Wisconsin. GAR badge group

Wisconsin. Group of Grand Army of the Republic Department of Wisconsin badges: 81st Encampment Badge, 1947, Madison; 82nd Encampment Badge, 1948, Fond du Lac; 82nd Annual Encampment Badge, Milwaukee, 1949; 51st Annual Encampment celluloid badge, Kenosha, 1917.

The last Grand Army of the Republic national encampment was in 1949, when there were only 16 delegates. The national encampment of 1947 had only 58 delegates. Since the youngest of Civil War veterans would have been close to 100 years old in 1949, these department-level badges must represent local encampments of equally small numbers, although the Department of Wisconsin had encampments through 1951.