Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-07-04
FRIENDS ONCE FOES.
VETERANS OF THE BLUE AND GREY Al
GETrYSBURG'S REUNION,
Fight Their Battles Over Again, but in Friendship
Not in Angr-Dedicatipg Monuments TO
Thsir Dsad-GsOrgs William Cur
It's Ringing Patriotism.

GETTYSBURG, July 3.-This morning
was very quiet, nothing stirring, and oil
seemed to be holding themselves in readi'
ness for the exercises this afternoon. With
the exception of the drum corps Of the va
ricus G. A. r. posts, no musical organ'za'
tion were visible. The veterans mostly
stayed out all night and devoted the morn
ing to sleep. The government troops re-
mained in their camp, and the sleepy sol
diers crawled out slowly when the revei'le
sounded as the sun showed itself above
Seminary hill.
There was a strange similarity between
the afternoon and that of just twenty-five
years ago. Then the armies Of Meade and
Lee confronted each Other. So TO to-day
the Fsdersls and Confederstes were once
more on the field, and again was the one
on Seminary Ridge, and the other on Gem
etery Hill. Nothing unusual occurred to
break the monotony until o'clock, when
the Unions and Confederstes met once
more, at almost the same hour at which
they had Joined in deadly combat twenty
five years ago.
The monuments which were dedicated
to-day are as follows: The Fifth New York
Cavalry, the One Hundred and Forty
sixth New York Infsntry "Gsrnard
Tigers, :" the Sixty-seventh New York First
Long Island Volunteers, aud known as
"Beecher's Regiment') at which Rev.
Thomas X. Beecher, of E'mira, n. T., de-
livered the oratiou; the Third New York
Independent Battery, with Major General
W. s, Rosecrans as orator; Battery b, New
York Artillery, and the Thirteenth New
York Independent Battery.
The Signal Corps Association OF the
Army of the Potomac held meeting here
to-day. They determined to erect
AN IMPOSING TABLET
On Little Round Top, commemorative OF
the work done by this branch of the army
in the battle. They also elected General
jesse Morril permanent president, and de-
cided to hold their annual reunions at the
time and place where the National en-
campment of the Grand Army Of the Re-
public takes place.
Gen, J. B. Gordon, OF Ga, was compelled
by his official position ss Chief Executive,
10 leave for Atlanta this afternoon. To the
Associated Press representative in answer
To the question what was his opinion Of
the reunion, he said: 'This meeting was a
great success, and if these reunions be-
tween the soldiers could occur yearly, 1t
would serve to cement the friendly feeling
of the blue and grey more closely, and to
bind the North and South more firmly
that there would he no North and no
South, but one country, linked together
by the chains of iDdissoluble friendship"
At three o'clock the procession, compos-
ed of same military companies as yester-
dsy, entered tho National cemetery and
marched past the r0strum. At the con-
clusion of the parade, Gen. Robinson, oil
New York, as presiding officer, requested
Rev. Twitch.ll, of Hartford, Connecticut,
to open the exercises with prayer. The
PRAYER was listened to with uncovered
heads, and when in concluding he began
the Lords Prayer the crowd joined in with
the preacher. George Lsthrop was unable
to be present, hut part of his poem was
read by Gen. Horstio c. King, and was
received by the audience with much ap-
plause.
CUBTIs' PATRIOTIC GRAFTON.
When the orator, George William Cur
tis, was presented, the three cheers were
called TOR by Gen. Sharpe, and he was
greeted with hearty applause.
Mr.. Curtis address was study of the
causes which led up to the war and it'
effects on the history of the nation. H'
said: I'm one view it was war of Con
stitutional yindication, in another Of Con
stitutional Interpretation. But in any
view il was an invitable war, if ever sucf
phrase may be used. Conflicting con
victions, interests, passions, were oil 81
absolute, 80 complicated, 80 powerful, 81
defiant, that, however the lover OF peac'
and of the mild sway of reason may de
plore the tragedy, it was forecast in TIL
nature of man. The issue at stake wa
ostensibly the nature aud vitality Of ,
great political union. Rut beneath and
beyond lay the problem of social and in
dustrial system inextricably involved b,
the compromises of the Constitution will
the national conscience and the nationa
life. 1t was a war without precedent 10
the grandeur of its significance, for th'
stern tenacity of its combatants. 1t was
contest not Of regular armies nor OF mer
cenary levies to crafty dynastic ambition
or to extend ruthless conquest, but OF he
publican citizens self.organized into mil
itary hosts to maintain conflicting princl
Piles held with equal sincerity and defend
ed with equal courage. Oaly American
val0r could hope successfully to assal
American Union, and nothing but the sam
valor could successfully maintain it. Ye
even that heroic devotion might nc
have withstood the fiery onse
of an equally reolute politics
conviction. But when Union became ider
tical in the minds of its defenders with hu
man liberty and human welfare, then th
stars in their courses, the hopes IN
prayers of mankind, fought for the Unior
and even if the conflict had lasted a bur
dred years the fiual event of the might
assault upon the Union would have bee
typified in the last brave, desperate dee
upon this field upon this day twenty.h'
years ago, the steady, stern, magnifcen
: heroic, hopeless, charge OF the gallaI
, Pickett"
Mr.. Curtis then spoke Of the unparalelle
industrial development of the South stint
the war, and some OF the problems th'
confronted the country to-day, among the
} being the problem Of universal suffrag
, He took broad and strong ground again
, the wholesale enfranchisement of imm
, grants. His speech was attentively Ii
. tened to and was frequently interrupted
3 bursts Of applause.
CONDEMNED TELRGRAMS.