Those who were not there can form no idea of it

September 11, 2020 10:57 AM

The old veterans couldn’t wait to come. Roads ran thick with automobiles and horse buggies. Most arrived on the nation’s sprawling rails. A few walked more than 100 miles. An 85-year-old man, fearing his son would prevent him from going, crawled out a window and caught a train. Altogether, an estimated 50,000 of the blue and gray trekked to the Great Reunion, a grand commemoration at iconic Gettysburg, on that battle’s 50th anniversary: July 1 to 3, 1913. History professor Thomas R. Flagel remembers the final reunion at Gettysburg for the Saturday Evening Post.
posted by ChuraChura (12 comments total)

For those who remember the past 50+ years, I guess https://alchetron.com/Dawson's-Field-hijackings is the most historically salient event from Sept 1970. Either that or the death of Jimi Hendrix . . .
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 11:14 AM on September 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

My great grandfather who fought for the North went, he brought my great-uncle along who was a teen. My great-grandfather who fought for the South went as well. I have lots of news clippings of him being hauled out over the years as one of "Rowan County's Oldest Confederate soldiers" He passed away in 1939.
posted by agatha_magatha at 11:57 AM on September 11, 2020 [7 favorites]

Why did they go? According to the many politicians and generals who also came to the reunion, the reason was clear: There was an urgent need for unity. At that very moment, U.S. ground forces were in Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, and the Philippines. Trouble in the Balkans threatened to escalate into a much larger European crisis. Not mentioned but certainly pressing were the many bitter divisions at home. Conservatives were continuously fighting progressives over Jim Crow and lynching, female suffrage, overseas expansion, immigration, and labor rights. In this time of peril, so said the organizers, only the finest of military heroes could save our great nation.

Gotta squash these embarrassing parochial beefs for the good of the empire with some troop worship.
posted by Reyturner at 2:25 PM on September 11, 2020 [8 favorites]

Fascinating and depressing read.

...the loss of comrades to bullets and disease...

I did some research recently on one of my ancestors’ regiments. They lost nearly five times as many men to disease as they did to wounds received in battle.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:31 PM on September 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

I note the difference between the politicians giving speeches and the veterans searching for their lost comrades and lost limbs.

I was a Boy Scout in 1963 in central PA, and we went to some [scout] troop gathering in Gettysburg, but I'm not sure which. I kinda remember it as in the fall, so I suppose it was for the centennial of the Gettysburg Address, but I don't remember Eisenhower. For sure I didn't see a re-enactment. I guess mostly what I remember was the Electric Map.
posted by MtDewd at 4:10 AM on September 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

Not for nothing were black soldiers and garrison excluded from this event, it seems. All of the rhetoric about "unity" and such seem difficult to understand if you are excluding a third(?) of the fighters. but then it makes a rotten sense why so much of the history of the war is centered far, far away from the South, where so much of it was fought, and all the people who were fought over, were still fighting at that time. it makes a rotten sense, for the sake of nation-building, why Gettysburg gets a lot of attention over everyplace else.
posted by eustatic at 4:25 AM on September 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

Neither side was ever really the enemy -- too many brothers on northern and southern armies, too many friends who had served together in the US army before the war split them apart. And/or even if there was hatred, there was also admiration for the spirit of the other side, the courage, the fight in them, and they were all US citizens.

One hell of a war. Gettysburg one hell of a fight.

Up until that summer, all of the fighting was on southern territory; Lee marching into the north caused a real panic, as well it should. Many of the southern officers fought their conscience -- they had once sworn to protect the land they were now invading.

I believe that I'd want to find my mates, for sure, men I'd fought side by side with. But I'm positive that I would want to find the men I fought against, men who were behind the rock wall that my people were assigned to charge, or them charging my position. Again, while they were the enemy they were never totally the enemy.

Had Stonewall Jackson not been shot the south wins at Gettysburg. Had Lee paid heed to Longstreet, and not continued with head-on assaults, had the south gone around and flanked the northern forces, the south wins at Gettysburg. Had J.E.B. Stuart not gone joy-riding with his cavalry, had he been on the scene giving Lee accurate assessment of the Union forces strength and their position, the south wins at Gettysburg. I'm no historian but I've read one hell of a lot about Gettysburg.

Great post, thanks for putting it up.
posted by dancestoblue at 5:20 AM on September 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

At that very moment, U.S. ground forces were in Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, and the Philippines. Trouble in the Balkans threatened to escalate into a much larger European crisis. Not mentioned but certainly pressing were the many bitter divisions at home. Conservatives were continuously fighting progressives over Jim Crow and lynching, female suffrage, overseas expansion, immigration, and labor rights.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, perhaps. My first thought upon reading this paragraph was that the writer could have been referring to modern (now) times.

Thank you for posting this - great article.
posted by sundrop at 6:36 AM on September 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

Why did they go? According to the many politicians and generals who also came to the reunion, the reason was clear...

Even if the call was cynical, I have to question that the actual veterans who showed up did so for those stated reasons. Seems unlikely.

Flagler wrote a book on the subject. Have to see if he addresses this.

My great-grandfather made it. Didn't live long enough for 1938.
posted by BWA at 7:57 AM on September 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

The more things change, the more they stay the same, perhaps. My first thought upon reading this paragraph was that the writer could have been referring to modern (now) times.

I think that was the point of the opening portion.
posted by Fukiyama at 8:08 AM on September 12, 2020 [2 favorites]

my family attended those GAR events from the first til 1884. Someone attended in 03' or 04'. Most of my family, on maternal side, did not fight. They fought the battle before the war, freedom run/ underground railroad. To Alot of Union folks, they were like the righteous ones, followers and campaign supporters of Lincoln and the GOP, 1858-61.
or, pissed off Quakers.

but the reality is that:
"The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) took control of the GBMA in 1880. Confederate veterans were appointed to committees and the Civil War battlefield community evolved into a fraternity of white veterans and their descendants.

The United States Colored Troops (USCT) formed their own GAR posts, as they were not welcome at official events. Even well-meaning whites could not receive black veterans as equals in the presence of Southern whites.

None of the living USCT Gettysburg veterans were invited to the 1913 reunion, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the battle.
The events at Gettysburg were a microcosm to post-Civil War racial conflict in America. The South won the war of public sentiment by convincing Northerners to accept the legacy of the Confederates as the noble defenders of the “lost cause.”
posted by clavdivs at 8:59 AM on September 12, 2020 [3 favorites]

Had Stonewall Jackson not been shot the south wins at Gettysburg...
So many 'hads'. One that really impressed me was in Schaara's book The Killer Angels, where on day 2 the Confederates tried to take Little Round Top, and Chamberlain's brigade ran out of ammunition (IIRC) but instead of retreating, he ordered a charge.

I grew up near Gettysburg but was born in the south, so as a kid I was for the grey, and I had read a lot of 'what-if's', but I've changed who I'm rooting for.
posted by MtDewd at 8:39 AM on September 13, 2020