The age-herald., 1900-07-20
BLUE AND CRAY AS BROTHERS Meet and Are Happy on Old
 Batt|efe|ds. THOUSANDS IN THE REUNION Visit the Scenes of Long Gone
 Carnage. AND ROMP LIKE BOYS AT PLAY Our Nation Owes Gordon More Than Any Other for the Voice He Rais- ed for Our Union," Said General Shaw
AND ROMP LIKE BOYS AT PLAY

Atlanta, Ga, July l5.-ln u Wdrih piiN liant sun and under a sky flecked with feecy white clouds lowering over the bate | tlefields of Atlanta and Peachtree Creek | like emblems of eternal peace, many huns dred veterans who are here attending th9 blue and gray reunion today visited the olo fields and stretches of wood in which the bloody battles of the civil war were fought
 many years ago.
 Tall Michigan cavalrymen fraternized
 with Joe Wheeler's dare devil fighters:
 loose-jointed, slow-voiced Maine men of
 giant stature foregathered with black- haired, dark-sSinned fiery little South Car. olinians and with their arms about each others shoulders exchanged "reminiscences of long night marches, of bloody charges; of desperate forays-of all the things that old soldiers memories dwell upon. The veterans spoke enthusiastically ot | this gallant charge and that stubborn rel | treat, which characterized the maneuvers
 of both armies fighting for the mastery, as they today, more than thirty years after,
 walked arm in arm along the trenches and breastworks once reddened with their com. | rades' blood.
 | The committee which had in charge the | guests and veterans escorted them as flap
 | out of the city as trolley lines would carry
 them, and then carriages were taken which l drove over the battlefields. l In the corridors of the hotels the scene l as the veterans of the blue and gray min- gled in peaceful comradeshp was an ani- mated one.
 Above the steady hum of conversation the air cracked with numerals and occa- sionally a name. It was the "Old Fourth Corps" "The Forty-second,' "Our Third Division" He commanded the Tenth,' un- til the listener was bewildered. From every section veterans came. They registered from Ohio, Michigan, Min- nesota, Wisconsin, New York; Indiana, Hi. | nois, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, | Massachusetts, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Missis- 1 sippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Texas, and elsewhere. l Among the distinguished visitors here are l General Albert G. Shaw, Commander-in- l Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic; | General T. J. Wood, Dayton, O.; General l Willard Warner, General Alex P. Stewart, l General Stephen G. French Colonel A. B. | Crane, of New York; Colonel w. C. P. 1 Breckinridge, of Kentucky and his brother, General J. c. Breckinridge, of Washington. The distinguished visitors were guests of the executive committee of the reunion at luncheon at McPherson monument at 1 | D. m.
 Atlanta, Ga., July 19.-Five thousand members of the Grand Army of the Re- | public and the United Confederate Veter. | ans Justify cheered the commanders of l these two organizations, General Albert D. | Shaw and General John B. Gordon, as they
 | sat together upon the stage of the Grand
 | Opera House at the kinding of the camp
 | fire of the Blue and Grey reunion here to-
 | night. The occasion was the formal begin- | ming of the reunion of the surviving veter- I Union he fp arI11. | ies who fought in the Battles around Att | lanta.
 1 President Mckinley, unable to be pres- | ent, sent his regrets in the following tele- gram:
 The Presidents Congratulations Executive Mansion, Washington, July 19. Hon. w. A. Hemphill, Chairman, Atlan- l ta-I deeply regret my inability to be with l you during the reunion of the Blue and the | Grey in Atlanta this week. Such reunions are gratifying evidences of good feeling | and comradeship, and give assurance of l the pernanence of our government resting 1 upon the patriotism of a reunited people. 1 Please express to those who may be pres- l ent my cordial congratulations and best | wishes.
 l (Sgned) "WILLIAM MCKINLEY" l The Presidents words brought the au- | dience to its feet in burst of applause. | When General Gordon ,who was the first l speaker of the evening, was presented to | the audience by Colonel w. A. Hemphill, | master of ceremonies, the cheering cons l tinued for several minutes. General Cor don said:
 Gordon and Shaw 'T have come, not to speak, but solely to | testify by my presence the deep and ab- sorbing interest l have long felt in the cause of American fraternity which has inspired this great gathering" Noble enthusiasm greeted General Shaw, and throughout his patriotic address he was listened to with the closest attention. | He began by saying:
 "This is the first time have ever heard | General Gordon, and I want to say oup 1 nation owes him more than any other for | the voice he has raised for our union, and | nothing but our union.
 q am delighted to stand here as the rep | resentative head of the G. A. R. I am | proud to say that Grand Army men have | done much to teach the people of the | South what true manhood and courage are.
 Tn my recent visits through the South my heart has been stirred by the evidence that we are to live hereafter in the pres. 1 ent.
 .eWe understand each other It was an