As the nation came apart in 1861, East Tennesseans stood strong for the Union. After the American Civil War, many of the former Union Veterans joined the Grand Army of the Republic. The Captain Daniel Meador Post, at Fincastle, Tenn. was named for my cousin Daniel Meador.

Years after the war, GAR members, would march, as best they could, from the Old Sugar Hollow Church, which also served as a GAR meeting hall, on Decoration Day to the Old Baker’s Forge Cemetery where they would decorate the graves of deceased Union veterans.

The GAR and the congregation of the Sugar Hollow Church shared ownership of the building. One of the few surviving GAR members, Nicholas B. Grant (Company F, 6th Tenn. Infantry) proposed that the proceeds from the sale of the property to TVA, for the Norris Reservoir Project, be used to purchased property for a memorial cemetery to the GAR.

The graves of numerous Union Veterans, in the area to be impacted by the impoundment of the Clinch and Powell Rivers behind Norris Dam, were relocated to the GAR memorial cemetery (Baker’s Forge Memorial Cemetery). To the best of my knowledge, Nicholas B. Grant is the only Union Veteran buried at BFMC who was not first buried somewhere else and moved by TVA.

I wanted to share this 1917 recording of “You’re a Grand Old Flag” because the second verse references the GAR.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK12S88FoFQ