The National tribune., 1882-07-29
GRAND ARMY MATTERS.
THE PENNSYLVANIA VETERANS GRAND
REUNION AT GETTYSBURG.
The Boys Fighting Their Battles Over Again on the
Old Camp Ground-Large Attendance of Penn
sylvania Yeterans-Interesting Notes and Incl
dents-The Order in Other States.
Special Correspondence National Tribune.

Special Correspondence National Tribune.
GETTYSBURG, July 26, 1882. The En-
campment of the Grand Army of the Repub-
lie, Department of Pennsylvania, opened here
on Saturday last, to continue one week The
site of the camp is on that portion of the
battlefield of Gettysburg occupied by the OBJ
servatory tower and Ricketts, battery, the front
facing the cemetery and the rear looking to
Culp's Hill. There are sixty-twO hospital
tents, one hundred tents and twenty five
tents at headquarters. Nearly five hundred
men arrived Saturday evening by special train
on the Hanover Junction and Gettysburg rail-
road About two hundred Pennsylvania Posts
are represented, and nearly three thousand
veterans are under canvas. The officers are :
J. NJ. Vanderslice, Commander; w. n. Jones,
Senior Vice Commander; Thomas J. Stewart,
Assistant Adjutant General; II. G. Williams
Assistant Quartermaster General.
The site of the Encampment is very happily
chosen. Lying on the summit of Cemetery
Hill, within half mile of the central square,
it is easily accessible both from the town and
the depot while it stands an ever-memOrable
point in the death-strugge of the war. The
rear row of tents occupies the lines facing Culp's
Corps and Ricketts, Pennsylvania battery re-
pulsed the famous charge of the Louisiana
Tigers on the evening of the second day. The
Tigers charged with LOO men they returned
with but 600. On the north side, facing the
town, is the line held by the famed One Hun
dred and Sixth Pennsylvania of whom mere
handful remain to-day to celebrate their Re-
union at Gettysburg with the erection of a
memorial stone. 1t is of pure marble and was
placed in position yesterday, bearing the fol-
lowing inscription, surmOunted by the we'll
known trefoil of HancocI1's men: " Position
held by the One Hundred and Sixth Regiment
Pennsylvania Volunteers, Second Brigade,
Second Division, Second A. c., July 3, 1869.
Organized August 1861 mustered out June 80,
1865. From Balls Bluff to Appomattox." The
concluding lines are taken from the oft-quOted
remarks of General Howard to Major Osborn,
commanding his artillery: "Your batteries
may be withdrawn when that regiment runs
away" The record of
THE OLD ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTH
is something sublime and it is not wonderful
to believe that Captain Jones and few boys"
scattered through Post 81 are the sole survivors
regiments of Pennsylvania volunteers, it took
part in the battle of Balls Bluff, when its Col
Onel was killed; in the siege of Yorktown in
the battles of Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill and
Antietam. At Fredericksburg its ranks were
thinned, and at Charlottesville the wreck of
it escaped by little less than a miracle.
Strengthened by drafts it took an active part
in the battle of Gettysburg, losing its adjutant
and defending Cemetery Hill in the manner
already described. From the Wilderness to
Petersburg, all along that terrible route the
roads were strewn with the bodies of the heroes
of this regiment. At Spottsylvania it is re-
corded that seven color bearers were shot down
in less than as many minutes. No wonder that
the balance of the "boys" hold their heads
high IN the camp to-day, their tents pitched
right on the lines so pluckily held by them.
1t was not the least interesting part of a cor
respondents duties to /" buttonhole" gossippy
Post comrades and hear the proud records of
the different regiments with which they had
been connected. Prominent among the Jolly
companions every one" were the few survivors
Of the original Bucktails (the FOrty-eighth
Pennsylvania, now associated with Post 1l2,
Remove, Allegheny county. The comrades
sportcd on their caps the typical bucktail of
the Allegheny Mountains The regiment was
divided into two battalions, one of which
fought in the Shenandoah Valley, the other
with the Army of the Potomac. eve went in
at Gettysburg" said a ruddy-visaged comradc,
:" $50 strong on the evening of the second day;
when we stacked arms there were only 125
men left" There are not 80 of the whole reg
iment left now. 1t was twice filled up by
drafts during the war.
Post D. (Danville), through Comrades Fun
son and Mcguire, welcomed your correspond
ent cordially ltwas organized i'll the name of
Max Goodrich, lieutenant of Company H.
Ninety-third regiment Pennsylvania volun-
teers. The Ninety-third had d terrible record
to show. Starting for the three months SER
vice with LOO bayoncts it was cut to pieces at
Fair Oaks, "a men coming out to tell the tale
Col Eckman was in command and his senior
officer, VIM. II. Young severely wounded in
the battle, followed the war with running
wound. At Gettysburg the Ninety-third fought
with Sedgwicks Sixth Corps, going in with
200 and coming out with 263 The regiment
formed part of the Fifth Corps at the Wilder
ness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor and Peters
burg
ROUGHING IT
Camping out without a blanket may be
matter Of necessity of taste With the most
part of the occupants of the tents on Cemetery
Hill it was a necessity, but pleasant time was
had, nevertheless. The taps" beat on Sunday
night at II p m, by which time the Harrisburg
Post (5S) was well disposed toward sleep.
Though the thermometer had marked 50 de-
grees pretty steadily during the day, it sens-
bly, fell during the night to judge by the fire.
quent turns on the heaps of straw and the
complaint that certain individuals = felt cold"
Stories of the busy times of 1S61-1S65 beguled
the time till the witching hour sounded, and
if those stories were to be believed, IT'S presum-
ably they were, much of the history of Gettys-
burg and many another battlefield has to be
rewritten. The first rays of the sun and the
rOusng gun were unseen and unheard, for by
o'clock the boys were aStir and strolling
downward, possibly it may have been that
comrade correctly indicated his feelings in the
remark that he felt "aS if a torchlight process |
sion had gone down his throat over night" |
ANYHOW the pumps and the waSh-b bowls were |
in active requistion and the old soldiers" |
proved themselves not unworthy of the men |
that defended Cemetery Hill twenty years ago |