G. A.R.--query

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>   "Isn't it appropriate for 'Cy' Young to become a manager in the
>Federal League?  Cy is a member of the G. A.R. so far as the baseball
>fans are concerned."

G.A.R. should be Grand Army of the Republic, an association of Union
veterans of the Civil War. The GAR apparently was largest and most active
around 1890 rather than earlier.

I suppose the joke here is that "Federal" was used with the meaning "Union"
(i.e., "Northern") during the Civil War ... probably this sense of the word
was already moribund in 1913, although it's still in the dictionary.

Why was Cy Young considered a "GAR member"? Because he was from the north?
Because he was old? Because he was "a veteran"?

-- Doug Wilson