Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1888-07-13
End of the Gettysburg Reunion.

/
There were no exercises scheduled
for the Fourth. but the celebration OF
the day was begun in great style In
Camp A. Wilson Norris by n nation
al salute from Jackson Battery, of
Posts 81 and 81, under Captains
Williams and Speakmnn- Al $50
there was dress parade; at o'clock
Assistant Adjutant General Stewart
read the Declaration of Independence.
The reading was followed by num-
Der of patriotic addresses by Chaplain
Sayres and Colonel Magee. After
tie speeches there was sham battle.
the opposing forces being command
ed BIZ Generals Williams and Taylor,
General Williams commanding the
Confederates The artillery was un-
der command of Colonel Eli j. Sell
lers. The Union forces rushed across
the field and carried the redoubts on
Cemetery Hill in face of terrible
cannonnading of blank cartridges,
cannon crackers and roman candies.
After the battle the dead were revived
| and wounded healed by "drugs from
the commissary department" The
hattie was followed by brilliant dis
play of fireworks, which the whole
town turned out to see, and was fol-
lowed by concert by the National
band, of Frankford.
Not little feeling cropped out
among the Grand Army of the Re-
public men against the Army of the
Potomac reunion managers, and IN
that feeling the Grand Army of the
Republic men are indorsed by many
of the Army of the Potomac men
themselves. In the first place, the
whole reunion was wretchedly mis-
managed and from beginning to end
was a one or two-man affair. The
impression prevails that it was not
an Army of the Potomac reunion re-
union after all, but an army of New
York feature to the detriment OF other
sections.
General Slocum, who left that
morning. said inst as he was taking
his train when asked what he thought
of the reunion: ut went of all
right, suppose, but it was very del
icate affair to handle. l hope they will
not have it again. Once is enough
for such reunions"
The Grand Army men are indIg-
nant at the manner in which they
have been studiously ignored by the
| New York management. Right
across the street from the cemetery
in Camp A. Wilson Norris were 3
Past Commanders-in.C Chief of the
Grand Army Generals Wagner,
Fairchild and Beath. In that camp
also were $500 veterans, nearly every
man of whom fought in the battle,
vet neither the commanders nor the
men received an invitation, formal or
informal, to participate in the reunion
and General Fairfield, who lost an
arm in the battle, was permitted TO
stand out in the snn in the edge OF
the crowd, while the New York De-
partment Commander Curtis was tie
only one invited to the rostrum dur
ing the cemetery exercises.
On Tuesday morning the delega-
tions from every Post in the camp
held campfire at Round Top. The
camp fire was also attended by num-
Der Of the Army of the Potomac men.
Speeches were made by General
Goblin, Quartermsster General Tay-
lor and others. General Goblin got
warmed up and let himself out to the
shouts of approval and cheers of de-
light from the listeners. He said he
was tired of hearing so much gush
about Pickett's charge, as though
they were the enly heroes Of the day.
He said they simply charged across
the field and were met and repulsed
by men as brave and reckless as they,
and those who crossed the wall did
so as prisoners, With their guns
thrown away and their hands thrown
up. He thought more distinguished
deeds of valor bad been performed by
divisions of tic Union army. He
cited the case of Gefry's men, who
marched from the extreme right to
extreme left and rushed to the front in
time to repel the attack at Round Top
and then returned to their position to
End it occupied by General Johnston
Without a moments rest Geary's
men were hurled against Johnston's
men, and after five hours of desperate
fighting, regained their position, He
mentioned how General r. Bruce
Ricketts, won the apex of Cemetery
Hill, and held his position by des-
perate hand-to- hand fight with the
Louisiana Tigers, his gunners breast
| ing the storm with their gun-rammers
and swabs, and falling like hail where
they stood by their guns.
In speaking of the decentralization,
Gen. Goblin said the Grand Army of
the Republic men were disposed to
extend the hand of friendship to their
old enemies, but they were getting
tired of this gush and pretense for the
glorifcation of q veteran simply
because he wore gray uniform with
q Southern flag printed on bis badge.
That badge meant treason and rebel
lion in 1861, and what it meant then
it meant now. He thought the idea
OF reunion was overdone, and was be-
ing used as leverage to hoist certain
individuals into notoriety at the ex-
pense of she principles for which the
North had 6ught and to the eleva-
tion of the principles of disloyalty.
The General concluded by saying:
II want it to be distinctly under
stood, now and for all time, that the
men who wore The blue and fought
on this field were everlastingly and
eternally right and that the men who
wore the gray were everlastingly and
eternally wrong" General Goblin was
wildly cheered, as was General Tay-
lor, who followed him.
General Taylor said he had spent
ten months in rebel prisons, and after
the indignities heaped upon him and
his comrades and the spirit he had
since seen continually manifested he