Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1888-07-13
AT GETTYSBURG.
Over 100000 People Visit
the Famous Battlefield.
Grand Reunion of Northern and
Southern Soldiers.
spsechea by Gen. LOngStreet, Gen.
SIckIes and Gen. GOrhOn-Picket's
Famous Charge on Haneock's PO-
sitiOn.


versary of the battle of Gettysburg has been
celebrated, the Blue and the Gray have
again met each other on this memorable
field, but this time as brothers. and it is safe
T. say that the three days intercourse has
done more 10 bind north and south together
than anything which has occurred since the
war.
The battlefield is pronounced the best
marked battlefield in the world There have
been already erected about 1875 monuments,
and the number will reach $50 when the
work of the memorial committee is COM
pleted.
Among the prominent men who took part
in the reunion were Gen. Daniel E. Sickles,
Gen. Henry W. Slocum, Gen. Joseph B
Carr, Gen. Josiah Porter, Gen. Longstreet,
Gen. John B. Gordon of Georgia, Gen.
Hooker of Mississippi, and host of others
from north and south.
GETTYSBURG. Pa, July Q, 1888. The most
conspicuous figure in this quarter-century
anniversary is Gen. Daniel Z. SickleS. This
remarkable man is not only notable in con-
nection with this battlefield, but his career
before the war was one Of the most brilliant
in the country. No man in America was
ever tried formurder, and having undoubt-
eddy killed his man, acquitted with more eclat.
Sickes was the prime favorite of the gilt
edge society of Washington during Buchan-
ans administrator. He was a young man
then. When Buchanan was minister to
England, Sickles was his secretary of lega-
ton, and from 1856 to 1861, the future COM
mander of the 3rd corps was power in
Washington.
The following New England organizations
WI I'D in 1acl oh 0n ha
Massachusetts, LIST, 18th and 10th infantry;
Maine 3d. 4th and 18th infantry, I'd 4th and
9th batteries and battery D, 1st artillery 1st
and I'd United States sharpshooters; New
Hampshire I'd and 18th infantry; Rhode
Island, battery E, LIST artillery.
Gen. Longstreet says of his attack upon
Sickles' pos ton:
II am satisfied that my force, numbering
hardly l3, 900 men, encountered during that
3 12 hours Of bloody work not less than 65,-
900 Of the federals, and yet their charge was
not checked nor their line broken until we
ordered them to withdraw. MIR. Whitelaw
Reid, writing a most excellent account Of
this charge to the Cincinnati Gazette, says:
1T was believed, from the terrific attack,
that the whole rebel army, Ewelrs corps in
cluded, was masssd on our centre and left,
and so single brigade was left to hold the
rifle pits on the right and the rest hurried
across the little neck OF land to strengthen
our weakening lines He describes too the
haste with which corps after corps was hur-
ried forward to the left to check the advance
of my two-thirds Of one corps. Gen. Meade
himself testifies [see his official report that
the 3d. the I'd, the 5th, the 9th and the 18th
corps, all of the 18th except one brigade, and
part Of the LIST corps, engaged my handful Of
heroes during that glorious but disastrous
afternoon found that night that 1929 Of
my men, more than one-third of their total
number, had been left on the field. History
records no par allel to the fight made by these
two divisions on the I'd Of July at Gettys-
burg"
GEN. sICKLEs' SPEECH.
This assemblage marks an epoch. You are
survivors of two great armies. You and
your comrades fought here the decisive bat
tie of a long and terrible civil war. Twenty
five years have passed and now the combat
ants of '63 come together again on your old
field of battle to unite in pledges of love and
devotion to one constitution, one union and
one flag Today there are no victors, no
vanquished. As Americans we my all claim
a common share in the glories of this battle
field, memorable for so many brilliant feats
of arms. No stain rests on the colors of any
battalion, battery or troop that contended
here for victory. Gallant Buford, who began
the battle and brave Pickett who closed the
struggle, fifty represent the intrepid hosts
that for three days rivalled each other in
titles to martial renown.
Among the hundreds of memorial struc-
lures on this field, there is not one bearing
an inscription that wounds the susceptible
flies Of an honorable and gallant foe. This
meeting is an historical event. We dedicate
here on this battlefield today an altar sacred
to peace and tranquility and union. We
SOW the seeds of friendship between commun-
titles and states and populations once hostile
but now reconciled. We all share in the
rich harvest reaped by the whole country,
,Nrfb aud nd
new America, born on this battlefield, when
the republic consecrated her institutions to
liberty and justice. 1t is sometimes said
that it is not wise to perpetuate the
memories OF civil war, and such was the
Roman maxim. But our civil war was not
a conspiracy against ruler; it was not the
plot of soldier to GUST a rival from power;
1t was not pronunciamento. The conflict
of 1915 was war of institutions and systems
and policies. 1t was q revolution, ranking
in Importance with the French revolution OF
she 18th century, and with the English rev.
Tuition of the 18th, universal in the benefi-
cent influence upon the destinies of this
country and ineffaceable in the ot-prints it
made in the path of our national progress.
The memories of such war are as inds-
tructible as our civilization. The names Of
Lincoln and Lee and Grant and Jackson can
never be effaced from our annals. The valor
and fortitude and achievements of both arm
record in American history, and now that
time and thought, common sense and COM
mon interests have softened all the animosi-
ties Of war, we may bury them forever
while we cherish and perpetuate as Ameri
cans the immortal heritage of honor belong
ing to republic that became imperishable
when it became free The war of 1S61-65
was our heroic age. 1t demonstrated the vi
tality of republican institutions 1t illus
trated the martial spirit and resources, the
genius of the American soldier and sailor. 1t
was a war in which sentiments and ideas
dominated interests. The lavish sacrifice Of
blood and treasure, the unyielding tenacty
Of the combatants, the constancy and firm
ness of the people of both sides-men and
women, old and young, rich and poor-sig-
nalized the great conflict as the heroic age
Of the republic.
Gov GoRDoN'S ADDRESS
Mr. President and Fellow-soldiers: I greet