The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-28
THE GETTYSBURG REUNION.


The proceedings at Gettysburg have been
completed without any important end being
served. One correspondent states that by
travelling over the battlefield with a number
of officers, he learned great deal more of the
fight than he could CLEAN from books, and
this view is doubtless correct, but it was
scarcely worth while to summon all the gene
rails of the two armies for the purpose of
giving oral instruction to the comparatively
few persons assembled to meet them. Some
positions have also been ascertained, and
more than two hundred and fifty stakes have
been driven on the battlefield to mark the
exact spots where certain events of real or
imaginary Importance occurred; and all the
tangible work of the reunion seems to be
summed up in this statement. That this task
was necessarily performed in an imperfect
manner, however, is evident from the fact
that mot a Rebel line or locality of interest
has been Marked owing to the absence of
Confederate officers competent to give them,
and that, while a comparatively large number
of Union soldiers were present, the leading
spirits of the conflict on the patriotic as we'll
as the Rebel side did not participate in the
proceedings.
Meade was absent, as well as Lee; Hancock
remained in the far West, while Longstreet
attended to the duties of his Office in New
Orleans; SiclIles was dickering for the pur-
chase of Cuba, while Edward Johnson was
regretting that ''private engagement pre-
vented his attendance. Reynolds, Sedgwick,
Buford, and Zook, on the Union side, as well
as several of the most important Rebel COM
manders, are numbered with the dead; and if
they are to fight the battle over again we
must call on the spirit mediums for the trans
mission of their statements to this mundane
sphere
Enough officers were present to prevent
the reunion from being a total failure, but not
enough to make an authoritative and concu-
sive history for the enlightenment of future
generations, or to place the leading issues
controverted in a sufficiently clear light to
suppress all future cavil
Some time ago news was telegraphed over
the country of a new battle of Gettysburg for
the possession and ownership of the springs
located near the scene of conflict; and one of
the most clearly perceptible results of the
late proceedings is the fact that ''the efficacy
of the catalysine water" has been well tested
and well advertised. The ball given on Thurs.
day night should have been omitted from the
programme. 1t was in shocking bad taste. II
might have been we'll enough to precede the
battle of Waterloo with "a sound of revelry
by night" and commingling of fair women
and brave men; but the memories suggested
by Gettysburg should have inspired men
especially charged with their perpetuation,
with sad and sacred thoughts rather than with
feelings of levity.
The failure of the Southern officers (witE
two exceptions) to attend was perhaps inevi
table. They would probably rather unite
with the Union survivors of Bull Run, or o.
Charlottesville, on the scenes of those terri
BILE disasters, than with the victors of Gettys
burg; and our soldiers, if summoned to tht
scene of any of their Southern defeats, woulC
be not more ready to respond than Lee an(
his Confederates were on the recent occasion