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Show GETTYSBURG REUNION survivors of the conflict and it is expected that there will be a large attendance of both confederate and union veterans.”6 Due to opposition from Southern veterans known as the “irreconcilables,” it took the United Confederate Veterans organization almost two years to accept Pennsylvania’s invitation to participate.7 Utah responded much faster. On August 2, 1910, Governor William Spry appointed Lucian H. Smyth, a Pennsylvania native and past commander of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Department of Utah, to represent the state during planning meetings at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that fall.8 A committee of Utah “Grand Army men” was appointed during the GAR’s state encampment in June 1912 to begin “collecting the names of [Utah] veterans who will go to Gettysburg.” The six-member committee canvassed the state, notifying Civil War soldiers. By December the committee announced that “Utah will send a delegation of considerable size to attend the fiftieth anniversary celebration.”9 The federal government became involved in 1912 and appropriated $175,000 to pay “for the sheltering and subsistence of the veterans of the northern and southern armies” and authorized funding for “400 army ranges for cooking food, one field bakery, two large field hospitals and five infir mar ies.” Washington also agreed to provide eighteen hundred physicians, surgeons, cooks, and support staff.10 Government engineers “made a survey of the [battlefield] ground, laid it off into streets and avenues, [and] created a water system for the camp.” The goal was to prepare everything so that the attending veterans would be able to eat and sleep without charge.11 Citing the examples of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and other states that had already provided “large appropriations for expenses, particularly for the transportation of old soldiers,” the Utah GAR petitioned the state legislature in January 1913 “to pay traveling expenses of 6 “Local Man to Aid in Great Pageant at Gettysburg,” Salt Lake Telegram, May 10, 1912. Many smaller commemorations and military reunions were held at Gettysburg prior to 1913. See John W. Frazier, Reunion of the Blue and Gray. Philadelphia Brigade and Pickett's Division. July, 2, 3, 4, 1887 and September 15, 16, 17, 1906 (Philadelphia: Ware Bros., 1906); Nina Sibler, Romance of Reunion: Northerners and the South, 1865–1900 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993). 7 “Blue and Gray Will Meet at Gettysburg,” Salt Lake Tribune, May 9, 1912. 8 Smyth served in the Third Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery Battery during the Civil War. “To Commemorate Battle,” Salt Lake Herald-Republican, August 3, 1910; “Lucian H. Smyth to Represent Utah,” Deseret News, August 2, 1910; Roster, Department of Utah G.A.R. by States. All Who Joined Since First Post was Organized. Living and Dead (1914), 20. 9 “Utah Veterans to Go to Gettysburg,” Salt Lake Tribune, December 18, 1912. Lucian H. Smyth, W. M. Bostaph, M. M. Kaighn, N. D. Corser, J. M. Bowman, and Seymour B. Young made up the GAR committee. 10 There was apparently confusion regarding the exact figure authorized by Washington. Early reports list $150,000, while later accounts suggest that Washington actually appropriated $175,000. One account claims it was $250,000. “Thousands Expect to Visit Gettysburg,” Salt Lake Tribune, May 30, 1912; “Provides Funds for the Gettysburg Celebration,” Salt Lake Herald-Republican, August 9, 1912; “Will Ask $10,000 to Pay Veterans’ Expenses,” Salt Lake Herald-Republican, January 24, 1913. 11 “Utah Veterans,” December 18, 1912. 269 |
