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JIM The 2nd meeting at Gettysburg True Courage and nobleness of heart By JIM The Battle of Gettysburg, waged in the opening days of July 1863, had become an horrific bloodbath by the time the last rifle fired and the last cannon roared. Estimates vary so much it's impossible to state numbers with any certainty, but by most accounts the two armies suffered combined casualties (killed, wounded, captured, or missing) of around 50,000, including approximately 8,000 battlefield dead. Four and half months later, at the site of the battle, President Abraham Lincoln delivered what well may be the most remembered two minute memorial address ever given. The 50th anniversary reunion, the topic of the essay below, held in early July, 1913, attracted over 50,000 old Civil War veterans, Yanks and Johnny Rebs alike. In a 2009 article penned for the National Parks Traveler Rare Motion Pictures Show Civil War Veterans at the 75th Gettysburg Battle Anniversary Reunion, Bob Janiskee wrote that at this reunion, "the surviving veterans on both sides felt a sense of kinship - the Brotherhood of Battle, as it were." The following appeared on the editorial page of the July 9th, 1913 Adair County News, and although it's a long read for today's sound-byte citizens, it's well worth the time -- and politicians would do well to openly, enthusiastically embrace the principles mentioned herein. The fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg has passed, and the many who assembled there to review that awful tragedy, and to extol the bravery displayed, are now back at their old homes. It was the largest gathering of old soldiers ever assembled in this country on an occasion of that kind, and from published reports the speeches made tingled with praise for the valor of those who participated in the meeting fifty years ago. Those who wore the blue and those who donned the gray measured up to the highest point of courtesy and good will for the participants of both sides, and showed, beyond question, that war issues no longer divided our people or arrayed section against section. The dominant spirit manifested a united country in sentiment, in business, and future greatness. The first meeting at Gettysburg was a crushing defeat for those who fought against Federal power, and the Federal victory was the most costly engagement in the history of the war. The second meeting was victory for both sides and showed the magnanimity fathered by true courage and nobleness of heart. Good generalship, sincerity of purpose and undaunted courage heroically displayed, in now admitted by both sides to have been the features of that costly conflict. But those days, thank God, have passed; those fearful times have flown. That period, dreadful and destructive, is only a monument to American courage. No more will the toxin of war be heard in civil conflict, no more will our country engage in sectional destruction. Bound together by common interests, united in the spirit of advancement, cemented into one solid government by the blood of that awful struggle, civil war will be no more. Our country, greatest of all in resources, is bounding forward on substantial footing. We pride in the valor of those who wore the blue and the gray alike. We accept the verdict as a wise solution of conditions that could not have been rendered in a civil matter. The old soldiers no longer linger in the realm of bitterness, but pride in good will and respect for those who opposed them on the fields of battle, and in reality we have, at last, a country united. It's a happy condition, and points to solid future as truly as a solid present.Compiled by JIM This story was posted on 2011-12-18 10:58:48
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