RARE Letter Signed Canajoharie NY Mosher Civil War 1877 GAR 115th Fire Dept

  

RARE Autograph Letter Signed & Cover. Mosher - Civil War Veteran - 115th NY - GAR Post Adjutant.

Writes to Eagle Hose Company No. For offer, an original old manuscript letter.

Fresh from an estate in Upstate NY. Never offered on the market until now. Vintage, Old, antique, Original - NOT a Reproduction - Guaranteed!!

This letter was unearthed from a collection of letters found in a local estate, all folded up for many years. Mosher says at the regular encampment of the Farrell Post 51, NY GAR - Grand Army of the Republic, they decided to invite local fire companies to march in the parade on Decoration day [Memorial Day].

In good to very good condition. Please see photos for details.

If you collect Americana history, American 19th century Union Civil War era , MS document related, firefighting, etc. This is one you will not see again.

A nice piece for your paper / ephemera collection. Perhaps some genealogy research information as well. Canajoharie is a town in Montgomery County, New York, United States. The population was 3,730 at the 2010 census.

[2] Canajoharie is located south of the Mohawk River on the south border of the county. The Erie Canal passes along the north town line.

There is also a village of Canajoharie in the town. Both are east of Utica and west of Amsterdam.

These were settled as European-American jurisdictions, named for the historic Mohawk village of the same name, which was also known as the Mohawk Upper Castle. Canajoharie is a village in the Town of Canajoharie in Montgomery County, New York, United States.

As of the 2010 census, the village had a population of 2,229. [2] The name is said to be a Mohawk language term meaning "the pot that washes itself, " referring to the "Canajoharie Boiling Pot, " a circular gorge in the Canajoharie Creek, just south of the village. The village of Canajoharie is at the north border of the Town of Canajoharie; it is west of Amsterdam and east of Utica. The village and town name also refer to Canajoharie, a historic Mohawk town that was located west of here, referred to by the English colonists as the Upper Castle. A church stands at that site from the pre-revolutionary era; the Mohawk Upper Castle Historic District is a National Historic Landmark. The village of Canajoharie is home to one of a handful of operating "dummy lights" in the United States, located downtown at the intersection of Church, Mohawk and Montgomery Streets. It is a traffic signal on a pedestal located in the middle of an intersection; it was first installed in 1926. Two others are located in New York State, in Beacon and Croton-on-Hudson.

The Erie Canal passes the north side of the village. The village was the headquarters for the manufacturing operations of the Beech-Nut baby food company in the 20th century. The plant was closed in March 2011 with production moving to Florida in the same county, on the south side of the river. In 2015 most of the village (and a small area to its south) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Canajoharie Historic District, [5] due to its importance as a transportation hub over its existence and the well-preserved architecture from different eras. [6] In addition, the Bragdon-Lipe House, the Van Alstyne House, the West Hill School, and the United States Post Office are individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The historic "dummy light" in downtown Canajoharie, New York. Van Alstyne Homestead in Canajoharie is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The current village is located east of the historic Canajoharie, one of two major towns of the Mohawk nation in the late 17th and 18th centuries.

The Mohawk Upper Castle Historic District in the former area contains the Upper Castle Church (1769) and archeological sites related to Mohawk and Iroquois history; it is a National Historic Landmark. Palatine German settlers, Protestant refugees from religious wars in Europe, were allowed to establish a community in this area in the 1730s.

They had earlier lived in work camps along the Hudson River in Dutchess County, to pay off their passage from England, which was paid by Queen Anne's government. Their community was called "Roofville" (according to anglicized spelling) after early inhabitant Johannes Rueff. The village was incorporated in 1829.

During the middle of the 19th century, three fires almost destroyed the village. Because of the losses due to the fires, the town passed an ordinance prohibiting houses to be constructed of wood. Many of the older houses in the town are made of brick or locally quarried stone. After the revolutionary war George Washington visited Canajoharie.

He had been in the region to survey damage done to nearby Cherry Valley, New York from a destructive raid by Joseph Brant, a noted Mohawk chief allied with the British, and his forces. Washington stayed the night at Van Alstyne Homestead (sometimes referred to as Fort Rensselaer), a common meeting place. The town is near the former site of Canajoharie, an important village of the Mohawk nation that also became known as the Upper Castle. The Mohawk had as their territory most of the central area of present-day New York from the Hudson River west to where Oneida territory started.

[4] They also used the St. Lawrence River valley as hunting grounds after 1600.

They dominated the fur trade with the French based in central Quebec, and with Dutch and later English in eastern New York. French, Dutch and later English trappers and traders came to this Mohawk village to trade. Both the French and Dutch married or had unions with Mohawk women, increasing their ties with the people. Their mixed-race children married into the Dutch and later English communities. [5] Many of their sons also became interpreters or traders.

Because the Mohawk and three other Iroquois nations were allied with the British during the Revolutionary War, they were forced to cede most of their lands in New York after the United States victory. The town of Canajoharie was consumed by fire 3 times causing an ordinance to be passed prohibiting homes to be constructed of wood.

Therefore, many of the older homes in the town are made of brick or locally quarried stone. After the revolutionary war George Washington visited Canajoharie after surveying the damage to nearby Cherry Valley, NY. He stayed the night at the Van Alstyne home a common meeting place.

The Van Alstyne house has long been referred to by some as Ft. Rensselaer (destroyed sometime before the French-Indian War) was in nearby Ft. The modern town was formed in 1788, but was reduced to form the towns of Minden (1798) and Root (in part, 1823). While the Mohawk Valley developed with the completion of the Erie Canal, the project also enabled considerable migration from New York to the Midwest.

The population of the town in 1865 was 4,248. Beech-Nut, the baby food producer, was founded in Canajoharie in 1891 during the period of early industrialization in the river valley. It served as the largest employer in the town for more than a century. In March 2011, the Beech-Nut factory moved out of Canajoharie, relocating to a new factory in the nearby town of Florida, near Amsterdam on the south side of the river, still in Montgomery County. The following is taken from New York in the War of the Rebellion, 3rd ed.

Colonel Simeon Sammons received authority, July 19, 1862, to recruit this regiment in the counties of Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery and Saratoga, with headquarters at Fonda, where it was organized, and, August 26, 1862, mustered in the service of the United States for three years. The men not to be mustered out with the regiment (301) and a few officers were transferred to the 47th Infantry June 17, 1865. The companies were recruited principally: A at Fonda, Mohawk, Glen, Palatine, Root and Canajoharie; B at St. Johnsville, Minden, Canajoharie, Fonda, Amsterdam and Florida; C at Milton, Galway, Edinburgh, Clifton Park, Northumberland, Day, Greenfield, Malta and Ballston; D at Amsterdam, Charleston, Florida and Mohawk; E at Johnstown, Mayfield Northampton, Oppenheim, Ephratah and Stratford; F at Saratoga, Corinth, Greenfield, Wilton, Moreau, Northumberland and Hadley; G at Saratoga, Moreau, Greenfield, Corinth, Amsterdam, Charlton, Fonda and Hadley; H at Half moon, Clifton Park, Stillwater, Minden, Waterford and Amsterdam; I at Canajoharie, Fonda, Charlton, Malta, Ballston.

Johnsville and Providence; K at Caroga, Broadalbin, Wells, Johnstown, Mohawk, Amsterdam, Ephratah, Glen and Palatine. The regiment left the State August 30, 1862; served at and near Sandy Hook, Md.

In 8th Corps, from September 1, 1862; at Harper's Ferry, W. Where it was surrendered, from September 4, 1862; at Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill. From September 28, 1862; in Casey's Division, defenses of Washington, D. From November 24, 1862; at Hunter's Creek, Va. From December 12, 1862; at Yorktown and Gloucester, Va.

In Busteed's Brigade, 4th Corps, from December 28, 1862. At Port Royal and Hilton Head, S.

Department of the South, Terry's Brigade, 10th. Corps, from January 26, 1863; at Beaufort, S. In Saxton's Brigade, 10th Corps, from June, 1863; at Hilton Head, S.

From December, 1863; in Barton's Brigade, Seymour's Division, 10th Corps, District of Florida, from January, 1864; in District of Florida, from February, 1864; in 2d Brigade, 2d Division, 10th Corps, Army of the James, from April, 1864; in 1st Brigade, 3d Division, 18th Corps, from May 30, 1864; in 2d Brigade, 2d Division, 10th Corps, from June 15, 1864; in 3d Brigade, same division and corps, from July 26, 1864; in same brigade and division, 24th Corps, from December, 1864; in Provisional Corps, from March, 1865; in 3d Brigade, 2d Division, 10th Corps, from April 2, 1865; and it was honorably discharged and mustered out, commanded by Col. Johnson, June 17, 1865, at Raleigh, N. During its service the regiment lost by death, killed in action, 5 officers, 77 enlisted men; of wounds received in action, 2 officers, 55 enlisted men; of disease and other causes, 191 enlisted men; total, 7 officers, 323 enlisted men; aggregate, 330; of whom 54 enlisted men died in the hands of the enemy; by the explosion of the magazine at Fort Fisher, N. January 16, 1865, 10 enlisted men were killed. The following is taken from The Union army: a history of military affairs in the loyal states, 1861-65 -- records of the regiments in the Union army -- cyclopedia of battles -- memoirs of commanders and soldiers.

One Hundred and Fifteenth Infantry. The 115th, "Iron Hearts, " was recruited during July and Aug. 1862, in the counties of Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery and Saratoga. It was organized at Fonda, where it was mustered into the U.

26, 1862, for three years, and left the state on the 30th, proceeding to Sandy Hook, Md. Where it received its arms and equipments. During the year 1863 the regiment served at Hilton Head and Beaufort, S. Whence it:was ordered to Florida, in the latter part of Jan. It fought gallantly at the battle of Olustee, losing nearly 300 in killed, wounded and missing; nearly all the color-guard being shot down.

On April 15, 1864, it embarked for Virginia with the l0th corps, and on its arrival at Fortress Monroe, joined Gen. Butler's Army of the James, with which it participated in the campaign against Richmond in May, via the James river. It was assigned to Barton's (2nd) brigade, Turner's (2nd) division, l0th corps. In the actions at Port Walthall Junction, Chester Station, Ware Bottom Church, Drewry's bluff and Bermuda Hundred, it lost 6 killed, 87 wounded, and 7 missing.

While at Cold Harbor, where it lost 18 killed and wounded, it was temporarily attached to the 18th corps, but on its return to the James it rejoined the 10th corps and took position before Petersburg, participating with some loss in the first assault on the works. It was active at the mine explosion, and then recrossing the James, was heavily engaged at Deep Bottom, losing 73 killed, wounded and missing. At Fort Harrison and Fort Gilmer, the 115th lost 33 killed, wounded and missing.

During the advance on Richmond by the Darbytown road in October it met with considerable loss from a volley fired into it by the 9th Me. When the l0th corps was discontinued in Dec. 1864, the 115th was transferred to the newly formed 24th corps, in Ames' (2nd) division, with which it was ordered to North Carolina. It participated in the capture of Fort Fisher, fighting with Bell's (3d) brigade, and sustaining a considerable part of its loss there by the explosion of the magazine the day after the fort was taken. Subsequently it was present at Cape Fear, Fort Anderson, and Wilmington, and closed its active service in the campaign of the Carolinas. It was mustered out at Raleigh, N. Out of a total enrollment of 1,196, it lost 7 officers and 132 men; 191 men died of disease and other causestotal deaths, 330. The gallant 115th deserves its place among the three hundred fighting regiments of the war, accorded it by Col. The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy U.

Navy, Marines and the U. Revenue Cutter Service who served in the American Civil War. Founded in 1866 in Decatur, Illinois, and growing to include hundreds of posts (local community units) across the nation (predominately in the North, but also a few in the South and West), it was dissolved in 1956 at the death of its last member, Albert Woolson (18501956) of Duluth, Minnesota.

Linking men through their experience of the war, the G. Became among the first organized advocacy groups in American politics, supporting voting rights for black veterans, promoting patriotic education, helping to make Memorial Day a national holiday, lobbying the United States Congress to establish regular veterans' pensions, and supporting Republican political candidates. Its peak membership, at more than 490,000, was in 1890, a high point of various Civil War commemorative and monument dedication ceremonies. It was succeeded by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW), composed of male descendants of Union Army and Union Navy veterans. This section needs additional citations for verification.

Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message). After the end of American Civil War, various state and local organizations were formed for veterans to network and maintain connections with each other.

Many of the veterans used their shared experiences as a basis for fellowship. Groups of men began joining together, first for camaraderie and later for political power. Emerging as most influential among the various organizations during the first post-war years was the Grand Army of the Republic, founded on April 6, 1866, on the principles of "Fraternity, Charity and Loyalty, " in Decatur, Illinois, by Dr.

Uniform Hat Badge from Post No. 146, "RG Shaw Post", established by surviving members of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment in 1871. Andre Stevens Civil War Collection. The GAR initially grew and prospered as a de facto political arm of the Republican Party during the heated political contests of the Reconstruction Era.

The commemoration of Union Army and Navy veterans, black and white, immediately became entwined with partisan politics. The GAR promoted voting rights for Negro veterans, as many white veterans recognized their demonstrated patriotism and sacrifices, providing one of the first racially integrated social/fraternal organizations in America.

Black veterans, who enthusiastically embraced the message of equality, shunned black veterans' organizations in preference for racially inclusive and integrated groups. But when the Republican Party's commitment to reform in the South gradually decreased, the GAR's mission became ill-defined and the organization floundered.

The GAR almost disappeared in the early 1870s, and many state-centered divisions, named "departments", and local posts ceased to exist. In his General Order No. 11, dated May 5, 1868, first GAR Commander-in-Chief, General John A. Logan declared May 30 to be Memorial Day (also referred to for many years as "Decoration Day"), calling upon the GAR membership to make the May 30 observance an annual occurrence.

Although not the first time war graves had been decorated, Logan's order effectively established "Memorial Day" as the day upon which Americans now pay tribute to all their war casualties, missing-in-action, and deceased veterans. As decades passed, similarly inspired commemorations also spread across the South as "Confederate Memorial Day" or "Confederate Decoration Day", usually in April, led by organizations of Southern soldiers in the parallel United Confederate Veterans. In the 1880s, the Union veterans' organization revived under new leadership that provided a platform for renewed growth, by advocating Federal pensions for veterans. As the organization revived, black veterans joined in significant numbers and organized local posts.

The national organization, however, failed to press the case for similar pensions for black soldiers. Most black troops never received any pension or remuneration for wounds incurred during their Civil War service. The GAR was organized into "Departments" at the state level and "Posts" at the community level, and military-style uniforms were worn by its members. There were posts in every state in the U.

The pattern of establishing departments and local posts was later used by other American military veterans' organizations, such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars (organized originally for veterans of the SpanishAmerican War and the Philippine Insurrection) and the later American Legion (for the First World War and later expanded to include subsequent World War II, Korean, Vietnam and Middle Eastern wars). S political power grew during the latter part of the 19th century, and it helped elect several United States presidents, beginning with the 18th, Ulysses S.

Grant, and ending with the 25th, William McKinley. Five Civil War veterans and members Grant, Rutherford B. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, and McKinley were elected President of the United States; all were Republicans.

The sole post-war Democratic president was Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th chief executive. For a time, candidates could not get Republican presidential or congressional nominations without the endorsement of the GAR veterans voting bloc. Reverse of the Grand Army of the Republic Badge. With membership strictly limited to "veterans of the late unpleasantness, " the GAR encouraged the formation of Allied Orders to aid them in various works. Numerous male organizations jousted for the backing of the GAR, and the political battles became quite severe until the GAR finally endorsed the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War as its heir. Although an overwhelmingly male organization, the GAR is known to have had at least two women who were members. The first female known to be admitted to the GAR was Kady Brownell, who served in the Union Army with her husband Robert, a private in the 1st Rhode Island Infantry at the First Battle of Bull Run in Virginia and with the 5th Rhode Island Infantry at the Battle of New Berne in North Carolina.

Kady was admitted as a member in 1870 to Elias Howe Jr. Post #3, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The GAR insignia is engraved on her gravestone in the North Burial Ground in Providence, Rhode Island.

In 1897 the GAR admitted Sarah Emma Edmonds, who served in the 2nd Michigan Infantry as a disguised man named Franklin Thompson from May 1861 until April 1863. In 1882, she collected affidavits from former comrades in an effort to petition for a veteran's pension which she received in July 1884. Edmonds was only a member for a brief period as she died September 5, 1898; however she was given a funeral with military honors when she was reburied in Houston in 1901. It is possible that other women were members of the GAR as well.

The GAR reached its largest enrollment in 1890, with 490,000 members. It held an annual "National Encampment" every year from 1866 to 1949. At that final encampment in Indianapolis, Indiana, the few surviving members voted to retain the existing officers in place until the organization's dissolution; Theodore Penland of Oregon, the GAR's Commander at the time, was therefore its last. In 1956, after the death of the last member, Albert Woolson, the GAR was formally dissolved. GAR parade during the 1914 Encampment in Detroit, Michigan. The Stephenson Grand Army of the Republic Memorial in Washington, D. There are physical memorials to the Grand Army of the Republic in numerous communities throughout the United States. Route 6 is known as the Grand Army of the Republic Highway for its entire length. In 1948, the Grand Army of the Republic was commemorated on a stamp.

[7] In 1951, the U. Postal Service printed a virtually identical stamp for the final reunion of the United Confederate Veterans. Every state (even those of the former Confederacy) fell within a GAR "Department, " and within these Departments were the "Posts" (forerunners of modern American Legion Halls or VFW Halls). The posts were made up of local veterans, many of whom participated in local civic events.

As the posts were formed, they were assign to the home Department of the National Commander-in-chief of the year that they were chartered. There was no GAR post in London, but there was a Civil War Veterans Association Group that had many GAR members belonging to it. As Civil War veterans died or were no longer able to participate in GAR activities, posts consolidated or were disbanded. [9] Posts were assigned a sequential number based on their admission into the state's GAR organization, and most posts held informal names which honored comrades, battles, or commanders; it was not uncommon to have more than one post in a state honoring the same individual (such as Abraham Lincoln) and posts often changed their informal designation by vote of the local membership.

List of Grand Army of the Republic Posts in Kansas. List of Grand Army of the Republic Posts in Kentucky. A replica of the USS Kearsarge displayed at the 1893 GAR National Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.

John Steinbeck's East of Eden features several references to the Grand Army of the Republic. Despite having very little actual battle experience during his brief military career, cut short by the loss of his leg, Adam Trask's father Cyrus joins the GAR and assumes the stature of "a great man" through his involvement with the organization. At the height of the GAR's influence in Washington, he brags to his son. I wonder if you know how much influence I really have.

I can throw the Grand Army at any candidate like a sock. Even the President likes to know what I think about public matters. I can get senators defeated and I can pick appointments like apples. I can make men and I can destroy men. Cyrus Trask (character), East of Eden.

Later in the book, references are made to the graves of GAR members in California in order to emphasize the passage of time. Sinclair Lewis also refers to the GAR in his acclaimed novel Main Street[11] and in his novel It Can't Happen Here, [12] as does Charles Portis's classic novel, True Grit, [13] the GAR is briefly mentioned in William Faulkner's novel, The Sound and the Fury.

[14] and Willa Cather's short story The Sculptor's Funeral briefly references the GAR. The GAR is mentioned in the seldom-sung second verse of the patriotic song You're a Grand Old Flag. The GAR is referenced in John McCrae's poem He Is There! Which was set to music in 1917 by Charles Ives as part of his cycle Three Songs of the War.

In Ward Moore's 1953 alternate history novel Bring the Jubilee, the Confederates won the Civil War and became a major world power while the rump United States was reduced to an impoverished dependence. The Grand Army of the Republic is the name of a nationalistic organization working to restore the United States to its former glory through acts of sabotage and terrorism. John Peter Shindel Gobin, 1897. Austin Conrad Shafer, California Department official, with Department commander (photo).

25, Grand Army of the Republic. Grand Army of the Republic Hall (disambiguation), list of halls across multiple states.

Memorial Junior/Senior High School, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Hamilton County Memorial Building, (Cincinnati, Ohio). List of Grand Army of the Republic Commanders-in-Chief.

National Association of Army Nurses of the Civil War. Memorial Day or Decoration Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces. [1] The holiday, which is currently observed every year on the last Monday of May, was most recently held on May 28, 2018. Memorial Day was previously observed on May 30 from 1868 to 1970. Memorial Day is considered the unofficial start of the summer vacation season in the United States, [3] while Labor Day marks its end on the first Monday of September. In Canada, Victoria Day is a public holiday observed on the Monday one week before Memorial Day and similarly indicates the start of summer. Many people visit cemeteries and memorials on Memorial Day, particularly to honor those who died in military service. Many volunteers place an American flag on each grave in national cemeteries. Two other days celebrate those who serve or have served in the U. Military: Veterans Day, which celebrates the service of all U.

Military veterans;[4] and Armed Forces Day, a minor U. Remembrance celebrated earlier in May, specifically honoring those currently serving in the U. The emergence and evolution of the Memorial Day holiday in the United States has been a highly controversial subject.

The University of Mississippi's Center for Civil War Research and Columbus State University's Center for Memorial Day Research serve as excellent starting points for investigating the topic. 1870 Decoration Day parade in St. The practice of decorating soldiers' graves with flowers is an ancient custom. [7] Soldiers' graves were decorated in the U. Before[8] and during the American Civil War. Some believe that an annual cemetery decoration practice began before the American Civil War and thus may reflect the real origin of the "memorial day" idea. [9] Annual Decoration Days for particular cemeteries are still held on a Sunday in late spring or early summer in some rural areas of the American South, notably in the mountain areas. In cases involving a family graveyard where remote ancestors as well as those who were deceased more recently are buried, this may take on the character of an extended family reunion to which some people travel hundreds of miles. People gather, put flowers on graves and renew contacts with relatives and others. There often is a religious service and a picnic-like "dinner on the grounds, " the traditional term for a potluck meal at a church. On June 3, 1861, Warrenton, Virginia was the location of the first Civil War soldier's grave ever to be decorated, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper article in 1906. [10] In 1862, women in Savannah, Georgia decorated Confederate soldiers' graves according to the Savannah Republican. [11] The 1863 cemetery dedication at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was a ceremony of commemoration at the graves of dead soldiers.

Some have therefore claimed that Lincoln was the founder of Memorial Day. [12] On July 4, 1864, ladies decorated soldiers' graves according to local historians in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, [13] yet the principal grave they claim to have decorated was of a man who was not dead yet. [14] Nonetheless, Boalsburg promotes itself as the birthplace of Memorial Day. In April 1865, following President Abraham Lincoln's assassination, commemorations were widespread. The more than 600,000 soldiers of both sides who died in the Civil War meant that burial and memorialization took on new cultural significance.

Under the leadership of women during the war, an increasingly formal practice of decorating graves had taken shape. In 1865, the federal government began creating national military cemeteries for the Union war dead.

On May 1, 1865, in Charleston, South Carolina, recently freed African-Americans held a parade of 10,000 people to honor 257 dead Union Soldiers, whose remains they had reburied from a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp. Blight cites contemporary news reports of this incident in the Charleston Daily Courier and the New-York Tribune. Although Blight claimed that "African Americans invented Memorial Day in Charleston, South Carolina", [18] in 2012, Blight stated that he "has no evidence" that the event in Charleston inspired the establishment of Memorial Day across the country. [19] Accordingly, investigators for Time Magazine, LiveScience, RealClearLife and Snopes have called this conclusion into question. In 1868, copying the southern annual observance of the previous three years, [24][25][26] General John A.

Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans founded in Decatur, Illinois, established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the Union war dead with flowers. [27] By the 20th century, various Union and Confederate memorial traditions, celebrated on different days, merged, and Memorial Day eventually extended to honor all Americans who died while in the military service. On May 26, 1966, President Lyndon B.

Johnson designated an "official" birthplace of the holiday by signing the presidential proclamation naming Waterloo, New York, as the holder of the title. This action followed House Concurrent Resolution 587, in which the 89th Congress had officially recognized that the patriotic tradition of observing Memorial Day had begun one hundred years prior in Waterloo, New York.

[28] The village credits druggist Henry C. Welles and county clerk John B. Murray as the founders of the holiday.

Scholars have determined that the Waterloo account is a myth. [20] Snopes and Live Science also discredit the Waterloo account. The Tomb of the Unknowns located in Arlington National Cemetery. On May 5, 1868, General John A.

Logan issued a proclamation calling for "Decoration Day" to be observed annually and nationwide; he was commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of and for Union Civil War veterans. [9] With his proclamation, Logan adopted the Memorial Day practice that had begun in the Southern states three years earlier. The first northern Memorial Day was observed on May 30, 1868. One author claims that the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of any particular battle. [34] According to a White House address in 2010, the date was chosen as the optimal date for flowers to be in bloom in the North.

Memorial Day, Boston by Henry Sandham. The northern states quickly adopted the holiday. In 1868, memorial events were held in 183 cemeteries in 27 states, and 336 in 1869. [36] In 1871, Michigan made "Decoration Day" an official state holiday and by 1890, every northern state had followed suit. There was no standard program for the ceremonies, but they were typically sponsored by the Women's Relief Corps, the women's auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), which had 100,000 members. By 1870, the remains of nearly 300,000 Union dead had been reinterred in 73 national cemeteries, located near major battlefields and thus mainly in the South. The most famous are Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania and Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D. Memorial Day speeches became an occasion for veterans, politicians, and ministers to commemorate the Civil War and, at first, to rehash the "atrocities" of the enemy. They mixed religion and celebratory nationalism for the people to make sense of their history in terms of sacrifice for a better nation.

People of all religious beliefs joined together and the point was often made that the German and Irish soldiers had become true Americans in the "baptism of blood" on the battlefield. Since 1868 Doylestown, Pennsylvania, has held annual Memorial Day parades which it claims to be the nation's oldest continuously running.

However, the Memorial Day parade in Rochester, Wisconsin, predates Doylestown's by one year. By the 1880s, ceremonies were becoming quite similar as the GAR provided handbooks that presented specific procedures, poems, and Bible verses for local post commanders to utilize in planning the local event. On the day itself, the post assembled and marched to the local cemetery to decorate the graves of the fallen, an enterprise meticulously organized months in advance to assure that none were missed. Finally came a simple and subdued graveyard service involving prayers, short patriotic speeches, and music...

And at the end perhaps a rifle salute. Confederate Memorial Monument in Montgomery, Alabama. National Park Service[42] and numerous scholars attribute the beginning of a Memorial Day practice in the South to the ladies of Columbus, Georgia. [43][44][45][46][47][48][49] On April 25, 1866, women in Columbus, Mississippi laid flowers on the graves of both the Union and Confederate dead in the city's Friendship Cemetery, claiming to be the first Decoration Day. [50][51] The early southern Memorial Day celebrations were simple, somber occasions for veterans and their families to honor the dead and tend to local cemeteries.

Historians acknowledge the Ladies Memorial Association played a key role in these rituals of preservation of Confederate memory. [53] Various dates ranging from April 25 to mid-June were adopted in different Southern states. Across the South, associations were founded, many by women, to establish and care for permanent cemeteries for the Confederate dead, organize commemorative ceremonies, and sponsor appropriate monuments as a permanent way of remembering the Confederate dead. The most important of these was the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which grew from 17,000 members in 1900 to nearly 100,000 women by World War I. In 1868, some southerners appended the label "Confederate" to what they originally called "Memorial Day" after northerners co-opted the holiday.

[55] The tradition of observances were linked to the South, they served as the prototype for the national day of memory embraced by the nation in 1868. By 1890, there was a shift from the emphasis on honoring specific soldiers to a public commemoration of the Confederate south. [52] Changes in the ceremony's hymns and speeches reflect an evolution of the ritual into a symbol of cultural renewal and conservatism in the South. By 1913, David Blight argues, the theme of American nationalism shared equal time with the Confederate. Soldiers National Monument at the center of Gettysburg National Cemetery.

Starting in 1868, the ceremonies and Memorial Day address at Gettysburg National Park became nationally known. In July 1913, veterans of the United States and Confederate armies gathered in Gettysburg to commemorate the fifty-year anniversary of the Civil War's bloodiest and most famous battle. Since the cemetery dedication at Gettysburg occurred on November 19, that day (or the closest weekend) has been designated as their own local memorial day that is referred to as Remembrance Day. Indiana from the 1860s to the 1920s saw numerous debates on how to expand the celebration. It was a favorite lobbying activity of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR).

An 1884 GAR handbook explained that Memorial Day was the day of all days in the G. Calendar in terms of mobilizing public support for pensions. It advised family members to "exercise great care" in keeping the veterans sober. [60] As the years went by, the GAR complained more and more about the younger generation. In 1913, one Hoosier veteran complained that younger people born since the war had a tendency...

To forget the purpose of Memorial Day and make it a day for games, races and revelry, instead of a day of memory and tears. [61] Indeed, in 1911 the scheduling of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway car race was vehemently opposed by the increasingly elderly GAR. The state legislature in 1923 rejected the race on that special day.

But the new American Legion and local officials wanted the big race to continue, so Governor Warren McCray vetoed the bill and the race went on. In the national capital in 1913 the four-day "Blue-Gray Reunion" featured parades, re-enactments, and speeches from a host of dignitaries, including President Woodrow Wilson, the first Southerner elected to the White House since the War.

James Heflin of Alabama gave the main address. Heflin was a noted orator; his choice as Memorial Day speaker was criticized, as he was opposed for his support of segregation; however, his speech was moderate in tone and stressed national unity and goodwill, gaining him praise from newspapers.

One of the longest-standing traditions is the running of the Indianapolis 500, an auto race which has been held in conjunction with Memorial Day since 1911. [64] Originally it was held on Memorial Day itself, and since 1974 it runs on the Sunday preceding the Memorial Day holiday. Since 1961 NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 has been held during Memorial Day weekend, and has also been held on the previous Sunday since 1974. [citation needed] Since 1976 The Memorial Tournament golf event has been held on or close to the Memorial Day weekend.

[citation needed] The Final of the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship has been held on Memorial Day since 1986. "On Decoration Day" Political cartoon c.

Caption: You bet I'm goin' to be a soldier, too, like my Uncle David, when I grow up. The preferred name for the holiday gradually changed from "Decoration Day" to "Memorial Day, " which was first used in 1882.

[66] Memorial Day did not become the more common name until after World War II, and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967. [67] On June 28, 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend. [68] The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May.

The law took effect at the federal level in 1971. [68] After some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply, all 50 states adopted Congress' change of date within a few years.

The United States Marine Band on Memorial Day. Memorial Day endures as a holiday which most businesses observe because it marks the unofficial beginning of summer.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) advocated returning to the original date, although the significance of the date is tenuous. The VFW stated in 2002. Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed a lot to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day. On Memorial Day, the flag of the United States is raised briskly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the half-staff position, where it remains only until noon. [71] It is then raised to full-staff for the remainder of the day. Memorial Day observances in small New England towns are often marked by dedications and remarks by veterans and politicians. The National Memorial Day Concert takes place on the west lawn of the United States Capitol. [73] The concert is broadcast on PBS and NPR.

Music is performed, and respect is paid to the men and women who gave their lives for their country. Across the United States, the central event is attending one of the thousands of parades held on Memorial Day in large and small cities. Most of these feature marching bands and an overall military theme with the Active Duty, Reserve, National Guard and Veteran service members participating along with military vehicles from various wars. In 1915, following the Second Battle of Ypres, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a physician with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, wrote the poem, "In Flanders Fields".

Its opening lines refer to the fields of poppies that grew among the soldiers' graves in Flanders. In 1918, inspired by the poem, YWCA worker Moina Michael attended a YWCA Overseas War Secretaries' conference wearing a silk poppy pinned to her coat and distributed over two dozen more to others present. In 1920, the National American Legion adopted it as their official symbol of remembrance. Scholars, [75][76][77][78] following the lead of sociologist Robert Bellah, often make the argument that the United States has a secular "civil religion" one with no association with any religious denomination or viewpoint that has incorporated Memorial Day as a sacred event.

With the Civil War, a new theme of death, sacrifice and rebirth enters the civil religion. Memorial Day gave ritual expression to these themes, integrating the local community into a sense of nationalism. The American civil religion, in contrast to that of France, was never anticlerical or militantly secular; in contrast to Britain, it was not tied to a specific denomination, such as the Church of England.

The Americans borrowed from different religious traditions so that the average American saw no conflict between the two, and deep levels of personal motivation were aligned with attaining national goals. Memorial Day has been called a "modern cult of the dead".

[citation needed] It incorporates Christian themes of sacrifice while uniting citizens of various faiths. In film, literature, and music. Memorial Day (2012) is a war film starring James Cromwell, Jonathan Bennett, and John Cromwell.

Logan Lucky (2017) starring Channing Tatum. Charles Ives's symphonic poem Decoration Day depicted the holiday as he experienced it in his childhood, with his father's band leading the way to the town cemetery, the playing of "Taps" on a trumpet, and a livelier march tune on the way back to the town. It is frequently played with three other Ives works based on holidays, as the second movement of A Symphony: New England Holidays. Poems commemorating Memorial Day include.

Finch's "The Blue and the Gray" (1867)[81]. Michael Anania's "Memorial Day" (1994)[82].

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Decoration Day" (1882)[83]. Joyce Kilmer's "Memorial Day".

The history of organized firefighting began in ancient Rome while under the rule of Augustus. [1] Prior to that, there is evidence of fire-fighting machinery in use in Ancient Egypt, including a water pump invented by Ctesibius of Alexandria in the third century BC which was later improved upon in a design by Hero of Alexandria in the first century BC.

The first ever Roman fire brigade of which we have any substantial history was created by Marcus Licinius Crassus. Marcus Licinius Crassus was born into a wealthy Roman family around the year 115 BC, and acquired an enormous fortune through (in the words of Plutarch) fire and rapine. One of his most lucrative schemes took advantage of the fact that Rome had no fire department.

Crassus filled this void by creating his own brigade500 men strongwhich rushed to burning buildings at the first cry of alarm. Upon arriving at the scene, however, the fire fighters did nothing while their employer bargained over the price of their services with the distressed property owner. Emperor Nero took the basic idea from Crassus and then built on it to form the Vigiles in AD 60 to combat fires using bucket brigades and pumps, as well as poles, hooks and even ballistae to tear down buildings in advance of the flames.

The Vigiles patrolled the streets of Rome to watch for fires and served as a police force. The later brigades consisted of hundreds of men, all ready for action.

When there was a fire, the men would line up to the nearest water source and pass buckets hand in hand to the fire. Rome suffered a number of serious fires, most notably the fire on 19 July AD 64 which eventually destroyed two thirds of Rome. A fire extinguisher pump from 1540. This picture published in 1808 shows firefighters tackling a fire in London using hand-pumped engines. In Europe, firefighting was quite rudimentary until the 17th century. In 1254, a royal decree of King Saint Louis of France created the so-called guet bourgeois ("burgess watch"), allowing the residents of Paris to establish their own night watches, separate from the king's night watches, to prevent and stop crimes and fires. After the Hundred Years' War, the population of Paris expanded again, and the city, much larger than any other city in Europe at the time, was the scene of several great fires in the 16th century. As a consequence, King Charles IX disbanded the residents' night watches and left the king's watches as the only one responsible for checking crimes and fires. London suffered great fires in 798, 982, 989, 1212 and above all in 1666 (the Great Fire of London). The Great Fire of 1666 started in a baker's shop on Pudding Lane, consumed about two square miles (5 km²) of the city, leaving tens of thousands homeless.

Prior to this fire, London had no organized fire protection system. The key breakthrough in firefighting arrived in the 17th century with the first fire engines. Manual pumps, rediscovered in Europe after 1500 (allegedly used in Augsburg in 1518 and in Nuremberg in 1657), were only force pumps and had a very short range due to the lack of hoses. German inventor Hans Hautsch improved the manual pump by creating the first suction and force pump and adding some flexible hoses to the pump.

In 1672, Dutch artist and inventor Jan Van der Heyden's workshop developed the fire hose. Constructed of flexible leather and coupled every 50 feet (15 m) with brass fittings.

The length remains the standard to this day in mainland Europe whilst in the UK the standard length is either 23m or 25m. Lofting moved to London in or about 1688, became an English citizen and patented (patent number 263/1690) the "Sucking Worm Engine" in 1690. There was a glowing description of the firefighting ability of his device in The London Gazette of 17 March 1691, after the issue of the patent. The British Museum has a print showing Lofting's fire engine at work in London, the engine being pumped by a team of men.

A later version of what is believed to be one of his fire engines has been lovingly restored by a retired firefighter, and is on show in Marlow Buckinghamshire where John Lofting moved in 1700. Patents only lasted for fourteen years and so the field was open for his competitors after 1704. Richard Newsham of Bray in Berkshire (just 8 miles from Lofting) produced and patented an improved engine in 1721 (Royal Patent Office 1721 patent #439 and 1725 patent #479) and soon dominated the fire engine market in England. Pulled as a cart to the fire, these manual pumps were manned by teams of 4 to 12 men and could deliver up to 160 gallons per minute (12 L/s) at up to 120 feet (36 m). Newsham himself died in 1743 but his company continued making fire engines under other managers and names into the 1770s. The next major development in fire engine design in England was made by Hadley, Simpkin & Lott co. In 1792 with a larger and much improved style of hand pumped engine which could be pulled to a fire by horses. Volunteer Firemen's Parade, March 4th 1872, representing the gathering of the New Orleans fire brigades around the statue of Henry Clay.

The Chicago Fire Department used this White Motor Company truck from 1930 to 1941. In 1631, Boston's governor John Winthrop outlawed wooden chimneys and thatched roofs. [3] In 1648, the New Amsterdam governor Peter Stuyvesant appointed four men to act as fire wardens. [3] They were empowered to inspect all chimneys and to fine any violators of the rules. The city burghers later appointed eight prominent citizens to the "Rattle Watch" - these men volunteered to patrol the streets at night carrying large wooden rattles.

[3] If a fire was seen, the men spun the rattles, then directed the responding citizens to form bucket brigades. On January 27, 1678 the first fire engine company went into service with its captain (foreman) Thomas Atkins. [3] In 1736 Benjamin Franklin established the Union Fire Company in Philadelphia. The United States did not have government-run fire departments until around the time of the American Civil War. [4] Underwriters also employed their own Salvage Corps in some cities.

The first known female firefighter Molly Williams took her place with the men on the dragropes during the blizzard of 1818 and pulled the pumper to the fire through the deep snow. On April 1 of 1853, Cincinnati, Ohio featured the first professional fire department made up of 100% full-time employees. In 2015, 70 percent of firefighters in the United States were volunteer.

Only 4% of calls were actual fires. The first fire brigades in the modern sense were created in France in the early 18th century. In 1699, a man with bold commercial ideas, François du Mouriez du Périer (grandfather of French Revolution general Charles François Dumouriez), solicited an audience with King Louis XIV. François du Mouriez du Périer offered 12 pumps to the City of Paris, and the first Paris Fire Brigade, known as the Compagnie des gardes-pompes (literally the "Company of Pump Guards"), was created in 1716. François du Mouriez du Périer was appointed directeur des pompes de la Ville de Paris ("director of the City of Paris's pumps"), i.

Chief of the Paris Fire Brigade, and the position stayed in his family until 1760. In the following years, other fire brigades were created in the large French cities. Around that time appeared the current French word pompier ("firefighter"), whose literal meaning is pumper. On March 11, 1733 the French government decided that the interventions of the fire brigades would be free of charge. From 1750 on, the French fire brigades became para-military units and received uniforms.

In 1756 the use of a protective helmet for firefighters was recommended by King Louis XV, but it took many more years before the measure was actually enforced on the ground. In North America, Jamestown, Virginia was virtually destroyed in a fire in January, 1608. There were no full-time paid firefighters in America until 1850. Even after the formation of paid fire companies in the United States, there were disagreements and often fights over territory. New York City companies were famous for sending runners out to fires with a large barrel to cover the hydrant closest to the fire in advance of the engines. [6] During the 19th century and early 20th century volunteer fire companies served not only as fire protection but as political machines. The most famous volunteer firefighter politician is Boss Tweed, head of the notorious Tammany Hall political machine, who got his start in politics as a member of the Americus Engine Company Number 6 ("The Big Six") in New York City. Indian Home Guards fire fighting demonstration. The Sandgate Fire Brigade, Queensland, Australia, outside the Sandgate Fire-Brigade Station in 1923. Napoleon Bonaparte, drawing from the century-old experience of the gardes-pompes, is generally attributed as creating the first "professional" firefighters, known as Sapeurs-Pompiers ("Sappers-Firefighters"), from the French Army. Created under the Commandant of Engineers in 1810, the company was organized after a fire at the ballroom in the Austrian Embassy in Paris which injured several dignitaries. In the UK, the Great Fire of London in 1666 set in motion changes which laid the foundations for organised firefighting in the future. However, the first organised municipal fire brigade in the world was established in Edinburgh, Scotland, when the Edinburgh Fire Engine Establishment was formed in 1824, led by James Braidwood. London followed in 1832 with the London Fire Engine Establishment.

On April 1, 1853, the Cincinnati Fire Department became the first full-time paid professional fire department in the United States, and the first in the world to use steam fire engines. The first horse-drawn steam engine for fighting fires was invented in 1829, but not accepted in structural firefighting until 1860, and ignored for another two years afterwards. Internal combustion engine fire engines arrived in 1907, built in the United States, leading to the decline and disappearance of steam engines by 1925. Today, fire and rescue remains a mix of full-time paid, paid-on-call, and volunteer responders. History of the Belfast Fire Brigade.

A Fire department responds to a fire every 23 seconds throughout the United States. [3] Fire departments responded to 33,602,500 calls for service in 2015. 21,500,000 were for medical help, 2,533,500 were false alarms, and 1,345,500 were for actual fires. Since at least 1980, calls for fires have decreased as a proportion of total calls and in absolute numbers from 3,000,000 to 1,400,000 in 2011, while in the same period medical calls have increased from 5,000,000 to 19,800,000. [7] Paid firefighters may be union or non-union. Union American firefighters are represented and united in the International Association of Fire Fighters with headquarters in Washington, D. [dubious discuss] However, many municipalities still rely on volunteer, paid on call, or part-time firefighters. These non full-time firefighters are rarely union, and their interests are represented by the National Volunteer Fire Council.

The United States Fire Administration provides national leadership to local fire services. The fire departments report fires and other incidents according to the National Fire Incident Reporting System, which maintains records of the incidents in a uniform manner.

The suppression of wildfires is regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture, US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This is done through the National Wildland Coordination Center.

The two million fire calls that American fire departments respond to each year represent the highest figures in the industrialized world. Each year thousands of people die, tens of thousands of people are injured, and property damage reaches billions of dollars. Indirect costs, such as temporary lodging expenses, lost time at work, medical expenses, and psychological damages are equally alarming (The United States Fire Administration 1996).

According to American Red Cross statistics, the annual losses from floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters combined in the United States average just a fraction of those from fires. House fires in particular are one of the most common tragedies facing emergency disaster workers in recent history. According to the US Fire Administration, the United States has a more severe fire problem than generally perceived.

In inner city Pennsylvania neighborhoods, house fires have greatly increased, especially in socially and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. An alarming trend in these specific house fires is that sixty percent of these houses do not have working smoke detectors. Additionally, these households are prone to using supplemental heating devices and substandard extension cords that are not Underwriters Laboratories (UL) compliant. Volunteer Firemen's Parade, March 4th 1872 in New Orleans around the statue of Henry Clay.

Painting by Victor Pierson and Paul E. See also: History of firefighting.

Firefighting in the United States can be traced back to the 17th century when, after a great conflagration in Boston in 1631, the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a law banning smoking in public places. New Amsterdam established the colonies' first firefighting system in 1647. [8] Fire wardens inspected the houses and chimneys, fining for potential hazard. An eight-man team called a rattle watch patrolled the streets at night. When a fire was detected, they shook wooden rattles to alert townspeople.

In 1711 the concerned Americans formed the so-called mutual fire societies of approximately twenty members each. When fire struck a society member, other members rushed for assistance. The first water-pumping engines were imported to New York in the 1730s. In 1736 Benjamin Franklin founded the first American volunteer fire company in Philadelphia. Such companies were soon organized in other colonies.

Among those who served as volunteer firefighters were George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Hancock, Samuel Adams and Paul Revere. [9] Volunteer firefighters were honored with frequent stanzas in urban newspapers and made the subject of heroizing prints by the popular American printmaking firm Currier & Ives. Nathaniel Currier, of Currier & Ives, also surviving as a volunteer firefighter in New York City during the 1850s. In 1818 the first known female firefighter Molly Williams rose to prominence in New York, when she took her place with the men on the drag ropes and pulled the pumper to the fire through the deep snow. In 1853 the first practical, steam powered, fire engine was tested in Cincinnati (OH). [10] It was created by Abel Shawk, Alexander Bonner Latta, and Miles Greenwood. The engine was then named "Uncle Joe Ross" after a city council member. In the early days of the fire service, fire departments were, more or less, social organizations in the community. And, being an accepted member meant a certain social status in the community. Remnants of that social status can still be found today in the traditional style firefighter's helmets that resemble top hats worn by the early firefighters.

Before the 1850s, there were only volunteer fire departments. The first paid fire department was the Cincinnati fire department in Ohio. Volunteer fire departments still protect property and play an important role, as they do even today. American firefighters built, designed or assigned specifications for their equipment. Particularly, they dedicated themselves to the engines and viewed them as integral to the fire company identity.

[12] The first fire companies - the Union Fire Company, the Columbia Fire Company and the Anacostia Fire Company were organized in 1804 to serve the White House, the Capitol and the neighborhood of Anacostia in Washington, D. By the 1840s and 1850s the differences between companies within the same city had become quite significant. In 1853 Cincinnati, Ohio became the first city with a fully paid fire department. [13] In 1855 the Metropolitan Hook and Ladder Company Number 1 Firehouse, Washington's oldest extant firehouse, was built at Massachusetts Avenue. With few exceptions, firefighters denied African Americans the opportunity to join the companies or form their own ones.

[citation needed] As early as 1818 in Philadelphia the local free black community attempted to form the African Fire Association. Meanwhile, some southern cities like Charleston and Savannah relied on African American labor. Later the specialized life-saving units in American fire departments - the pompier corps - were formed. FDNY Deputy Chief Joseph Curry at the World Trade Center site of 2001 September 11 attacks.

In the 20th century, the nature of an American firefighter's job began to change. Structural firefighting was still the main purpose of the department, but more specialized training and education, such as for high-rise structure fires, confined space environments and building construction education were included and emphasized. Other disciplines were taken on as responsibilities in lifesaving. An example of such is the practice of Paramedicine which debuted in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Presently, almost all fire departments across the United States have been trained in and perform technical rescue, vehicle rescue, high-angle rescue, wildland firefighting and hazardous materials incidents.

Additionally, almost all career departments as well as many volunteer departments have emergency medical assets at their immediate disposal. Several notable events have killed many firefighters. 343 New York City Fire Department (FDNY) firefighters were killed when the World Trade Center collapsed during the attacks of September 11, 2001. In 2007, the Sofa Super Store fire in Charleston, South Carolina, killed nine firefighters. In 2011, there were about 1.1 million firefighters in the country.

31% were paid, the remainder volunteer. The nation has seen an increase in paid positions; 8.6% decrease in volunteers from 2008 to 2011. Fire companies come in several types.

Note that the names below are not standard and have numerous local variations. A unit that pumps water. Modern engines are almost always "triple-combination" units that have a pump, a tank of water, and hoses. This company has the primary responsibility of supplying water to a scene, to locate and confine the fire, and extinguish the fire.

A unit that carries ladders and an aerial device to access buildings above ground level. Primarily, the company performs the ladderwork and supplies master streams to the fireground. The company also performs structural ventilation and overhaul, primary and secondary search & rescue, securing of utilities, and often supplies rapid intervention teams. A unit that carries a large variety of tools to assist in the search and rescue of victims at an incident such as a fire or traffic collision. It may or may not provide emergency medical response and may or may not transport patients to hospital. This type of unit has many different local and regional definitions. In the New York City Fire Department, for example, a Squad is a hybrid company consisting of an apparatus equipped with supplies necessary to perform some levels of rescue operations as well as engine and truck company operations. In some areas it is identical to a Rescue or a Medic company. A unit that provides EMS, often at the paramedic level.

Many fire services offer some form of EMS and companies may or may not transport patients to hospital. The unit has the three items that an engine does -- pump, tank, hose -- but also carries ground ladders and has an aerial device. A unit that has a large water tank. It may or may not also have a pump. Typically responds with a engine to major fires, though may also respond alone.

Depending on the department a helicopter may be in use as an air ambulance or a suppression and Fire observation tool for brush fires. Some are even uses for both as in the case of departments like the Los Angeles Fire Department. A command car containing a lower ranking chief officer in command of an area/district of a department usually around 7 stations that responds to large fires, mass casualty incidents, and any emergency with more than one engine responding.

EMS Supervisor or EMS captain sedan. Similar to a battalion chief sedan the ems captain sedan contains a chief officer for ems which usually responds to large emergencies, and is usually tasked with directing medical resources on scene. Consists of, but not limited to.

Firefighters work under the auspices of fire departments (also commonly called fire protection districts, fire divisions, fire companies, fire bureaus, and fire-rescue). These departments are generally organized as local or county government subsidiaries, special-purpose district entities or not-for-profit corporations. Some state governments and the federal government operate fire departments to protect their wildlands, e. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), [15] New Jersey Forest Fire Service, [16] USDA Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management[17] (see also Smokejumper). Many military installations, major airports and large industrial facilities also operate their own fire departments.

A small number of U. Fire departments are privatized, that is, operated by for-profit corporations on behalf of public entities. Knox County, Tennessee is among the largest public entities protected by privatized fire departments. A firefighter's bunk with uniform ready to wear in the San Antonio Fire Museum in San Antonio, Texas.

Most larger urban areas have career firefighters. Most rural areas have volunteer or paid on-call firefighters.

Smaller towns and suburban areas may have either. 74% of career firefighters are in departments that protect 25,000 or more people. 95% of volunteer firefighters are in departments that protect fewer than 25,000 people and more than half of these and are in small, rural departments protecting fewer than 2,500 people. Departments range in size from a handful of firefighters to over 11,400 sworn firefighters and 4,600 additional personnel in the New York City Fire Department.

These additional personnel include uniformed emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics. Fire departments have emergency medical service corps (EMS), which may be structurally separate from or combined with their firefighting operations, including firefighters cross-trained as EMTs and paramedics. A fire fighter's turnout gear staged in front of a fire engine.

As of 2014, there were 1,134,400 firefighters in the United States (not including firefighters who work for the state or federal governments or in private fire departments). Of these, 346,150 (31%) are career and 788,250 (69%) are volunteer. These firefighters operate out of 27,198[19] fire departments.

Career firefighters represent 15% of all departments but protect approximately two thirds of the U. Meanwhile, 85% of fire departments are volunteer or mostly volunteer and protect approximately one third of the population. [20] The Firemen's Association of the State of New York (FASNY) provides information, education and training for the volunteer fire and emergency medical services throughout New York State. Fire departments are usually structured in a paramilitary manner.

Firefighters are sworn, uniformed members of their departments. Rank-and-file firefighters are equivalent to enlisted personnel; supervisory firefighters are command officers with ranks such as lieutenant, captain, battalion chief, deputy chief and chief. Fire departments, especially larger ones, may also be organized into military-style echelons, such as companies, battalions and divisions. Fire departments may also have unsworn or non-uniformed members in non-firefighting capacities such as administration and civilian oversight, e. While adhering to a paramilitary command structure, most fire departments operate on a much less formal basis than the military.

Firefighting in the United States is becoming more of a profession than it once was. Historically, especially in smaller departments, little formal training of firefighters was required. Now, most states require both career and volunteer firefighters to complete a certificate program at a fire academy.

Associate's, bachelor's and master's degree programs in firefighting disciplines are available at colleges and universities. Such advanced training is becoming a de facto prerequisite for command in larger departments. Fire Administration operates the National Fire Academy, which also provides specialized firefighter training. There is no single standard system of rank insignia in use, but certain ranks are common. Many variations in insignia systems make use of the voice trumpet, a type of megaphone, and frequently referred to as a bugle. Firefighter (occasionally private) is the lowest rank. Often, it may be subdivided into grades (such as 1st class, senior, or master firefighter - typically awarded based on seniority), which may or may not be marked on the individual's badge or by uniform rank insignia. Driver, engineer, or fire equipment operator are used by many departments. Usually, no insignia is present, but the badge will often note the rank. Some will have multiple grades of this rank.

Lieutenant is typically used as the lowest "fire officer" rank, usually being marked by a single bugle, often in silver. Some departments instead use a single bar (as in military / police fashion), again, usually in silver. Others may use a single gold bugle or bar.

Some departments have multiple grades of lieutenant. An older name for the same rank, still used by some fire departments, is assistant foreman. Captain is used in most departments, usually being denoted with a pair of parallel bugles or parallel bars, connected by a thin cross-bar, in either silver or gold. This is frequently used as a senior supervisor of an individual company or station, and sometimes oversees multiple lieutenants, in addition to firefighters. In Philadelphia, for example, a captain of a ladder company is the commanding officer of that firehouse, and the captain of the engine company supervises the medic unit in the station.

Although only working on 1 of 4 shifts as the company officer, the captain is the supervising officer of the house overall and is reported to by the lieutenants on the other 3 shifts, even though he/she is not present during those shifts. As with lieutenant, some departments still use the older style, Foreman, instead of captain. Senior captain is rarely used, and may be shown as 2 bugles crossed.

Battalion chief (sometimes division or district chief) is often the highest-ranking shift officer that is always on duty at any given time in a smaller department i. The shift commander; or, in larger departments comprising multiple battalions, one would be assigned to supervise a complement of X number of companies in each battalion in different parts of the city. (Boston, for example, has 9 district chiefs that operate under 2 division chiefs citywide, supervising a total of 34 engines, 23 ladders, and 2 heavy rescues). This is usually the lowest chief rank. Typical insignia is two crossed gold bugles or two stars, although some departments use 3 bugles or 1 star. Some are occasionally identified with an oak leaf like a US military major, as with the FDNY's BC collar insignia. Additional chief grades usually exist between chief and battalion chief; usual insignia is 3 or 4 crossed gold bugles or 3 or 4 stars. Common titles include district chief, division chief, assistant chief, and deputy chief. Chief is usually the highest rank of a uniformed member in any given department, traditionally shown with 5 gold bugles or 5 stars. Rank insignia of professional American firefighters. Additional ranks outside the normal chain may exist; sergeants, majors, and inspectors are other ranks used by some departments. According to the 1986 Anchorage Fire Department Explorer Handbook, Anchorage Fire Department used a single gold bugle for inspectors, and both single silver bugle and single gold bar for lieutenants, depending upon assignment. Many fire departments use cuff stripes as well as bugles or military style insignia on their dress uniforms. Typically, they are the same in number and color as the bugles / stars worn, but variations exist. Many departments also frequently display seniority Service stripes (hash marks) on the lower left sleeve of a dress uniform jacket, or sometimes long-sleeved uniform shirts, with years of service varying greatly between individual departments (each stripe typically represents anywhere from 25 years of service). The item "RARE Letter Signed Canajoharie NY Mosher Civil War 1877 GAR 115th Fire Dept" is in sale since Monday, January 21, 2019. This item is in the category "Collectibles\Militaria\Civil War (1861-65)\Civil War Veterans' Items".

The seller is "dalebooks" and is located in Rochester, New York. This item can be shipped worldwide.

• Modified Item: No
• Country/Region of Manufacture: United States