| An organization founded in 1866 by Dr. B.F. Stephenson. It was comprised of Union war veterans (from the American Civil War, obviously) whose major platform topic was war pensions. At some point in time, there were nearly 500,000 members of the GAR. In 1949, it was permanently closed.
Some of the GAR's major accomplishments:
Established Memorial Day
Elected 5 U.S. Presidents under this organization
Elected several northern governors
Gained 1/5 of the national budget for war pensions. | 
