Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-07-05
VETS TEARS SEAL
GETTYSBURG LAST
PAGE OF HISTORY
Pathetic Parting of Enemies of
Fifty Years Ago as Com
rades Today.
MARKED SIGNIFICANCE OF
NEW YORK MONUMENT
Army to Remain at Tented City
Until Last Veteran Is
Gone.

GETTYSBURG, Pa, July 5.-On
the crest of Cemetery Ridge at Get
tysburg just where the morning sun
touches it with golden fingers, stands
the statue where New York men
fought. On the tip of a tall marble
shaft is the heroic figure of a wo-
man. In her right hand Is a wreath,
in her left a thin staff crowned with
liberty cap. Her head is bowed
as if in grief, but that long right
arm with its wreath of brass shoots
out straight toward Seminary Ridge
mile away across the fields where
Longstreet stood with bowed head
watching Pickett and his brave men
make their futile charge.
New York raised the statue to her
own dead, and beneather in a half
circle are rows of graves OF her men
who fell here fifty years ago. 1t
takes but little imagination to make
that tall column with its speaking
figure, the moulded voice fnation.
1t takes but a little touch of senti-
ment that has grasped every man
who has come to the veterans camp
to think of that outstretched arm as
if lifted, not in sorrow but in bene-
diction of an ever silent tribute to
the men who lived and the men who
died on the greatest battlefield of the
war. Down hundred yards through
the trees around the statue runs
the Emmittsburg road, the main ar
terry from Gettysburg to the camp.
over that road in the heat of July
sun the veterans of the armies of
Meade and Lee streamed today
toward home. tired possibly, but
lifted out of themselves by four days
possible in any other country in the
world.
Many a veteran who passed over
that road today and many who have
passed before, turned with streaming
eyes to catch last glimpse of that
long arm with wreath as he trudged
the dusty road. 1t is the first land
mark that stands high enough to be
seen on the way to the battlefield
and it Is the last as the town swal-
lows up the road
Thousands of veterans began their
homeward march today after a last
exchange of greetings with the new
comrades they found here. Before
night more than half of the army of
10000 probably will have gone. To-
morrow the veterans will be given
breakfast, the last meal in camp.
That is what the army says, but
those who have seen the kindness,
the courtesy that has been shown to
the vets by these busy men through
out a trying week, know that they
will be fed as long as they stay here
if it's a month.
The army tents probably will stand
here until next week. The regulars
will stay until the last veteran is
gone. Some time before the end of
the month the brown city will come
down, the army will go back to other
tasks and leave the field of Gettys-
burg to memory. Only the paths that
thousands of feet have made through
the grass and timothy, the shady
depths of Seminary and Cemetery
ridges with their spiked and silent
cannon, the monuments that crown
the hills and the graves of the dead
will be left to tell the story of the
greatest reunion. That it will live
as long as life lasts to the men who
were here cannot be doubted by the
worst of cynics. It's influence would
be hard to calculate, but If the old
men who gathered around its fires act
as they acted here. talk as they
talked here, the War Between the
States is really over so far as those
who fought in it are concerned. The
unreconstructed 'reb' and the unfor-
giving Yank will be hard to find.
General Hunter Liggett, in COM
mand of the Gettysburg camp, paid
high tribute today to Major j. e.
Normorle, American quartermaster,
who has been it's guiding spirit. He
said:
ITO perfect organization and CO.
operation down to the last detail, to
conscientious devotion to their work
on the part of all officers and enlisted
men on duty here, the success of the
encampment Is due.
ut may be observed that the sue
cessful handling and supply of a per-
sonnel, the equivalent in number of
three army divisions has been quietly
accomplished by excellent system.
When one remembers that this per-
sonnel is composed of men who aver
age 70 years of age, coming from all
parts of the country and that the
mortality and sick percentage has
been far below what can considered
normal, the remarkable character of
this great undertaking becomes more
clear"
Fl. III. Hodges, of Union Hill, N. c.,
died today as he was preparing to
start for home. He was dressed in
the gray of the confederacy, but, al
though his ticket gave his name, his
regiment was not indicated.
The death of Hodges brought the
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