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1913 Gettysburg reunion
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1913 Gettysburg reunion
The 1913 Gettysburg reunion was a Gettysburg Battlefield encampment of American Civil War veterans for the Battle of Gettysburg's 50th anniversary. The June 29 – July 4 gathering of 53,407 veterans (about 8,750 Confederate) was the largest Civil War veteran reunion. All honorably-discharged veterans in the Grand Army of the Republic and the United Confederate Veterans were invited, and veterans from 46 of the 48 states attended (all except Nevada and Wyoming).
Despite official concerns "that there might be unpleasant differences, at least, between the blue and gray" (as after England's War of the Roses and the French Revolution), the peaceful reunion was characterized by instances of Union–Confederate camaraderie. President Woodrow Wilson's July 4 reunion address summarized the spirit: "We have found one another again as brothers and comrades in arms, enemies no longer, generous friends rather, our battles long past, the quarrel forgotten—except that we shall not forget the splendid valor."
After a number of smaller Gettysburg reunions, including the 1906 Philadelphia Brigade-Pickett's Division reunion during which Brigadier General Lewis Armistead's captured sword was returned to the South, in April 1908 General Henry S. Huidekoper of Philadelphia suggested a 1913 50th anniversary reunion to Pennsylvania Governor Edwin Sydney Stuart. On September 8, the Gettysburg National Park Commission met with Gettysburg borough officials about the event. Stuart held a sub-committee meeting on October 25, and addressed the General Assembly about the matter in January 1909.
On May 13, 1909, the Pennsylvania Assembly created the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg Commission. The commission's "first tentative programme" of October 13, 1910 included a "Peace Jubilee", with a noon July 3 placement of the cornerstone for a "Great Peace Memorial". The August 26, 1912, US Congress bill appropriated $150,000 and directed the War Department to establish the camp. Because the memorial funding was not approved, the Peace Jubilee plans were removed from the schedule.
The site of the camp and the 8 acres (3.2 ha) for the Great Tent, west of the Codori House, were selected in 1912 and mapped by the Gettysburg National Park Commission. The commission also painted avenue fencing, gun carriages, iron tablets, pyramids, and shells from 1912 through June 30, 1913. On April 13, 1913, the Pennsylvania commission completed the Pennsylvania State Memorial and mailed invitations to 40,000 veterans. On June 28, President Woodrow Wilson notified the Pennsylvania commission that he would attend the reunion for a "very limited period". The 33 contributing states provided a total of $1,033,000 for the reunion, with $450,000 coming from Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania commission headquarters at Gettysburg was at 231 Baltimore Street, with the Harrisburg office of the Secretary (later nicknamed the "Duke of Gettysburg") in Pennsylvania State Capitol's Room 509. Commemorative tokens and programs were designed for attendees, including three types of Pennsylvania badges ("Press", "Guest", and "Scout"), a commemorative medal, and a souvenir program of poems by attending "Veteran Scout" Jack Crawford. The Pennsylvania Railroad added "a telephone line between Gettysburg and Hanover along the Western Maryland Railway, over which the Pennsy [would] operate a large number of trains during the battle anniversary". On the Chambersburg-Gettysburg turnpike and the Gettysburg-Petersburg turnpike, tolls ended for the reunion. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the 1911 Sproul Roads Act on June 27, enabling the Commonwealth to acquire private toll roads and make them free for the public.[relevant?]
Water wells were being drilled for the July encampment by February 1, 1913, and hotels in Hanover, Chambersburg, Hagerstown, and "the Blue Ridge section [were] filling rapidly" by June 26. For entertainment, a Gettysburg facility was established in 1912 to display the Boston version of the Gettysburg Cyclorama and the Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History; The Battle of Gettysburg, a now-lost film, first played at Walter's Theatre on June 26. Local planning for the reunion included expanding the Gettysburg hackman tax to automobiles (upheld by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1914), a 50-cent maximum for taxi fares in the borough, and a request from a few Missouri veterans for "a few good widows or old maids ... good housekeepers and not too young" to go west after the reunion. (The "kind-hearted mayor", J. A. Holtzworth, agreed to forward photos to the veterans in the "Cupid ... operations".)
The War Department's Great Camp (Gettysburg Encampment, Anniversary Camp, or Veterans Camp) provided tents and support facilities for the Civil War veterans and extended from both sides of Long Lane on the north to within 500 yd (460 m) of the Bliss House. The Great Camp included the Great Tent (Big Tent, measuring 200 ft × 450 ft [61 m × 137 m]) "with its thirteen thousand chairs"; the veterans' tents; quarters for 1,466 War Department soldiers (including camp commander General Liggitt) and 2,179 mess personnel; 385 camp Boy Scouts from Washington, and other camp personnel for a total of 57,198 "persons quartered and subsisted in the Great Camp". The camp had a temporary U. S. Post Office; 90 Pennsylvania Health Department latrines throughout the camp, with a seating capacity of 3,476; and (near the Great Tent) an emergency station and two health-department Comfort Houses which supplied the Great Tent water fountains. The Pennsylvania commission set up a temporary morgue in the camp. A special platform on the Round Top Branch was built for veterans to disembark from steam trains into the camp; in February, trolleys of the Gettysburg Electric Railway had been prohibited from using the branch.
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1913 Gettysburg reunion
The 1913 Gettysburg reunion was a Gettysburg Battlefield encampment of American Civil War veterans for the Battle of Gettysburg's 50th anniversary. The June 29 – July 4 gathering of 53,407 veterans (about 8,750 Confederate) was the largest Civil War veteran reunion. All honorably-discharged veterans in the Grand Army of the Republic and the United Confederate Veterans were invited, and veterans from 46 of the 48 states attended (all except Nevada and Wyoming).
Despite official concerns "that there might be unpleasant differences, at least, between the blue and gray" (as after England's War of the Roses and the French Revolution), the peaceful reunion was characterized by instances of Union–Confederate camaraderie. President Woodrow Wilson's July 4 reunion address summarized the spirit: "We have found one another again as brothers and comrades in arms, enemies no longer, generous friends rather, our battles long past, the quarrel forgotten—except that we shall not forget the splendid valor."
After a number of smaller Gettysburg reunions, including the 1906 Philadelphia Brigade-Pickett's Division reunion during which Brigadier General Lewis Armistead's captured sword was returned to the South, in April 1908 General Henry S. Huidekoper of Philadelphia suggested a 1913 50th anniversary reunion to Pennsylvania Governor Edwin Sydney Stuart. On September 8, the Gettysburg National Park Commission met with Gettysburg borough officials about the event. Stuart held a sub-committee meeting on October 25, and addressed the General Assembly about the matter in January 1909.
On May 13, 1909, the Pennsylvania Assembly created the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg Commission. The commission's "first tentative programme" of October 13, 1910 included a "Peace Jubilee", with a noon July 3 placement of the cornerstone for a "Great Peace Memorial". The August 26, 1912, US Congress bill appropriated $150,000 and directed the War Department to establish the camp. Because the memorial funding was not approved, the Peace Jubilee plans were removed from the schedule.
The site of the camp and the 8 acres (3.2 ha) for the Great Tent, west of the Codori House, were selected in 1912 and mapped by the Gettysburg National Park Commission. The commission also painted avenue fencing, gun carriages, iron tablets, pyramids, and shells from 1912 through June 30, 1913. On April 13, 1913, the Pennsylvania commission completed the Pennsylvania State Memorial and mailed invitations to 40,000 veterans. On June 28, President Woodrow Wilson notified the Pennsylvania commission that he would attend the reunion for a "very limited period". The 33 contributing states provided a total of $1,033,000 for the reunion, with $450,000 coming from Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania commission headquarters at Gettysburg was at 231 Baltimore Street, with the Harrisburg office of the Secretary (later nicknamed the "Duke of Gettysburg") in Pennsylvania State Capitol's Room 509. Commemorative tokens and programs were designed for attendees, including three types of Pennsylvania badges ("Press", "Guest", and "Scout"), a commemorative medal, and a souvenir program of poems by attending "Veteran Scout" Jack Crawford. The Pennsylvania Railroad added "a telephone line between Gettysburg and Hanover along the Western Maryland Railway, over which the Pennsy [would] operate a large number of trains during the battle anniversary". On the Chambersburg-Gettysburg turnpike and the Gettysburg-Petersburg turnpike, tolls ended for the reunion. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the 1911 Sproul Roads Act on June 27, enabling the Commonwealth to acquire private toll roads and make them free for the public.[relevant?]
Water wells were being drilled for the July encampment by February 1, 1913, and hotels in Hanover, Chambersburg, Hagerstown, and "the Blue Ridge section [were] filling rapidly" by June 26. For entertainment, a Gettysburg facility was established in 1912 to display the Boston version of the Gettysburg Cyclorama and the Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History; The Battle of Gettysburg, a now-lost film, first played at Walter's Theatre on June 26. Local planning for the reunion included expanding the Gettysburg hackman tax to automobiles (upheld by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1914), a 50-cent maximum for taxi fares in the borough, and a request from a few Missouri veterans for "a few good widows or old maids ... good housekeepers and not too young" to go west after the reunion. (The "kind-hearted mayor", J. A. Holtzworth, agreed to forward photos to the veterans in the "Cupid ... operations".)
The War Department's Great Camp (Gettysburg Encampment, Anniversary Camp, or Veterans Camp) provided tents and support facilities for the Civil War veterans and extended from both sides of Long Lane on the north to within 500 yd (460 m) of the Bliss House. The Great Camp included the Great Tent (Big Tent, measuring 200 ft × 450 ft [61 m × 137 m]) "with its thirteen thousand chairs"; the veterans' tents; quarters for 1,466 War Department soldiers (including camp commander General Liggitt) and 2,179 mess personnel; 385 camp Boy Scouts from Washington, and other camp personnel for a total of 57,198 "persons quartered and subsisted in the Great Camp". The camp had a temporary U. S. Post Office; 90 Pennsylvania Health Department latrines throughout the camp, with a seating capacity of 3,476; and (near the Great Tent) an emergency station and two health-department Comfort Houses which supplied the Great Tent water fountains. The Pennsylvania commission set up a temporary morgue in the camp. A special platform on the Round Top Branch was built for veterans to disembark from steam trains into the camp; in February, trolleys of the Gettysburg Electric Railway had been prohibited from using the branch.
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