The Great Reunion of 1913 at Gettysburg

My late brother Steven was a Civil War history student; he lived in Pennsylvania for several years and went to Gettysburg often, taking our father there once at least. We discussed the Ken Burns PBS program often and talked about the Civil War books he read (often those family members gave him as gifts).

So this off-blog-topic post is in memory of him as we prepare to celebrate Independence Day, always a great family holiday. We had an additional reason: our parents met on a blind date on the Fourth of July!

One hundred and eleven years ago, from June 29 through July 4, Civil War veterans from North and South met on the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. One of the highlights was the re-enactment of Pickett's charge and then the handshake pictured above, after the echoes of the famous Rebel yell had faded. 

President Woodrow Wilson spoke on July 4, 1913--not as long as Edward Everett and not as briefly as President Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863--and concluded his remarks with this:

How shall we hold such thoughts in our hearts and not be moved? I would not have you live even to-day wholly in the past, but would wish to stand with you in the light that streams upon us now out of that great day gone by. Here is the nation God has builded by our hands. What shall we do with it? Who stands ready to act again and always in the spirit of this day of reunion and hope and patriotic fervor? The day of our country's life has but broadened into morning. Do not put uniforms by. Put the harness of the present on. Lift your eyes to the great tracts of life yet to be conquered in the interest of righteous peace, of that prosperity which lies in a people's hearts and outlasts all wars and errors of men. Come, let us be comrades and soldiers yet to serve our fellow-men in quiet counsel, where the blare of trumpets is neither heard nor heeded and where the things are done which make blessed the nations of the world in peace and righteousness and love.

May God bless the United States of America and all "the nations of the world in peace and righteousness and love"!

Happy Independence Day!

Image Credit (Public Domain): Now the "Friendly" Angle One of the most affecting sights witnessed during the present reunion of Confederate and Federal veterans at Gettysburg is depicted in this photograph. Across the stone wall, which marks the boundaries of the famous "Bloody Angle" where Pickett lost over 3,000 men from a force of 6,000 these old soldiers of the North and South clasped hands in fraternal affection / / International News Service, 200 William St., New York.