In the June 1969 issue of Civil War History — Volume 5, Number 2, pages 116-132 — a renowned Southern historian attacked the legacy of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
"No single war figure stands in greater need of reevaluation than Lee," wrote Thomas L. Connelly, the late University of South Carolina professor. "One ponders whether the South may not have fared better had it possessed no Robert E. Lee."
Connelly's essay was among the first academic musket shots fired on Lee's standing as an outmatched but not outwitted military genius presiding over a Lost Cause — a reputation celebrated in fawning biographies and monuments like the one removed Friday in New Orleans.
Was General Lee overrated? Get your armchair historian on...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday June 12 2017, @11:33AM
http://www.genealogytoday.com/columns/ruby/040218.html [genealogytoday.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Army_of_the_Republic [wikipedia.org]
"The "Grand Army of the Republic" (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army"
Please don't confuse a fraternity with the old Regular Army.
This article, written in 1865, refers to the Grand Old Army - or more specifically, to the Grand Old Army of the Potomac. http://www.nytimes.com/1865/04/08/news/the-grand-old-army-of-the-potomac.html [nytimes.com]
Another reference to Grand Old Army here - http://uptownhistory.compassrose.org/2007/12/grand-old-army-of-republic-graceland.html [compassrose.org]
There doesn't seem to be a lot on the Grand Old Army on the internet, and I'm not about to start chasing down references in dead tree books for you. You may take my word, or not, that career officers in the Regular Army referred to their army as such. The NYT article cited above should convince you that the civilian population knew and understood the term.