The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1913-07-01
GETTYSBURG REUNION
IN FULL SWING
CONTINUED From Page One

the battlefield. the outward tribute TO
the dead who gave their lives for the
cause they deemed best.
Hobble Slowly over Field.
The ground over which the first
days fighting took place was natur-
ally the point of interest to the vet
Grams today. They slowly hobbled
over the territory In little groups, blue
and gray, arm in arm, pointing out
where each regiment or unit had been
located
And as the old warriors passed and
repassed the places that meant so
much TO them occasionally there came
a catch In the voice of tear dimned
the eye. Here was where they had
fought. Here was where they had
seen their terminate, father, a
brother, a neighbor. crumple up and
fall lifeless while his blood dyed the
soil. Then they had no time to
mourn. They had no time even to
care for the stricken. Their duty was
ahead and they answered the call.
But today they lived ii all over again
and prayers and tears were mingled
These men were not ashamed TO show
their emotions. They made no at
tempt to hide their tears. They
earned their right 10 shed them n
half century ago and II was plain
that they deemed 1t only meet that
they should remember the boys who
had drank from the same canteen,
but whom the fortunes of war had
claimed,
The spot where the gallant Reyn-
olds fell. directing his army. was
the mecca for many-wearers Of both
the blue and the gray. He was the
first OF the ranking officers to fall and
the monument that marks the spot
was fragrant with perfume of many
flowers placed thereon by survivors
of his own army and men from Hills
corps who had opposed him.
But the tears shed today were not
tears OF regret. The spirits of the
veterans were Of the highest. The
dead had given their lives in the per-
Torrance Of their duty and their sac
rifice had not been in vain. That
was the spirit OF the entire encamp-
ment. Not a man who wore the gray
would today have changed the out
come of the struggle IL he had the
power.
The Providential outcome was on
every lip and cheers for the reunited
AS they listened TO impromptu orations
by noted members of their own i'm.
mediate parties.
Day Of Rejoicing.
For II was a day of speechmaking
and storytelling. There were TO be
formal exercises late In the after
noon In the big tent erected for that
purpose. but real speeches today were
heard In nearly every section OF open
ground. The battlefield proved an in.
SEPARATION for those who were over.
come by their feelings and sought op.
portunity TO be heard. Impromptu
company, regimental, brigade and
corpse reunions we're the order of
the day, and one merged into the
other so easily that patriotic talks
came without effort
A remarkable feature OF the en-
tire day was the manner in which
the north and south representatives
united. knot OF blue-clad veterans
would gather around a column OF
granite topped with a bronze figure
At first their talk would be la low
almost whispered, tones.
Here Is where we stood-waiting,"
that was about the way most of the
stories began. Then would come the
recital of the half-hour in the wheat
field. in the cruel raking of the stand
ing forces by shrapnel from the dis
tant hills; Of the heroism OF Tom, OF
Jim. of Ed. And finally when the mar
rator reached the point where the or
ders to advance finally came he would
find himself the center OF a group that
sometimes reached far into the hun
dreds. And there would always be a
gray-clad figure to pick up the story
where the wearer OF the blue dropped
1t, to tell OF how the charge was re-
ceived; how the bayonet thrusts fol-
lowed when the two opposing forces
met in the final desperate hand-to-
hand encounter: how the sharpshoot-
ers picked off the color. bearers and
the officers; how the flags we're saw
ed Then everything would halt
while cloths were uncovered. stripped
from tattered silk, some so faded that
the original colors could hardly be
distinguished, and the battlefiags
would be neutrality-suspicious. relics
that moved the sternest to tears and
caused grizzled fighting men to hug
them TO their bpsomS and press kisses
upon the shot.torn remnants. \
There would be cheers for Meade.
for Lee,- for the slain Reynolds. for
Pickett and his gallant virginians
for the living and the dead. And as
the group would break up the veter
ans would pass on TO another section
of the field. where similar scenes
would be enacted.
All Sections Meet.
II was the east and the west; tht
nortk and the south meeting. Oregon
and Maine; Ohio and Louisiana shook
hands; patted each other on the back