The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1905-10-27
LACK TROOPS
FOR CRATER FIGHT
The Leading Feature Of
Reunion Early De-
Cldred Off,
PARADE BROKEN
UP BY THE RAIN
Business Meeting Of Virginia
Division Of Confederate Vet
erans-The Evening Occu-
pied By the Sons Of !,
of Veterans Con-
vention.

Especial from q staff Corrcspondent.)
PETERSBURG. VA, October 26-The 4
second day of the eighteenth annual re- Il
union Of the Grand Camp, Confederate
Veterans of Virginia, opened dark and
gloomy. The clouds that were gather g
Ing and threatening all day yesterday got
together last evening and sent forth 5tor-
rents OF rain In the early hours OF tho
nlht, rs we'll as in the later hours.
The old vets and the Sons and Daugh-
ters. who had been kept up latefby the
festivities of tho first day and the first
night Of the great 1905 reunion, went TO
their couchcs In the wee sma.' hours with 4
the hopo and tho belief that the clouds
had exhausted themselves of their damp
ness and that to-day would be abun-
dantly blessed with the smiles and the
brightness Of Old Sol.
But they were disappointed; the clouds
We're thick and heavy this morning, and
all day long they sent forth a murky,9
misty, disagreeable dampness-not enough IT
rain to drench a body. but enough Is
knock all programmes dependent upon
decent weather into cooked hat In
short It was what an iEnglishman would ii
call bloody. nawsty day"
Parade Declared Off.
became satisfied that it was not a good
day for aged veterans to be out in the
weather, and he promptly called off the q
scheduled parade that was to have been n
one of the crownlng features of the day.
However, there was parading, volunteer Il
parading, impromptu paradlng, and all IL
kinds Of general parading, but the sched- &
uled programme was drowned out early n
In the. action. .3 "A .ss
Notwithstanding the weathers,and the
misty, drizzling rain great crowds flocked# \
to Sycamore Street to see the parade Z
thai !1idcEnr didn't parade but they were not
altogether disappointed, for they sawSlotsS
of marching and counter ma rching. 81 III gi2
is9 Camps had come up from Norfolk and
Portsmouth and from Berkeley ana two
military companies had come from Nor-8
folk and one, q kind OF mixed company !.
OF forty odd men, had come from Rich-s
mind and all these came In to parade and Y
parade they would. They ma rched up
and down the streets for a while In the
morning, but the clouds getting thicker
and the rainfall becoming more pro-
nounced they disbanded as organizations
and quit the paradfng business. Then Vi
the dlsorganized military. drum corps,
etc. went out on kind OF bushwhacking "
parades. Small bands OF disorganized@ n
,paraders. some with tin horns, some with NJ
frying pans, for dvums. some with
toy drums and some with empty bottles.v
which they themselves had emptied. pa
raded the streets. and as for as they
could. turned the programme days ex-s5
ercises into burlesque. But the hpeo-5
pie who were packed into Sycamore
Street like sardines in a box seemed to n
like it, and as far as one could judge "
from appearance. they really enjoyed the 53
burlesque quite as much as they would V
have delighted In the real thing. 8s
No Soldiers, No Fight.
The much advertised, and much talked
Of mimic "Battle OF the Crater was ls
early declared off. This was not due to-
the weather. however. but to the lack
of troops to do the fighting. Two i
small companies from Norfolk and q
highly mixed command from Richmond
Were all to show up for Crater duty and
a hundred and ten men Of to-day could Il
not very we'll make fair representation A,
OF what twenty thousand mon did forty
odd years ago. To have attempted lt89
would have been moro Of q burlcsqnaM H
than that enacted on Sycamore Street IL
by the frying pan and tln- horn paraders,
The thing that really broke the backbone n
OF the much talked OF Crater patt!e i5tst3
was the total absence of artillery The
mana gement had depended upon the Rich s
mond Howitzers for artillery service, and N
the Howtzers failed to come to time.
A Crater battle without artillery would VI
have been the play Of Hamlet with the
moody Dane detained by high water or
drowned out before the rising OF the
curtain. 58
Perhaps twas well that the rain and
other things knocked all these tiresome S
spectacular festivities into the middle
OF next week or the next century. for
1t is very likely that the veterans enjoyed
the day much more as 1t was-sitting
around tho camp-fires and talking the
war over again. The rain let up aboas
4 o'clock In the afternoon, and twos hun
dred old Vets. two cornet bands. drums a
corps and as much OF the MALTA as had
kept sober formed into sort OF bob
tailed parade corps. and spent an hour
marching around several Of the decorated \
streets. This WAS the end Of the parad- +
ing.
The Virginia Division OF the United
Confederate Veterans held Il business
session in the morning and at the same
time the survivors OF Mahone's Division
and the "crater Legion" held reunion
At night the final meeting of the Sons
of Veterans was held and another vet
erans' ball. wound up tho festivities OF
the rainy day.