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Show LIBRARY OF CONGRESS GETTYSBURG REUNION hoped to attend began an “active search for A reported 8,694 Confederate some person who can advance $7500 so [they] veterans attended the reunion. can attend the big Gettysburg reunion.”20 Spry Veterans were asked to leave added “his assurance that the next legislature their battle flags at home, but would unquestionably pass a bill reimbursing many brought them anyway. those who made the advance.”21 Which veterans would actually attend the reunion at the state’s expense now became a subject of debate. Newspapers reported that as many as eighty-five veterans expressed an interest in attending, and the press published several attendee lists. One list had as many as seventy-one names; in the end, sixty-five Utah veterans attended, making it one of the greatest contributors of the western states.22 The Utah GAR developed selection 20 “Veterans Looking for Some One to Give Funds,” Salt Lake Herald-Republican, April 8, 1913. The veteran committee in charge of “the arrangements for Utah’s participation” consisted of Lucian H. Smyth, M. M. Kaign, Seymour B. Young; W. M. Bostaph, Fred J. Kiesel, and W. L. H. Dotson. Kiesel and Dotson, Confederate veterans, were appointed to ensure that “the confederate ranks in Utah are well represented on the committee.” “Consider Way to Raise Funds,” Logan (UT) Republican, April 17, 1913. 21 “Raise Funds,” April 17, 1913. 22 The Pennsylvania Commission Report recorded that Utah sent sixty-seven Union veterans and nine Confederate veterans, for a total of seventy-six attendees. In comparison, Utah sent more veterans than Arizona (ten), Colorado (twelve), Idaho (forty-five), Montana (twenty-two), and New Mexico (one), but less than California (one hundred), Oregon (eighty-two), and Washington State (167). Pennsylvania Commission Report, 36–37. However, a discrepancy exists between the reported figure for Utah and veterans who actually attended; it is believed that sixty-five Utahns actually attended. See “Veterans of Both Armies Leaving Salt Lake for Famous Gettysburg Battlefield,” Salt Lake Herald-Republican, June 28, 1913. 271 |
