Battle Born Chapter NSDAR
Carson City, Nevada
CHAPTER ACTIVITIES
ABOUT US
Organized in 2004, our chapter has worked to promote DAR programs and ideals in our community.
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​On May 16, 2025, the chapter along with the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources dedicated a DAR historical marker at Lahontan State Recreation Area honoring Williams Station - an 1800s trading post along the California Emigrant Trail.
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Learn more about the marker and historic Williams Station here.
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On Arbor Day, April 25, 2025, members joined DAR from around the State and members of the local community to rededicate the Washington Elm near the Blasdel Building on the Nevada Capitol grounds in Carson City. Originally planted in 1932, the elm is a descendant of the famed tree in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where General George Washington reportedly took command of the Continental Army in 1775.
While every state capital was given a sapling from the original Cambridge tree, Nevada’s elm is now one of just two known to still survive.
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Read more:
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The Chapter annually presents a DAR Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) bronze medal to an outstanding cadet in the Carson High School Naval JROTC Unit who has demonstrated academic excellence, dependability, good character, adherence to military discipline, leadership, and a fundamental and patriotic understanding of the importance of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps. On April 1, 2025, two Carson High cadets were honored with the bronze medal: Lieutenant Junior Grade Peter Woodbury and Cadet Ensign Jazelyn Avila.
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In 2016, in partnership with the Fort Churchill Society Children of the American Revolution, we placed three U.S. Flag Retirement bins in Carson City at the Carson City Library, the Carson Flag Store, and Grandma Hattie's Restaurant. When Grandma Hattie's closed, the bin was moved to Carson City Hall. Between August 2016 and November 2017 we collected more than 2,000 U.S. flags in need of retirement from our community. We collaborated with Fort Churchill Society C.A.R. and the City of Carson City to hold a community-wide flag retirement ceremony on November 10, 2017, where tribute was paid to these flags and they were officially retired. The ashes of the flags were buried near the veterans section of the Lone Mountain Cemetery. We continued to collect flags in retirement bins placed in the Carson City area and ensure their proper retirement through the end of calendar year 2023.
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Our chapter is also a proud sponsor of the Fort Churchill Society Children of the American Revolution.
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Chapter Officers
2024 - 2026
Regent Debbie Carroll
Vice Regent Jan French
Chaplain Karma Barnes-Truitt
Recording Secretary Anita Sheard
Treasurer Lori Bagwell
Registrar Lynn Kinsell
Historian Jeanne Young
Librarian Robin Reed
WHY WE CHOSE OUR NAME
It is a popular myth that Nevada is called the Battle Born State because the territory joined the United States to “save the Union” by bringing its vast silver and gold resources and to prevent the state from joining the Confederacy. The true reasons are more akin to those of the early colonists in America who declared their independence and embarked upon the American Revolution.
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The reasons for Nevada’s statehood were political, not economic, and the battle was about preserving the Union rather than the ongoing physical battle that was raging between the Union and the Confederacy dividing the country.
Nevada was a federal territory and a part of the Union, and President Abraham Lincoln appointed as governor James W. Nye, a former New York City Police Commissioner, to ensure Nevada remained a part of the Union. Governor Nye put down any demonstration in support of the Confederacy, and the federal government bought much of Nevada’s silver and gold to support its currency and mint coins. Therefore, Nevada’s creation as a territory on March 2, 1861, by the U.S. Congress ensured that its riches would help the Union and not the Confederate cause.
By the time Congress approved an enabling Act for Nevada on March 21, 1864, the Civil War was winding down. The Union had won decisive victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. President Lincoln was seeking re-election and facing a three-way race against General John C. Fremont and General George B. McClellan, both of whom he had relieved of their commands earlier in the war.
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The Constitutional Convention met in Carson City on July 4, 1864, just one year after the terrible battle at Gettysburg. The Union needed another state, another supporter of President Lincoln, to prove to the Confederacy that the Union was strong. Patriotism was running high in the area, and those assembled for the Convention felt very loyal to the Union. They were quite willing to do what they could to support it.
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In addition, new states and their popular and electoral votes were needed to reelect Lincoln in support of his moderate reconstruction policies for the South. Most importantly, if Nevada were a state, it could ratify the proposed 13th Amendment abolishing slavery and help in the passage of the landmark humanitarian legislation. Fremont and his supporters wanted to harshly punish the South, conducting war crime trials and executing convicted Confederate political and military leaders. McClellan and his supporters wanted to readmit the Confederate states back into the Union with virtually no conditions.
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By a vote of the Congress, Nevada was officially admitted as a state on October 31, 1864 - becoming the 36th state in our union. Nevada was actually the second Battle Born state because of its entrance into the Union during the Civil War. Battle Born West Virginia was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863.