When Gettysburg’s Grand Reunion of 1913 came to a close, many newspapers touted it as the “Last Reunion of the Blue and Gray.” The state of Pennsylvania nevertheless issued an invitation to the veterans of the North and South to return in 25 years for another, final, reunion at Gettysburg. Most believed it would not happen, scoffing at the invitation as “impossible”, since the veterans of the Civil War were already elderly by 1913. As the years passed and the aged soldiers grew to relatively few in number, plans for the reunion for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg were nearly scrapped, as one detractor claimed “there would be too few veterans left.” Moreover, those who remained would be so aged – most of them in their nineties and some centenarians – they would be too feeble to attend.1
Yet, the climactic point of the 1913 reunion – the reenactment of Pickett’s Charge that ended in handshakes across the wall, a moving speech by President Woodrow Wilson (who was the son of a Confederate veteran and the first Southern man to occupy the White House since the Civil War); and the long, sorrowful farewells at the Gettysburg train station constrained the Pennsylvania Governor, John Tener, to issue the invitation.
The ensuing 25 years almost caused the Last Reunion to fail to happen at all. The nation’s unpleasant but necessary role in World War I, the millions of deaths from the influenza epidemic, the passing of the last of the Union and Confederate generals (Felix H. Robertson from the South in 1928 and Adelbert Ames from the North in 1933), and the Great Depression all hampered the state of Pennsylvania’s attempts to make good on their promise. With the passing of their last general officers, a new wave of separatist sentiment began to waft over the veteran organizations – the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) and the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) began to divide again in recalling the war of the ages. When the official invitation was extended by the State of Pennsylvania in 1935, a disagreement erupted over whether or not the Confederate veterans could fly their flags at the reunion. Deeply offended, UCV Commander Harry Rene Lee told the reunion organizers to “go to Hell.”2
It seems strange that a place like Amarillo, Texas – a town about as far from Gettysburg that one could get in the contiguous 48 states – would be the place that made the 75th Anniversary reunion a reality. It was the town where Harry Lee lived, and it was there that Pennsylvania Governor George Earle sent his emissary, Paul Roy. His missive was the simple written plea: “You brave and courageous men of the South, if you accept our sincere and cordial invitation and come to Gettysburg in 1938, you may fly your flags unfurled, as you wish.”3
Paul Roy, the Executive Secretary of the Pennsylvania State Commission, and the current editor of The Gettysburg Times, knew that if he could convince Commander Lee to attend the reunion, the rest of the former Confederacy would follow his lead.
Harry Lee was 87 years old in the summer of 1935 when he met with Paul Roy at a hotel lobby in Amarillo. He was still a fiery gentleman with an intimidating presence, whose booming voice made grown men cower. Paul Roy stood quietly facing the UCV commander, and a crowd gathered around them, ominously quiet. Lee unloaded his protests to the tacit man from Pennsylvania, who patiently bore the rebuke. When the outburst ended, Mr. Roy read Governor Earle’s invitation. He then explained, “In 1913, John Tener, then Governor of Pennsylvania, invited the veterans to return in 25 years for a final reunion. Pennsylvania is now making good that invitation.” He added that this Last Reunion was significant to history, and asked the Confederate leader to reconsider, knowing that if Lee walked away, the Last Reunion would go with him.4
For a full minute the two men stared at each other in silence. Then Harry Lee slapped the Gettysburg man on the back and exclaimed, “Why the h--- didn’t you say so? Of course I’m for the reunion! We should get together! We should be friends. Come on, let’s go upstairs and have a drink.”5
Even with Harry Lee’s endorsement of the Last Reunion at Gettysburg, Paul Roy still had some hurdles to overcome. One evening, after addressing a United Confederate Veterans group in Jackson, Mississippi, several women blocked his way as he was trying to leave the building. They “started to harangue me,” Roy remembered, “as a ‘damn Yankee’ who was ‘trying to kill our veterans.’ Two women scratched my face and tried to tear my coat off, all the while shouting and shrieking unprintable accusations.” He managed to somehow get away from them, and escaped to the safety of his hotel room. Luckily, these types of sentiment were not common. Most people, north and south of the Mason Dixon Line, experienced “a surging wave of Reunion sentiment” and were excited about the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the battle at Gettysburg. The Grand Rapids Press in Michigan printed that “the spirit of such a reunion will be the spirit of hate forgotten.” Another newspaper wrote, “[I]t appeared obvious that the bitterness and ill feeling, so long prevailing in the two veterans’ organizations had been…erased and dissipated.”6
The Last Reunion of Civil War veterans at Gettysburg took place from June 29 through July 6, 1938. There were 1,845 Civil War veterans in attendance. There were actually over double that number of those veterans still extant, but some lived too far away to travel at such an advanced age, or were too ill or incapacitated to attend. Of those who attended the 75th anniversary reunion, 1359 were Union veterans, and 486 were Confederate. Of these men, only 16 of the veterans had fought at the Battle of Gettysburg, eleven Union men and five Confederate. The small percentage of Gettysburg veterans was a testament to the difficulty of that awful fight. To be able to attend the reunion, each veteran had to provide papers to show the regiment with which he had enlisted and been honorably discharged, or the governor of his state could provide an affidavit for him. The latter proof was used more often with the soldiers who had served the Confederacy.7
True to his word, Governor Earle permitted the Confederates to fly their flags in camp, which was an enormous tent city on the northern fringe of town, between Gettysburg College and Oak Ridge. In addition to housing the nearly 2000 veterans, the city supplied quarters for an equal number of family members who accompanied the veterans because of their advanced age and lack of mobility. Doctors, Red Cross staff, nurses, health department officials, cooks, bakers, and veterans of other wars who offered aid, sustenance, music and other entertainment for the aged soldiers were also housed there. This amazing city provided mess halls, hospitals, and a boardwalk. In all, the tent city provided quarters for nearly 7000 people. The local BSA organizations also furnished a Boy Scout escort for each veteran who attended.8
Sadly, Harry Lee was not one of them. The fiery Confederate leader died in Amarillo at age 90, just two months before the reunion took place. His last audible words were about the reunion which he helped bring to pass: “I’m going to Gettysburg if they have to take me there on a stretcher.” He went on, no doubt to a reunion that was far more glorious.9
The Tent City was located just north of Gettysburg College, on the battlefield between the college and Oak Ridge. It was made of two camps: one for the Union soldiers and one for the Confederate veterans. The tents were 9x9 feet, had wooden floors, with front fly flaps and screens built in to keep out insects. Each tent had two iron cots, with mattresses, pillows, sheets and blankets. There was also a chair provided, a rug, and a washbasin for each tent. The Tent City had plumbing and electric lighting – with actual street lamps on the boardwalk. There were 9,755 tents in all, with 5,400 cots and 80,000 blankets, though 2,679 tents were for the veterans and the rest were for the staff that would serve them during the reunion. At night, troops from the Carlisle Barracks guarded the old soldiers and their escorts in the Tent City. For the several mess halls, 1800 cooks and 90 bakers were employed to feed the veterans and their escorts. The entire reunion (including the meals) was provided courtesy of the State of Pennsylvania and the Federal government.10
On June 29 they began to arrive, mostly by train. Annette Tucker, the wife of a Florida Confederate veteran, remembered that the visiting began on the trains to Gettysburg: “All during the trip, they were greeting each other, ‘Comrade, I’m glad to see you. Where are you from and how old are you now?’” She recalled that almost all of the men were well advanced in age, most in their nineties, and quite a few had passed the age of 100. The youngest, according to her, was Major General F.M. Ironman, who was purportedly the youngest at the reunion, at age 86. He had joined Lee’s army in 1865, at the age of 13. The eldest, a former Massachusetts infantryman and part of the U.S. Colored Troops, was the ripe old age of 107. Though a few others claimed to be older, they were unable to document their dates of birth.11
Opening ceremonies at Gettysburg College included a program where the two commanders of the GAR and UCV joined Pennsylvania Governor Earle in welcoming the troops back to the most famous battlefield of the Civil War. With Harry Lee’s passing, the new leader of the United Confederate Veterans was 93-year old John Claypool from St. Louis Missouri. During his speech at the opening ceremonies, he described the benevolence that was dispersed among the old soldiers: “When we consider the outcome of that great struggle of the American people, I say to you that the American people as a whole deserve great honor….because of their manhood, and because of their spirit of reconciliation…This could only happen in the United American States.” He also declared that the people of the South were Americans first, and for this reason they refused to continue the fight after Appomattox. “There would have been guerilla warfare going on in this country to this very day, but the Southern people possessed too much Americanism for anything of that kind to happen.”12
Dr. Overton Mennett, the leader of the GAR remarked, “Those of us who remember this place so well are old, and the passing years have brought tolerance and forgiveness. The wounds are healed, and it is our fervent hope that, with our passing, not even a scar will remain.”13
Programs, honorary tributes, a parade and a special dedication to a new monument continued through the next several days as the veterans mingled with the succeeding generations and with each other. On Saturday, July 2, a parade that honored the veterans marched through downtown Gettysburg. According to one observer it “was the largest and most colorful parade in the historic town of Gettysburg.” The 7-mile long procession began at 1:30 p.m. and lasted for over two hours. Marching bands, current troops and more recent veterans, local and state dignitaries, and the Civil War soldiers who were able to walk in the parade were all included.14
Later, in the evening, the World War I veterans and current troops paid homage to the Civil War soldiers in a program at the Gettysburg College stadium. There was a special performance that night by the United States Marines Band. The program ended with four buglers, two in the Old Dorm cupola, and the others on Oak Ridge who echoed each other in a stirring rendition of “Taps”.15
For those of later generations it was a surreal experience to listen to and sing “the songs of long ago.” From the “hymns to the Iowa Corn Song to Dixie – we sang them all.” At one point in an earlier program, Dr. Mennett offered a solo of “Tenting Tonight” – the bivouac song of the Civil War. The audience was delighted, the veterans moved.16
On Sunday, July 3, those few surviving Gettysburg veterans stood near the Angle on Cemetery Ridge to shake hands at the High Water Mark. In 1913, the survivors of Pickett’s Charge reenacted the event, but now, only one Confederate survivor from the charge, and only a handful of Union men, were left. O.Richard Gellette, from Joe Davis’s Mississippi Brigade, was the lone Confederate who now shook hands with his former foes who took his hand in friendship on the other side of the wall.
Gellette, who was 17 years old at the Battle of Gettysburg, spoke to many of his recollections of that day. “I was young, but I was as big as any man,” he said. In remembering the awful field of fire that fateful day he added, “The field in front of us looked like ploughed ground where the shells hit. The corn was knee-high! We went up the hill [Cemetery Ridge] but we couldn’t stay there.”17
To 14-year-old Chuck Caldwell, Gelette explained that when the Union cannons opened up on the advancing men in gray “the men fell in piles. I crouched behind one of the piles” in an attempt to stay alive. He had meant to continue to advance when the leaden storm abated, “but it never did.” By the time the firing stopped the charge was over.18
Of the Union victory at Gettysburg, Gelette felt that “it happened for the best.” But the cost of that victory would ever remain with him.19
At the wall, one of the Union veterans said to Gellette, “You old Johnny! You look like the fellow who shot me, but it’s all right now.”20
One spectator at the High Water Mark mentioned that he heard the rebel yell. “It was very high pitched, “he explained, “long, and loud.”21
At 6:30 p.m. on July 3, the Eternal Light Peace Memorial was dedicated on Oak Hill, where the First Day’s Battle had raged. A crowd of over 200,000 people stood like a phalanx of troops in the intense heat for many hours in order to secure a spot for the historic event. The Civil War veterans were seated at the base of the memorial, at the moment blanketed by the United States flag. They were divided only by the sidewalk.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the dedicatory speech for the memorial. “Men who wore the Blue and the men who wore the Gray are here together,” he said, “a fragment spared by time. They are brought here by the memories of old…All of them we honor, not asking under which flag they fought then – thankful that they stand together, under one flag now.”22
At the conclusion of FDR’s speech, two veterans – one Union and one Confederate – unveiled and lit the Eternal Peace Light Memorial. The base of the memorial is made of Maine granite, and the shaft of Alabama limestone – symbols of the North and South joined together. Etched in the base are the words “Peace Eternal in a Nation United”. Atop the memorial is a bronze urn where the first Eternal Flame was ignited that day in 1938.
The cheers of the crowd echoed for many miles as the meaning of the monument reverberated across the ravages of time. “For the issue,” Roosevelt stated, “will be the continuing issue before the nation so long as we cling to the purposes for which the nation was founded.” That same issue was expressed by Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address – the quest of liberty and justice for all. It is a perpetual battle for each successive generation.23
After the dedication, the crowd was entertained with an aerial demonstration and maneuvers that took place until dusk.
Between the events, the aged soldiers just wanted to visit, especially with one another. “Once again, they hailed each other as ‘Johnny Reb’ and ‘Damnyankee’, but there was no rancor in their quivering words.”24
Colonel Jacob M. Sheads remembered, “When speaking with the Union veterans, you had better be sure to mention the glorious Union. While talking with Confederate veterans, you made sure to speak of Robert E. Lee.”25
Chuck Caldwell, who in later years fought in the Battle of Guadalcanal, interviewed several of the veterans, including the last officially recognized survivor of the Civil War, Albert Woolson. While speaking with a man who had served in the Union Navy, Mr. Caldwell asked him what was the name of the ship where he served. When he heard the name, it sounded familiar. “I told him, ‘I just visited a man who was also on that ship’.” The old veteran asked, “Where is he?” and Chuck replied, “’In a tent about two rows over’. He stood up and said, ‘See you later’ and was gone.” It turned out, the two Union men were comrades in arms, and hadn’t seen each other since the war. “That was the end of my interview,” Mr. Caldwell said.26
In one of the mess halls, a Georgia man said to one of the veterans from Pennsylvania, “We have broken bread together here. I don’t call this a meal. It is a sacrament.” A journalist from New Mexico echoed the same sentiment: “Gettysburg is…twice hallowed since the Gray and the Blue have clasped hands on those sanguinary fields.”27
George Chumley of the 4th Alabama, a regiment that fought at Gettysburg, said to one of the many journalists at the event, “I thank God that time has healed our passions and love does abound.”28
Seymour Ward, a veteran of the 104th Ohio said, “I express gratitude to the great state of Pennsylvania for what they are doing for us old boys before we are called away to the great camping ground.”29
Charles Long, a Confederate veteran from Florida, wrote, “I enjoyed the Blue-Gray reunion supremely on account of the main fundamental purpose of it. One flag. One people in unity. UNION.”30
While the hosts of the reunion had planned for every potential problem, there were nevertheless a few scares. Several of the veterans, due to their advanced age, fell ill. Six were placed in the hospital, and one of them – 91-year-old John Cooper of Florida – was the victim of a heart attack. He died on July 5, just before the last day of the reunion.31
As the Tent City was immense and the tents and streets were identical, many veterans became disoriented and were lost. A young girl lost her grandfather while she was making up the cots one morning. After searching for him, she entered the tent of Mary Phillips, who was the wife of one of the Confederate veterans. The girl, in tears, begged for help, and soon an extensive search for the veteran was underway. “After a long search,” Mary Phillips remembered, “he was found asleep in one of the empty tents.”32
On Monday, July 4, the veterans watched military drills and tank demonstrations that ended with a 48-gun salute to honor the soldiers and the nation. At nine p.m. that evening, from their chairs in their Tent City, the soldiers and the massive crowd that came to see them witnessed an amazing fireworks display that took place on Oak Ridge – the site of the Eternal Light Peace Memorial. Ten railway cars had been filled with fireworks for the occasion, at a cost of over $10,000 – a considerable sum in 1938.33
That night, after the fireworks, the old veterans sang their bivouac favorite, Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground.
The next day, July 5, most of them left for home. By July 6, the final train pulled away, carrying the last of the veterans. Sadly, six of them died on the journey home.34
The melancholic looks on their aged faces and the plaintive farewells heard at the depot at Gettysburg saddened those who witnessed the end of the final reunion at Gettysburg, an event unique to history. “There is no other record…where 75 years afterwards the survivors of opposing armies met on the field of battle in friendship, affection, and brotherly love.”35
The purpose of the Last Reunion had been realized. “There was no rancor or bitterness among those old vets,” Colonel Sheads remembered. “It was all benevolence and kindness. They didn’t have any bad feelings – not one of them.”36
“We were proud we are Americans,” Annette Tucker explained. “I am sure that many like myself rededicated their lives to the service of their country.” An Oklahoma spectator agreed. “Their heroism remains a great American heritage.”37
The eternal flame lit those many years ago at the memorial on Oak Hill still shines. The echoes of the Last Reunion can be summed up in Harry Lee’s words of wisdom to Paul Roy in an Amarillo hotel lobby: “We should be friends.”
Sources: The 75th Anniversary Participant Accounts, Folders #1 and #2, Gettysburg National Military Park (hereafter GNMP). The 75th Anniversary File, Adams County Historical Society (hereafter ACHS). Barraco, Angelo. “The 75th Reunion”. Unpublished manuscript, GNMP. Phillips, Mary. “Eight Days in a Tent.” Folder #1, GNMP. Letter, Charles Long to Mary Phillips, Folder #1, GNMP. Roy, Paul. The Last Reunion of the Blue and Gray. Gettysburg, PA: Copyright by Paul Roy, 1950. Roy, Paul. Pennsylvania at Gettysburg: The 75th Anniversary. Vol. 4. Reference copy, GNMP. Cohen, Stan. Hands Across the Wall: The 50th and 75th Reunions of the Gettysburg Battle. Charleston, W. Va: Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., 1982. Tucker, Annette. “The Last Reunion.” Unpublished account, Folder #1, GNMP. “The Last Reunion”, The Gettysburg Times, July 6, 1938. The Grand Rapids Press, July 2, 1935. The Tulsa World, July 4, 1938. The Albuquerque Journal, July 1, 1938. The Washington Star, Thursday, July 5, 1938. Daniel Dougherty Account, 75th Reunion Folder #2, GNMP. William Sprinkle Account (1926-1996), Folder #2, GNMP. Interviews by author with Colonel Jacob M. Sheads (1910-2004), May 12, 1998; and Chuck Caldwell, June 5, 1998.
End Notes:
1. “The Last Reunion”, The Gettysburg Times, July 6, 1938. 75th Reunion Folder, ACHS.
2. Roy, The Last Reunion of the Blue and Gray, p. 43.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid., p. 45.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid., p. 27. The Grand Rapids Press, July 2, 1935.
7. Folder #1, The 75th Anniversary Participant Accounts,GNMP.
8. Ibid.
9. Roy, p. 58.
10. Folder #1, The 75th Anniversary Participant Accounts, GNMP. Cohen, p. 40.
11. Tucker, “The Last Reunion.” Cohen, p. 56.
12. Roy, p. 99.
13. Ibid., p. 98.
14. The Gettysburg Times, July 6, 1938.
15. Tucker, “The Last Reunion.”
16. Ibid.
17. The Gettysburg Times, July 6, 1938.
18. Interview with Chuck Caldwell, June 5, 1998.
19. Ibid.
20. The Washington Star, July 5, 1938.
21. William Sprinkle Account, Folder #2, GNMP.
22. The Gettysburg Times, July 6, 1938.
23. Roy, p. 103.
24. The Tulsa World, July 4, 1938.
25. Interview with Colonel Jacob M. Sheads, May 12, 1998.
26. Interview with Chuck Caldwell, June 5, 1998.
27. The Washington Star, July 5, 1938. The Albuquerque Journal, July 1, 1938.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
30. Phillips, p. 8.
31. Barraco Account, GNMP.
32. Phillips, p. 9.
33. Roy, Pennsylvania at Gettysburg, vol. 4, p. 436.
34. Interview with Colonel Jacob M. Sheads, May 12, 1998.
35. Doughtery Account, Folder #2, GNMP.
36. Interview with Col. Sheads, May 12, 1998.
37. Tucker, p. 12. The Tulsa World, July 4, 1938.
Editor’s Note: The Gettysburg veterans who attended the Last Reunion were: (Union) Robert C. Blair from Los Angeles, Albert Fuller from Michigan, John Salsburg from New York, Charles Sherbondy from Ohio, William Schmucker from Oklahoma, William Merkel from Pennsylvania, Rufus Brown from Ohio, William Sickles from Washington, George Chapman from South Dakota; (Confederate) E.J. Hilliard from Florida, O.Richard Gellette from Louisiana, W.H.L. Wells from Texas, William Cocke from West Virginia, and Josiah Henderson from Georgia. (Information provided by the National Park Service.)
