he United Confederate Veterans was an association formed in New Orleans Louisiana on June 10 1889 by veterans of the Confederate States Army and Navy. The U.C.V. felt it had to outline its purposes and structure in a written constitution based on military lines. Members holding appropriate U.C.V. "ranks" officered and staffed echelons of command from General Headquarters at the top to local camps (companies) at the bottom. Their declared purpose was emphatically nonmilitary - to foster "social literary historical and benevolent" ends