Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1869-09-17
TINE GETTI.sBURGH RE-U.yIO.v

TINE CIT RE- U.vIO.v.
G. G. Benedict, editor of the Burlington
Free Press, and who was aid de cdmp to
G en-. Stannard at the battle of Gettysburgh,
attended the recent reunion on the battle
field and writes as follows:
To those who expected that the gathering
at Gettysburgh last week would be an as
semblage of the most noted Generals who
fought on both sides in the battle, in which
Generals Meade and Hancock should walk
about arm in arm with Lee and Longstreet
and be on exhibition generally for the BEN
eft of a crowd of tuft hunters and curiosi-
ty seekers, the occasion was doubtless a
failure. Con. Meade was uot there, why
we do not know. Gen. Hancock, who can
claim the battle as his fight, as rightlully
as any man in it, Gen. Meade not excepted,
was detained by his duties on the plain and
could not be present. Gen. Howard was
also absent. Reynolds died upon the field;
Sedgwick fell in the Wilderness; Sicklesls
in Spain. In short, of the corps command
ers engaged in the battle only Generals
Slocum and Newton were present Gen.
Lee declined TO come, and his example
was followed by the rebel officers general
ly, but two of them were present. So there
was but moderate show Of notabilites.
But the meeting with reference to its real
object, was by no means a failure. The
Gettysburg Memorial Association, which
has purchased good deal of the ground
on which the battle was fought, and has
undertaken the task of preserving, so far
| rs may be, the breastworks and other
marks of the battle, proposes to indicate by
| permanent tablets the more noted positions
and points of the field. In order to place
these with certainty, it invited the pres
ence of the surviving officers who could
| fix these positions from personal recollec-
ton. For this duty the General command
ing the army and the corps commanders,
| were of much less service than the subor-
dinate officers. Gen. Meades duties dur
ing the battle kept him most of the time at
his headquarters, where he could be most
readily reached by reports from all parts of
the field, and this was, as it happened, for
the most part out of the sight of the army
lines. He knew less from actual personal
knowledge, of the positions occupied and
points reached and made memorable by
the various charges and movements, than
many subordinate officer of little note.
The same is true to a considerable extent,
of the corps commanders. OF the officers
who do know, of their own knowledge,
what and when and where-the division,
brigade and battery commanders and staff
othcers-a goodly number were present
In company with Col. Batchelder, the his
torian and topographer of the battle, and
Mr.. McConanchy, the interchangeable Secre-
tary of the Memorial Association, they in
dustriously secured the field for five sue
cessive days; fixed locations; settled dis
puted points upon the ground and drove
over two hundred numbered stakes, mark
ing the points and lines of most interest,
which will be indicated on elaborate maps
of the field, and marked in due time by en-
| during tablets. This was a piece of good
| service for the military student of the great
battle, for the historian, and for the future
visitors to the field.
But Gen. Robert Il. Lee, in his publish
ed reply to the invitation to the gathering,
said he considered it "wisest not to keep
open the sores of war, but to follow the ex-
ample of those nations who endeavored to
obliterate the marks of civil strife, and to
commit to oblivion the feelings it engen-
dered :" and this sentiment has been wide
ly echoed by some of the Northern journ-
ais and men who considered the Montgom-
| cry Constitution, in its day, to be on the
whole an improvement on the Constitution
of the United States. If this is so, of course
the meeting better not have been held
Nay, more, the stately monument upon
the brow of Cemetery Hill should be TAX
en- down, the granite headstones around it,
which mark the resting place of over three
| ousand Union soldiers should be buried,
and the ploughshare run over the slopes of
National Cemetery; the names of "Ceme-
terry Hip and Ground Top" and of Get
| tysburgh itself should be changed and
| the people of the village should be forbid
| den by penal Statute to show visitors to the
| spot, or speak above whisper of the events
Of July LIST, I'd, and Sd, 1868.
We do not believe that Gen. Lee is so
weak or superanuated as to really believe
| that thus the the feelings of the late civil
war can be COMMITTED to oblivion" Get
|
| greatest and bloodiest and most important
war of modern times. 1t can no more be
wiped out of the map of this country, than
Waterloo from that Of Europe. AS long as
Cemetery Hill remains it must be spot OF
resort to thousands every year. They will
go there knowing well why they went, and
what gave to those hills and wales their
| 6opD and LASTING iutoroSt TT On ,ubx.
should they not, from whatever land, or
section of our own land, they come, be en-
abled to locate with some definiteness, the
spots they came TO see?
In our humble opinion, Gen. Lee and the
ex-rebel officers invited, made a mistake
in not going to this gathering. The invita-
tions to them were cordially extended, and
they would,have found nothing to complain
OF in their reception. The one or two reb-
ell officers present can testify that the occa-
sion was not made one for exultation over
a beaten enemy, or for discussion of polit-
zeal opinions. The field was too hardly
and bravely fought on both sides, and its
issue hung on too slight a turn, to make il
a spot for much clarifying of one army
over the other, or one that either need re-
member with any feeling of disgrace
Dou btless it is not "A cheerful spot for Gen
Lee and his generals, for there came over
them the full and sad conviction that their
mad cause was u failure. Yet the field and
the occasion could but be of high interest
to every military man. Why should the
Southern soldiers decline to do their share
toward defining the spots of highest inter-
est to them, as well as all? We believe
that their presence would have served ra-
Their to heal than to keep open the "sores of
war" The soldiers who fought on both
sides, to-day feel less of the old feelings of
sectional hate than any other class of citi-
zens' Is it because they, more than others,
have forgotten the war; The sores of the
war are to be healed, not by childish 81
fence concerning the great events of histo-
ry' but by manly contemplation of them
and acceptance of their lesson.