UMA members John Schneider, left, and Eric Atkisson, right, attended the 143rd National Encampment of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) in Lexington, Kentucky, August 1-4.

Organized in 1881 and chartered by Congress in 1954, the SUVCW is the legal heir and successor to the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization of U.S. Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines who fought for the Union during the American Civil War. Structured similarly to the G.A.R., the SUVCW is headed by a Commander-in-Chief, elected annually at the National Encampment, who oversees the operation of 31 Departments, each consisting of one or more states, a Department-at-Large, a National Membership-at-Large, and more than 200 community-based camps.

Schneider, an administrative patent judge Patent Trial Appeal Board, lives in Texas and has been a member of the SUVCW since 2007. Among other positions in the order he has served as commander of the Col. Elmer Ellsworth Camp No. 18, in Dallas, and the Department of Texas and Louisiana. He is the great-grandson of Lt. Col. Kasper Schneider of the 103rd New York Infantry.

Atkisson, a communications manager in the Office of the Chief Communications Officer, currently on detail as a senior advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary, lives in Virginia and has been a member of the SUVCW since 2015. He recently served as commander of the SUVCW’s D.C.-based Lincoln-Cushing Camp No. 2 and is currently Junior Vice Commander for the Department of the Chesapeake. He is the great-great-grandson of Private James P. Atkisson of the 15th West Virginia Infantry and Lieutenant Newton C. Whims of the 23rd Regiment, U.S. Colored Troops Infantry.

Schneider and Atkisson are also both members of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, whose members are descendants of Union officers of the Civil War.