BDC's "Best Book of 2023" Selection : As We Remember

The Library's Marketing unit has asked staff to select a "Best Book of the Year" again.  As you can tell from the "New (and New to Us) Materials" posts, we tend to get more older titles than those published in this calendar year. Last year, I chose a coffee table book full of wonderful nature-based photographs of Hunting Island. This year, I am choosing an 83 pages, small press published history book about an enduring small, but mighty, local African-American woman's group as the BDC's "Best Book of 2023" selection. 

Every war has its veterans; and every veterans group tends to have its auxiliaries.  The Civil War period is no exception. Confederate veterans had several such associations and as the veterans died off, their descendants became eligible for membership in similar associations. The Union too had its Grand Army of the Republic posts from 1866 to 1956 when its last member, Albert Woolson, died. Civil War veterans saw their respective associations as "crucial networks of moral support and fellowship for veterans after a traumatic war experience, and eventually as significant sources of political power." (1) 

Because of Beaufort District’s unique Civil War history as a rallying point for inducting Black men into the Union Army, there were enough former Federal soldiers (and sailors) living in the area to have three Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) posts for Union veterans: Post #9 Major General David Hunter in Beaufort; Post #12 Abraham Lincoln on Hilton Head; and Post #19 William McKinley in Bluffton founded in the late 19th century. The national GAR established an official auxiliary called the Woman's Relief Corps in 1883. The Beaufort post has had a Woman's Relief Corps (WRC) since at least 1892. 

So often, small local women's groups are ignored in the historical record and in the general public's consciousness. Dr. Najmah Thomas undertook the task to remedy this for the Beaufort Woman's Relief Corps, a local African-American woman's group tied to a national auxiliary led by white women in support of a Civil War Union veterans organization.  Because historically the national Woman's Relief Corps was led by white women and units were segregated by race in the South, Beaufort's unit was run by African-American women mostly on behalf of Black Union veterans. It was one of the few African-American units in the country.  As We Remember: A History of the Woman's Relief Corps in Beaufort, SC by Najmah Thomas and Fred Washington, Sr. and the Woman's Relief Corps, No. 1 of South Carolina (Guntersville, AL: Fresh Ink Group, 2023) is a short history of that woman's group and its enduring relationship with the David Hunter Post. Professor Thomas crafts an impressive story from oral tradition and supporting documentation to provide a unique and very local history of a woman’s group long committed to service to others.  

Researching this topic had its challenges due to paucity of written records. The author states: 

Much of the record of the early Beaufort WRC was passed on through the oral history tradition....With deep respect and appreciation to the oral tradition, this historical documentation is an effort to formally preserve and present a shared understanding of the Beaufort WRC's work conducted in service of the national corps' fraternity, loyalty and charity mission. It is written from the lived experiences and perspectives of past and present Corps members, with some supporting historical context provided." (2)   

According to the author, "the WRC provided critical support to veterans in the form of nursing services, raising funds for much needed material goods for wounded and impoverished veterans and their families, an the intangible but impactful service of inspiring the patriotic cause after the war." (3) In Beaufort, the WRC planned and organized the annual Decoration Day festivities up to 1976. "The WRC distinguishes itself as the only patriotic group in the country founded on the basis of loyalty rather than  kinship to members of the GAR. (4) 

The "Historical Summary of the Beaufort Woman's Relief Corps, 1889-1996" provides historical context to the unit's origins based on Civil War era activities of Black women who taught, nursed, fed and led during this period in Beaufort District's local history. She provides biographical summaries of the experiences of Harriet Tubman, Charlotte Forten Grimke and Susie King Taylor to help set the stage for the founding of the local group. Indeed, Susie King Taylor may have been an organizer of the Beaufort WRC. The group was one of only a few WRC's in the South in the 1890s. The BWRC submitted reports, dues, and hosted regular meetings as was required by the national organization. It  operated under its original charter until 1951 when it disbanded for a time. National WRC Convention records indicate that the group was operating again by 1960 though there is only cursory documentation of its activities over the next 30 years. 

The WRC was chartered by the United States government in 1962. Its aims are: 

1) To especially perpetuate the memory of the Grand Army of the Republic and its heroic dead. 

2) To assist such Veterans of all wars of the United States of America as need our help and protection, to extend needful aid to their widows and orphans, and to assure them of sympathy and friends. To cherish and emulate the deeds of all loyal women who rendered loving service to our country in her hour of peril and

3) To maintain true allegiance to the United States of America; to inculcate lessons of patriotism and love of country among our children and in the communities in which we live; and encourage the spread of universal liberty and equal rights to all. (5) 

During the early 1980s and 1990s, there was a revival of Black-led community organizations - and in Beaufort, the physical structure, the Grand Army Hall, helped gel interest in saving the historic building and revitalizing the local GAR and WRC groups. The Grand Army Hall Historic Preservation Foundation chaired by Fred Washington, Sr.. He was a local man who was a Montford Point Marine, entering military service during World War II and who retired in 1970 with the rank of Master Gunnery Sergeant. He sought funding to restore the building in honor of the 200th birthday of the United States Constitution in 1987. 

The WRC honored his commitment to the building, the building's role in the local Black community, and his own role in Beaufort County by re-organizing itself as the Fred Washington, Sr. Woman's Relief Corps No. 1 on July 26, 1998. The Fred Washington Sr. Woman's Relief Corps No. 1 is in continuous partnership and collaborates with well-established Black congregations at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church, Tabernacle Baptist Church, First African Baptist Church, Grace African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Central Baptist Church as well as local units of Daughters of Union Civil War Veterans and the Sons of Union Civil War Veterans. Together the Grand Army Hall Committee, upon which representatives of the WRC serve, helps provide management and preservation of the GAR Hall building and its small museum dedicated to the history and memory of Black military personnel. 

The penultimate section provides background information and photographs relating to members of the local WRC post, information from interviews conducted by the author over the summer of 2019, and some of the organization's activities up to 2022. The author makes a compelling case for the need to continue the WRC to encourage productive discourse about the meaning of patriotism and democracy today and some veterans continue to experience difficulties adjusting to civilian life. 

I recommend that you make an appointment to come to the Research Room to read Dr. Thomas' gem of a book; review the contents of the GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC vertical file; read Inside the G.A.R. in South Carolina by Wendell Smith (2006) and learn about genealogy research from the Guide to Tracing Your African Ameripean Civil War Ancestor by Jeanette Braxton-Secret (1997). 

Notes: 

(1) As We Remember: A History of the Woman's Relief Corps in Beaufort, SC by Najmah Thomas and Fred Washington, Sr. and the Woman's Relief Corps, No. 1 of South Carolina (Guntersville, AL: Fresh Ink Group, 2023), p. 1. Hereafter As We Remember. 

(2) As We Remember, p. 2.

(3) As We Remember, p. 1.

(4) As We Remember, p. 1; Woman's Relief Corps membership application accessed 8 December 2023

(5) Woman's Relief Corps Constitution accessed 8 December 2023