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Since December 2003, the struggle to preserve the Northwestern Branch of National Asylum (Home) for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers has taken some interesting turns. At a public hearing that month at the Milwaukee VA, the Department of Veterans Affairs explained an Enhanced-Use Lease proposal for 37 vacant acres and 5 historic buildings, including the original Home and the Chapel built with the meager resources and estates of Civil War veterans.
In its first issue (Jan/Feb 2005), Civil War Historian featured a story by Matthew Rector on a similar preservation struggle: "The Marion Branch: Historic Buidlings in Peril?"
Three years have passed since the first Milwaukee hearing. Proposals have been considered by the VA. Objections have been raised. Veterans have organized in opposition to a yet-to-be-disclosed plan by the City of Milwaukee for 6 historic buildings and additional acreage. At a public hearing in July 2006, one of the most moving testimonies came from a double-amputee from Iraq. He stood at the microphone prepared to give his three-minute presentation, but could only say, "I learned to walk here," before dissolving in tears. Gold Star Mothers came forward to comfort him.
I believe preservation of this branch of the National Home, officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and adjacent Wood National Cemetery is a noble cause--our sacred duty. A recent letter to the editor in Civil War News (Bergstrom, November 2006) gives voice to the concern of some veterans groups. But--here is the point of this post--in doing so she invokes a history that just isn't there.
The writer contends that the Milwaukee Branch was "one of the three original Soldiers Homes created by President Lincoln." One website calls the Home "Lincoln's Legacy." I confess that I believed that, too, until I started looking at the dates in the long drawn-out process of creating the National Home.
The facts: President Lincoln, Congress and the U.S. Sanitary Commission had debated the need for federal intervention in post-war care of soldiers, believing that pensions, job preference, and pensions would suffice. General Meade was one of the few to predict the need for long-term care. On March 1, 1865, Senator Henry Wilson, supporter of Delphine Baker's campaign to create a national soldiers' home, introduced "a little bill to which there can be no objection" (Congressional Globe, 38th Congress, Second Session). Despite contentious debate in the public arena about the wisdom of providing this kind of care, the bill--"an Act to incorporate a national military and naval asylum for the relief of the volunteer forces of the U.S."-- passed without much discussion and with no practical plans for execution, except for the establishment of an unwieldy and completely impractical 100-member Board of Managers.
It is true that President Lincoln signed this legislation into law on March 3, 1865. It is also true that his Second Inaugural Address, delivered the very next day, reminded his listeners that our nation had a responsibility to "care for him who shall have borne the battle." But President Lincoln did not live to see the selection of any site. In fact, it wasn't until 1866, when Congress approved new legislation that established a far more sensible 12-member Board of Managers that plans began to move forward. On October 18, 1866, the Milwaukee Sentinel reported: "Major General B. F. Butler will arrive in our city today at one o’clock p.m., on official business connected with selection of a site for a national Military Asylum for Disabled Soldiers.…" It is accurate to say, then, that President Lincoln had been dead for over a year before Milwaukee, or any other site, emerged as a possible location for one of the three original Homes.
The fact that the Home was selected by a National Board of Managers does not lessen its historic significance. The Home has been sanctified by the men who lived and suffered there and who are buried in Wood National Cemetery. Of the 37,000 headstones, at least 6,000 marks the graves of Civil War soldiers, including 5 Medal of Honor recipients.
Matthew Rector concluded his article in Civil War Historian with the hope for adaptive reuse and the grim realization that some buildings would succomb to "demolition by neglect." Milwaukee's treasures will reach this critical point as well unless veterans, preservationists and developers with a strong vision for reuse can come together--soon!
In its first issue (Jan/Feb 2005), Civil War Historian featured a story by Matthew Rector on a similar preservation struggle: "The Marion Branch: Historic Buidlings in Peril?"
Three years have passed since the first Milwaukee hearing. Proposals have been considered by the VA. Objections have been raised. Veterans have organized in opposition to a yet-to-be-disclosed plan by the City of Milwaukee for 6 historic buildings and additional acreage. At a public hearing in July 2006, one of the most moving testimonies came from a double-amputee from Iraq. He stood at the microphone prepared to give his three-minute presentation, but could only say, "I learned to walk here," before dissolving in tears. Gold Star Mothers came forward to comfort him.
I believe preservation of this branch of the National Home, officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and adjacent Wood National Cemetery is a noble cause--our sacred duty. A recent letter to the editor in Civil War News (Bergstrom, November 2006) gives voice to the concern of some veterans groups. But--here is the point of this post--in doing so she invokes a history that just isn't there.
The writer contends that the Milwaukee Branch was "one of the three original Soldiers Homes created by President Lincoln." One website calls the Home "Lincoln's Legacy." I confess that I believed that, too, until I started looking at the dates in the long drawn-out process of creating the National Home.
The facts: President Lincoln, Congress and the U.S. Sanitary Commission had debated the need for federal intervention in post-war care of soldiers, believing that pensions, job preference, and pensions would suffice. General Meade was one of the few to predict the need for long-term care. On March 1, 1865, Senator Henry Wilson, supporter of Delphine Baker's campaign to create a national soldiers' home, introduced "a little bill to which there can be no objection" (Congressional Globe, 38th Congress, Second Session). Despite contentious debate in the public arena about the wisdom of providing this kind of care, the bill--"an Act to incorporate a national military and naval asylum for the relief of the volunteer forces of the U.S."-- passed without much discussion and with no practical plans for execution, except for the establishment of an unwieldy and completely impractical 100-member Board of Managers.
It is true that President Lincoln signed this legislation into law on March 3, 1865. It is also true that his Second Inaugural Address, delivered the very next day, reminded his listeners that our nation had a responsibility to "care for him who shall have borne the battle." But President Lincoln did not live to see the selection of any site. In fact, it wasn't until 1866, when Congress approved new legislation that established a far more sensible 12-member Board of Managers that plans began to move forward. On October 18, 1866, the Milwaukee Sentinel reported: "Major General B. F. Butler will arrive in our city today at one o’clock p.m., on official business connected with selection of a site for a national Military Asylum for Disabled Soldiers.…" It is accurate to say, then, that President Lincoln had been dead for over a year before Milwaukee, or any other site, emerged as a possible location for one of the three original Homes.
The fact that the Home was selected by a National Board of Managers does not lessen its historic significance. The Home has been sanctified by the men who lived and suffered there and who are buried in Wood National Cemetery. Of the 37,000 headstones, at least 6,000 marks the graves of Civil War soldiers, including 5 Medal of Honor recipients.
Matthew Rector concluded his article in Civil War Historian with the hope for adaptive reuse and the grim realization that some buildings would succomb to "demolition by neglect." Milwaukee's treasures will reach this critical point as well unless veterans, preservationists and developers with a strong vision for reuse can come together--soon!
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