Delegates at the 140th annual encampment (convention) of the Ohio Department Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) elected Henry Casey Camp No. 92 Senior Vice Commander Kelly Hopkins Ohio Department Secretary. The encampment was held at the Clintonville Woman’s Club in Columbus.
Department Commander Dr. Richard A. Davis, a retired university professor from Cincinnati, presided over the encampment.
In his address to the encampment the National Commander-in-Chief Michael A. Paquette, a U. S. Marine Corps veteran from Fredericksburg, Virginia praised the Ohio Department for the work being done to preserve the heritage of the Civil War.
He commended Henry Casey Camp member Robert E. Grim and Don Grant from the Lancaster SUVCW Camp for leading the effort by the Ohio Department to get the Ohio General Assembly to enact the Ohio Veteran’s Heritage Protection Act that became effective in March of this year. This new law helps protect memorials from all wars involving Americans.
Paquette also gave the encampment an update on the status of a monument honoring Civil War Brigadier General Christopher “Kit” Carson (famed frontiersman and explorer) erected at a federal courthouse in Santa Fe New Mexico in 1885 by the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR).
The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, a Congressionally chartered organization established by the GAR in 1881, is the legal heir to the GAR.
Several changes to the Department By-Laws were made following a report of the By-Laws committee chaired by Henry Casey Camp member Robert E. Grim.
The encampment elected Donald Darby, a retired Navy Warrant Officer, from the Chillicothe Sgt. Richard Enderlin Camp No. 73 to serve as the new Commander of the Ohio Department. The SUVCW national encampment will be held in Grand Rapids, Michigan in August.
One goal of the Ohio Department SUVCW is to mark the gravesite of the last surviving Civil War veteran in each county. Henry Casey Camp is currently engaged in raising funds to pay for a bronze plaque for the Clark County last veteran; one of four counties assigned to the Henry Casey Camp. Clinton County and Fayette County have been done.
