Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-07-04
BLUE AND GRAY.
North and South Unite at
Gettysburg.
,LD ANIMosITlEs FORGOTTEN.
George William Curtis ELOQUENT
nration-Yiyid Description
Of The Battle.

Of The Battle.
GETTYSBURG, July 3.-The crowd at
the reunion to-day was not so large bv
several thousands as the preceding days. !
Nothing was stirrin-. IN the camps; the
veterans mostly etayed out all night and
were devotipt themselves to sleep, pre-
pairing for reunion exercises to be held
late dis afternoon.
rheYe was strange similarity between
this day and that of just twenty-five
years ago. Then the armies of Meade
and Lee confronted each other; so
to-day the Federals and Confederates
were once more on the field ,and again one
was on Seminary Ridge and the other on
Cemetery Hill. Nothing unusual oc-
cured to break the monotony until A
O'Clock, when Union and Confederates
met once more at almost the same hour
flict twenty-five years ago.
Nun OEDiSAAED.
The monuments which were dedicated
to-day were as follows: The Fifth New
York Cavalry, the 146th New York In
fantry, Garnarard Tigers, 9th New
York, First Long Island Volunteers,
known as Crecher's regiment, at which
Rev. Thomas K. Beecher, of Elmira,
New York, delivered the oration; Third
New York Independent Battery, with
Major General w. S. Rosecrans as orator |;
Battery B, New York Artillery, and 18th
New York Independent Battery.
The Signal Corps Association of the
Army of the Potomac held a meeting
here to-day. They determined to erect
an imposing tablet OH Little Round Top,
commemorative of the work done by this
branch of the army in the battle. They
also selected General Jesse Morrill, Presi-
dent, and decided to hold their annual
reunions at the time and place where the
the national encampment of the Grand
Army of the Republic takes place.
GRAND SUCCESS.
General ]. B. Goran, of Georgia, was
compelled by his official position as
chief executive, to leave for Atlanta. To
an Associated Press representative, in
answer to the question as to what was his
opinion of the reunion, he said:
"This meeting was great success,
and if these reunions OF soldiers occurred
yearly it would serve to cement the
friendly feeling between the Blue and
and Gray more closely, and bind North
and South so firmly that there would be
no North or South, but this country
would be linked together by chains in
dissoluble friendship"
AT O'Clock a procession composed of
the military commands, as yesterday,
entered the National Cemetery and
marched past the rostrum. At the con-
clusion of the parade General Robinson,
of New York, the presiding officer, re-
quested Hey. Twitchell. Of Hartford,
Conn.,, to open the exercises with prayer.
Prayer was listened to with uncovered
heads and when concluding he began
the Lords Prayer, the crowd joined in.
The poet of the occasion, Geo. Parsons
Lathrop, was unable to be present, but
part of his poem was read by Gen. H. G..
King, Secretary of the Society of the
Potomac, and was received by the audi
ence with much applause.
THE ORATOR OF THE DAY.
When orator Geo. William Curtis was
presented, three cheers were called for
by General Sharpe, and he was greeted
with hearty applause. Eloquence was in
every line of Mr.. Curtis Grafton. He
began with these words:
Upon this field, consecrated by Amer
lean valor, We meet to consecrate our
selves to the American Union. In this
hallowed ground lie buried, not only the
brave soldiers of the blue and the grey,
but the passions of war, the jealousies of
sections and the bitter root OF all our ma
tional differences-human slavery. Here
the long and angry controversies of the
political dogma of material interests and
of moral pride and tradition came to q
decisive struggle. As the fate of Chris
tendon was determined at Tours, that of
American independence at Saratoga, and
that OF modern Europe at Waterloo, the
destiny of the American Union was de-
cided at Gettysburg. A hundred other
famous fields there are OF the same Am
erican bravery in the same tremendous
strife-felds which the proud and
terrible tales of history and song
will never tire of telling. But it is here
that the struggle touched it's highest
point; here broke the fiery crest of that
invading wave of war. From this field
the civil contest through renowned cam
paigns OF courageous endurance, of fear
full carnage and of accumulating heart
breaks for Northern and Southern homes
slowly receded toward its end. This,
therefore, is one Of the historical fields OF
the world, and to US Americans no other
has an interest go profound. Marathon
and Arbela, Worcester and Valmy, even
our own Bunker Hill and Saratoga and
Yorktown,
FIELDS oE UNDYING FAME,
Have not for US significance SO vital and
SO benefcent as this field of Gettysburg.
But that the glory of this day and Of
America and Of human nature may be
full, it is the veterans and survivors of
the armies, whose tremendous conflict
interpreted the Constitution, who to-day,
here upon the battlefield, and upon its
twenty-ffth anniversary, clasp the friend
ly hands of sympathy to salute q COM
mon victory. This is spectacle with
out precedent in history. No field of
the cloth OF gold or of the grounded
arms; no splendid scene of the royal ad-
justment of conquests, the diplomatic
settlement of treaties, or the papal in
citement of crusades, rivals in moral
grandeur or significance this simple pa
geant.
Probably the most. effective passage in
the address was the speakers magnif-
cent description OF the battle. Said he
The sun of Gettysburg rose on the first of
July and saw the army of the GRAY al