Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1913-07-11
FIFTY YEARS AFTER
THE GREAT BATTLE
Some Impressions Of Gettysburg and
the Large Gathering Of Blue and
Gray in Peace Meeting.

0SllySUufS lids USeH CIle scene
of two of the great events in the
history of our Countrywide bat :
tie and the reunion. Entering
the town by the famous EN-
mittsburg Road, you pass
through the noted Peach Orch
ard and across the field oyer
which Pickett's charge was. The
first thing to catch the eye of
the reunion visitoa, as he drove
along this road was the vast ex-
tent of the camp, said to be the
largest single camp the world
has ever seen. The magnitude
of the affair was amazing, no
matter what ones previous ex-
pectations had been. From
Seminary Ridge to Cemtery Hill
was one great stented field, "a
field made immortal by one of
the finest examples of human
courage known in history. The
= drive around the whole battle
field is thirty-fve miles long, and
is everywhere flanked by monu-
ments and markers, with inscrip-
tions telling what occurred at
each spot, thus giving the whole
story of the battle. The beauty
of the place is marred only by
the pail of tragedy which hangs
over it.
1t is by no means easy to put
into words ones impressions of
the great National Reunion. Per-
haps the dominant feeling is that
it was national. 1t was under
stood that it was to be a meeting
of the Blue and the Gray, but
that mere statement falls far
short of what it was in reality.
Every State and every part of
every army engaged in the great
struggle had its representatives.
1t was a common experience to
see a group composed of men,
bers of the Army of the Potomac,
of the Army of Northern Vir-
ginia, and of two or three of the
other Armies of either side ex-
changing interesting remin-
iscences-men from Maine, Tex
as, Washington and Virginia met
on equal footing-It was truly a
national meeting.
And then there was ever pres
ent, to the sensitive ear, the note
of pathos insistently running
through the mighty chorus of
fraternal rejoicing. Fifty years
cover a large space in a mans s
life. When survivor of Pick
ett's immortal charge clasped the
hand and looked into the eye of
a defender of East Cemetery Hill
he realizd there was but little
difference between them, and the
other acknowledged that it was
true. What matters victory or
defeat then, in view of all that has
since come and gone and of what
the near future inevitably holds
in store for them both? The one
realizes that the other repulsed
the almost invincible, while the
other admits that the one well
nigh accomplished the imp0ssi-
bile. Both know that ere long
they must yield to the one foe
mightier than they both.
1t was an assemblage of old
men. Never before, perhaps, in
the history of the world, did sixty
thousand men meet to COM
memorate an event in their own
lives fifty years old. Many OF
them had never seen that historic
field since the bloody days of the
great battle. The poets prayer
was almost literally answered:
Backward, turn backward
oh, Time in your flight,
And make me a boy again JUS
for tonight. ("
With the crowding memories
which the years have failed tx
destroy or dim, there came re
crudescence of the aboundin@
life and spirit of-the young man
hood that made the names O.
Cemetery Hill, Seminary Ridge
the Peach Orchard, the Whea
Field, Culp's Hill and Littl,
Round Top, synonyms for tn,
ultimate examples of human
courage and endurance; and i
was hard for them to realiz
that fifty years have passed sine
then. But it was true, never
theless, and it was a concours
of old men. :.
1t was a good humored crowd
Blood and suffering, and victor,
and defeat were relegated to tn
background, and old stories an
old jests and old pranks forme
the basis for new quips an
jokes. Life was still observe