The Great Reunion
The Seventy-fifth Anniversary of Gettysburg
Summer 1992, Vol. 24, no. 2 | Genealogy Notes
By Mitchell Yockelson
They came from all over the United States, 1,845 strong, for one last time to commemorate an event that changed their lives forever. This event happened seventy-five years earlier in a small Pennsylvania farming community when two determined armies fought each other for three consecutive days in the summer heat. The confrontation would become known to history as the Battle of Gettysburg. From June 29 to July 6, 1938, 1,359 veterans from the North and 486 from the South descended upon Gettysburg for the seventy-fifth anniversary of the battle. It was also the last combined reunion of those who participated in the four-year Civil War.
Union and Confederate veterans shake hands across the stone wall at the 1938 "Blue and Gray Reunion" at Gettysburg.
The reunion was jointly sponsored by the State of Pennsylvania and the federal government with assistance from the Grand Army of the Republic and the United Confederate Veterans. Authorized by Congress in 1936 and appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Federal Commission for the Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the Battle at Gettysburg, June 29–July 6, 1938, included Secretary of War Harry H. Woodring; Hugh L. White, governor of Mississippi; United States Senator Joseph F. Guffey of Pennsylvania; Representative Harry L. Haines of the twenty-second Pennsylvania district; and Representative Marvin Jones of the eighteenth Texas district.1
Records produced by the commission are included in the Records of the Quartermaster General (Record Group 92) and contain correspondence between commission members and the various veterans' organizations, reports, lists of invited veterans, and blueprints of the structures specifically built for the reunion. The eighty-two cubic feet of records in the custody of the Suitland Reference Branch in the National Archives in Suitland, Maryland, are arranged according to the War Department decimal classification scheme. While the files pertain mostly to administrative matters, there is also a wealth of information for genealogists whose ancestors participated in or were invited to this incredible gathering. The records also provide researchers an opportunity to study one example of how Americans honored their war veterans over fifty years ago, a tradition still maintained today.
Organizing a reunion on such a large scale, as well as moving 1,845 veterans to Gettysburg from throughout the United States, was no easy task. The initial idea of a final reunion between the Blue and Gray was proposed by the state of Pennsylvania in 1913, when the Union and Confederate veterans met in Gettysburg for the fiftieth anniversary of the battle. It was not until 1935, however, that serious attempts were made to plan the last reunion. The governor of Pennsylvania, George H. Earle, formed a commission to examine the feasibility of this event taking place. He directed Paul L. Roy of Gettysburg, who was the executive secretary of the Pennsylvania commission, to meet with individuals of the two veterans' organizations in September 1935 and invite them to the reunion in 1938.
Roy would later publish a book on the organization and events of the seventy-fifth anniversary. In The Last Reunion of the Blue and Gray, Roy reminisced on how he met with the leader of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV), Gen. Harry Rene Lee, at a UCV reunion in Amarillo, Texas. " `General Lee,' I said, as calmly as I could, `I came to Amarillo to talk with you about the proposed Blue and Gray Reunion to be held at Gettysburg. My name is . . .' That's as far as I got when Lee interrupted. `Young Man, I thought you would come down here and try to get my organization to go to Gettysburg to meet with those damnyankees, but I'm here to tell you there is no go. . . . The answer is no, emphatically and positively NO.'" Luckily, Roy was able to reason with General Lee and by the end of the day he had received a commitment from the UCV.2
Convincing the Union veterans to meet with their former Southern foes was also not an easy task. A few hours after learning that the UCV had voted to attend the reunion at Gettysburg, Roy was en route to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to attend the sixty-ninth National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) and extend an invitation to that organization. Upon arriving in Grand Rapids, Roy found a major wave of opposition from the GAR, whose highest ranking officers at first refused to meet with him. Many of the veterans still felt a bit of resentment toward the Confederate invasion of the North, which had been successfully repelled by the Union defenders at Gettysburg. After several heated discussions by various factions of the GAR, they eventually relented and voted to join the Confederate veterans in 1938 on the Gettysburg battlefield.3
The next task at hand was to locate all of the surviving veterans of the Civil War, not just those who participated in the Battle of Gettysburg, and send them formal invitations. Before the federal commission could proceed with establishing an accurate and complete list of veterans eligible to receive an invitation from the government to attend the reunion, it was essential to define the term "veteran" under the law. The commission found that quite a number of men who had performed service of some kind in connection with the armies as civilian body servants, messengers, nurses, or teamsters felt they were entitled to attend. In view of the fact that they never had actually enlisted, it was decided to exclude them from invitation.
The term "veteran" was accordingly defined as "one who was regularly enlisted in the Armed Forces of either the Union or the Confederacy and who saw actual service during the War of 1861–1865."4 Those who had served in the naval forces on either side were naturally included as eligible. No others were considered eligible to receive an official invitation from the government. Names for the roster of veterans were obtained from every source believed to be in possession of such information. Names of Union veterans were obtained chiefly from the pension rolls of the Veterans Administration. In addition, letters were sent to the presidents of the United Daughters of Union Veterans, the commanders of the GAR, the adjutant generals of the United States, and other officials having such records under their jurisdiction. Similar letters were sent to the presidents of the chapters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, commanders of the Confederate Veterans and Sons, and the various state archives, comptrollers, and pension commissions.
It was the desire of the federal commission that no eligible veteran should be overlooked and that each should receive an invitation from the government in accordance with the law. Therefore, every effort was made to verify the service of those whose names were obtained from any source. The service of those Union men whose names appeared on the federal pension rolls was certified by the Veterans Administration. Because veterans having less than ninety days' service were not entitled to pensions, and therefore were not listed on the pension rolls, they were not invited.
Little difficulty was experienced in the verification of records of Union veterans, as their service files are quite complete. In the case of Confederate soldiers, however, the commission was confronted with insufficient records or a total absence of records in some cases. The commission also had to contend with the fact that in many southern states home guards had been organized to combat particular advances of Union forces and were not constantly in the service, nor were they part of the regular Confederate army. In addition to these, there were many irregular or guerrilla organizations that claimed to have fought for the Confederacy. In these cases it was extremely difficult, if not impossible, to establish service by official records. It was therefore agreed that if a man had no official record, did not belong to any veterans' organization, and was not a pensioner, he should not be considered eligible. In the case of Confederate veterans, service was verified through the office of the adjutant general and the pension records of the various states. Certificates from any government official, state custodian of records, or clerk in charge of pension payments were accepted as proof of service.
After the federal commission had exhausted all sources and established as complete a list of surviving veterans as possible, it sent out the invitations. Approximately 10,500 invitation were sent by the commission, which included those sent to various dignitaries and members of the media. The federal commission received 1,890 acceptances and 2,226 declinations. In 2,243 cases, mail was returned to the commission marked "Deceased." The acceptance forms contained information as to the name and address of the veteran, the organization with which he served during the war, the name and address of his attendant, and the name and address of someone to be notified in case of emergency.
Although some veterans may have declined the invitation because of continued ill feelings toward their former enemy, most veterans declined due to poor health. One example was William Perrine, who served with the First New Jersey Cavalry from 1863 to 1865. Perrine stated in the questionnaire returned with his invitation that "I am very deaf and my sight is failing, but if I am able I will be glad to come." One month later the commission received a letter from Mrs. Gertrude Van Nest, Perrine's daughter. Mrs. Van Nest said that "my father will not be able to go as the excitement of going has upset his mind. He is 94 years old and never traveled very much as he has been very deaf since the war."5
Each veteran was allowed one attendant at government expense, either male or female, "with a view to insuring him every care and comfort on the journey to and from Gettysburg and while there." The Pennsylvania state commission had advised in preliminary correspondence that only male attendants would be acceptable. The federal commission, however, after receiving numerous complaints from veterans against this restriction, decided to allow female attendants, thus making it possible for wives, other relatives, or nurses to act in that capacity. The commission agreed that each veteran and attendant should be entitled to "a per diem allowance of not to exceed $6.00 for each full day of 24 hours, this allowance to be in lieu of subsistence and all incidental expenses of travel."6 In some cases the individual veteran's files include letters written by various family members regarding the health of the veteran and whether or not he would attend.
Upon arriving in Gettysburg, the Pennsylvania state commission, acting as host, met the veterans at the trains and placed them on buses to be taken to reception tents in the camps. There they were registered, and tents were assigned to each. They were then entrusted to the care of enlisted men of the National Guard and Boy Scouts, who took them and their baggage to their quarters.7The veterans and their attendants lived in a "tented city," which was located on the north end of the borough of Gettysburg, the campus of Gettysburg College, and additional land leased by private owners. In addition, there were three kitchens, fifty-five mess tents, and a field hospital containing three hundred beds. The veterans were so enthusiastic with the camp arrangements and the courtesies extended that a group of the soldiers telegraphed the secretary of war asking him to use his influence with Congress to maintain the camp permanently for veterans.8
Whether or not a living Civil War veteran attended the commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg reunion, the federal commission maintained a file on that person. The files are arranged alphabetically by state, then alphabetically by the veteran's surname. Each file contains information on the veteran's activity during the Civil War, his address at the time the invitation was sent, his health status, and whether or not he planned to attend the reunion. The records may provide the genealogist with information not found in the veteran's pension, military service, or census records. Researchers wishing to order copies of a particular veteran's file should contact the National Archives, Suitland Reference Branch (NNRR), Washington, DC 20409. In order to search the records, the branch must have the veteran's complete name and the state in which he resided at the time of the reunion.
In addition to the textual records in the Suitland Reference Branch, anyone attempting to locate a photograph of a participant at the reunion may want to visit the National Archives Still Pictures Branch (NNSP). This branch has custody of the official federal commission photographs, which are located in the Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General (Record Group 92) and the Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer (Record Group 111) There are also motion picture newsreels of the reunion in the National Archives Gift Collection (Record Group 200), which are in the custody of the National Archives Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch (NNSM). Additional information on the reunion can be obtained through the Gettysburg National Battlefield Park, Gettysburg, PA 17325, as well as the special collections department of the Gettysburg College library, Gettysburg, PA 17325.
Mitchell Yockelson is an archivist in the Suitland Reference Branch of the Office of the National Archives. He received his M.A. in American history from George Mason University.
Notes
1. Report on the Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, June 29, 1938–July 6, 1938, box 2-A, Records of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC (hereinafter cited as Reunion Report, RG 92, NA).
2. Paul L. Roy, The Last Reunion of the Blue and Gray (Gettysburg, PA, 1950), p. 5.
3. Ibid., pp. 15–16.
4. Reunion Report, RG 92, NA.
5. Veteran file for William Perrine, box 129, Records of the Federal Commission for the Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, June–July 1938, RG 92, NA.
6. Reunion Report, RG 92, NA.
7. Ibid.
8. Roy, The Last Reunion, pp. 34–35.