Allied Orders of the RI GAR held their annual meetings or conventions at the RI Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall (or Infantry Hall) on North Main Street in Providence.    The Hall cought fire and was completely destroyed.    Important articfacts and records were lost in the fire, however today most RI GAR-RI Department SUVCW, RI SUVCW Elisha Dyer Camp 7/Arnold Post 4 and RI ASUVCW Elisha Dyer Auxiliary 2 artifacts are housed at the Benefit Street Arsenal, the State Archives, The RI National Guard Armory of Mounted Commands, and the RI Historical Society.
The image on the right is an example of the "Annual Field Day", an outdoor event held each year (or "Annual Camp-Auxiliary Outing"). Camp 7 has a tradition of holding its annual outing (or "Camp 7-Auxiliary 2 Field Day") in August.    This year we are planning it to take place again on the grounds of the Governor Sprague Mansion in Cranston
NOTE: Today Camp 7 carries on the tradition of holding its annual meeting (called a "Bivouac") each year on the closest Saturday to "Veterans Day" in November, in part to honor the GAR Veterns of the Civil War and to honor all Camp 7 Veterans from the Spanish-American War to the present.