Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, 1861-1865 Records

The Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, 1861-1865, is an organization whose membership can trace its lineage to soldiers who served on the Union side in America’s Civil War, 1861-1865. The DUVCW was founded in 1885 in Massillon, Ohio, and was originally called the National Alliance Daughters of Veterans. The Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans, endorsed the daughters’ group in 1900 at its annual meeting in Chicago. In 1925, the organization changed its name to the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War. In 1944, the name changed again to include the dates of the war: Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, 1861-1865. As of 2016, its national headquarters was in Springfield, Illinois.

Groups are organized locally into “tents,” which were named for army nurses who served during the Civil War or for other women whose deeds between 1861 and 1865 were deemed patriotic and loyal to the Union cause. If a state has more than three tents, they are organized under a state-level department. The organization flourished in the first half of the twentieth century, but many tents began disbanding when those generations closest to the Civil War and its veterans aged and died.

The DUVCW supports scholarships and projects that help preserve and maintain the history and legacy of the Union soldiers of the Civil War. These include maintenance of historic monuments, battlefields, sites and cemeteries; participating in Memorial Day events and other ceremonies; maintaining a museum; and volunteering with veterans and veteran hospitals.