Norwich bulletin., 1913-07-01
Song Made the
 Veterans Weep
A PATHETIC INCIDENT AT
 GETTYSBURG REUNION
RALLY ROUND THE FLAG
Patriotic Melody Sung by Six White Haired Gettysburg Schoolgirls of 50 Years Aeo-AlI Hummed Chorus.

Gettysburg, Pa. June 30.-Over the field of Gettysburg where 150, 900 men In blue and in gray fought with the weapons of war fifty years ago, the soldiers of peace from the north and south, the east and west trooped today to the tented city of brown where they will live in the four days of semi-cen- tennial celebration. It was an army united in sentiment and united in fact for the blue linked arms with the gray They marched the dusty roads together from the village; they sat down at the same mess tables and they talked over the war before the same campfires tonight. If there was any rancor in any heart, any feeling of bitterness it did not come to the surface and over the broad expanSe of the "city" re-
 unions of those who won and those who tried, went on hour after hour.
 Pledges to Forget"
 Although the programme of the eel ebratfon will not be taken up until tomorrow there was a. reception today Meade's army and Wheeler's division of Lees. This meeting was held in the big tent set aside for the speech 1 making of the celebration and began fifty years to the hour from the time when the rst shot preceding the battle was fired. The gray cavalrymen who fought the skirmishes that led up to
 the three days fight pledged them-
 selves in the shadows of the Stars and Stripes to forget and their brothers in blue swore by the Stars and Bars
 that the fight was over for all time. Old School Girls Sing.
 There were several women from the village in the tent and six one-time school girls gray haired and aged now.
 sang Rally Round the Flag. Boys, while the veterans wept like boys, but with pride. The six women who sang the battle song were among those who thronged the streets of Gettysburg af- ter the advance guard of the southern army left it fifty years ago. On that l night when Buford's men came riding into the village on the heels of Wheel l CTS men in gray, maidenS Strew d l flowers along the streets and bells in the churches pealed the newts of the | coming of the blue and the town went wild.
 Only Half Dozen Singers.
 Of all the scores of girls who well comed the van of Meade, only a half l dozen could be found and they stood white haired, with tears in their eyes l on a platform in the big tent and sang ] to the weeping soldiers in the seats below
 I'm afraid we can't sing like we
 sang fifty years ago." said the matron- 1 ly woman who acted as leader as she led the way up the steps to the plat | form.
 Veterans Weep Openly.
 We don't care; just sing again, 5 l shouted the soldiers. As the first notes
 of the war time melody came from 1 them in quavering tones. the veterans l both of the north and of the south
 sat quiet with eyes fixed upon the singers. The hum of the chorus came 1 from every side and old men wept l openly. One bearded veteran of an fn fG1 nf a3 in l cident that happened on that other
 July night.
 Has Kept the Purple Ribbon. "As we rode through Gettysburg 1 that last time,' he said, T remem-
 Der a little girl stopped my horse and l said she wanted to give me a bou- quet I got down and she pinned a i ribbon-a little purple ribbon, to my l coat"
 1 Wear that in the next battle you l get into, she said.
 | We're not going to have any more battles around here I told her Yes you are,' she insisted Those 1 hills back there are full of rebels
 T wore that purple ribbon through 1 the battle. l never saw the girl af- 1 rewards, but I've kept that ribbon and l its back at home in Illinois today. Four Governors Arrive. l The veteran looked slowly toward | the platform to see if any of the wo-
 men there had been the donor of that
 faded bit of ribbon but not one nodded 1 in answer and he sank into his seat with 3 sigh.
 T guess she's with the army above l he said.
 1 Four governors came into camp to- 1 day: Governors McGovern of Wiscon 1 sin, Tener of Pennsylvania, Mann of l Virginia and McCreary of Kentucky