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Show UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY fife and drum corps of the two great armies sounded fifty years ago.” That morning’s reveille called them “to a peaceful celebration while the call to the awakening in July, 1863, was a call of armies to conflict and, to thousands of men, a call to death.” The Pennsylvania Commission, the commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, and the commander-in-chief of the United Confederate Veterans jointly directed the first day’s events. The commemoration ceremonies formally began in the big tent with speeches from Secretary of War Lindy M. Garrison and John K. Tener, who succeeded Stuart as Pennsylvania’s governor. At the conclusion of Tener’s address, General Bennett H. Young, commander-inchief of the United Confederate Veterans, rose and bowed toward Tener. He surprised the assembled veterans by announcing that “I can give you something that no one else can give you . . . the rebel yell.” Nine Confederate generals and a thousand Confederate veterans gave a yell that “was heard far back in the camp toward Gettysburg.” Young also called for government pensions to be given to Confederate as well as Union veterans by observing that “for nearly fifty years the people of the south without complaint have contributed millions for the pension of federal soldiers.”65 While the hoped-for Southern federal pensions were never realized, the 1913 reunion at Gettysburg healed many hearts. A particularly touching moment occurred during the first day when attendees were reminded that on June 30, 1863, when Brigadier General John Buford’s soldiers rode into Gettysburg prior to the battle, several young girls stood by the road and serenaded them. Six of those same women— now “pleasant-faced [and] gray-haired”—stepped on stage and sang together again. A New York Times reporter remarked that “whether the voices were or were not so good as they were fifty years ago, they sounded clear and sweet in the big tent, and no grand opera singer ever had such an appreciative audience.” Many soldiers were seen wiping tears from their eyes.66 Veterans began misplacing personal items as soon as they arrived at Gettysburg so a lost-and-found bureau was created underneath the benches of the big tent. Thousands of soldiers checked there every day for lost items. Attendees found over one hundred crutches, and soldiers who came seeking “their lost crutches seldom can recognize them and most of them go away with somebody else’s.” Many sets of false teeth and a wooden leg were also found lying unclaimed around the camp.67 The U.S. Army chief of staff directed the following day, July 2, Military Day. The second day also saw the only “unfortunate imbroglio” that occurred during the celebration—the stabbing of seven veterans in a Gettysburg hotel dining room. The conflict occurred after a Confederate 65 “World’s Attention Again Centered on Gettysburg,” Salt Lake Herald-Republican, July 2, 1913. “Girls of ’63,” July 1, 1913. 67 “Sidelights of Reunion,” July 18, 1913. 66 280 |
