US Civil War Gettysburg Reunion July 3, 1913
As we approach July 4, 2018 it is right to consider the value of our peace and the obscene delusions of glory and grandeur that make up a real war.
I display photos of the 1913 Gettysburg Battle Reunion and articles to give you more to consider and better recognition of our history. I wish to remind you, Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it.
Most of what you’ll see here comes from copies of articles around the web with some editing where inexperienced authors needed further assistance.
1913 Gettysburg reunion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1913_Gettysburg_reunion
The 1913 Gettysburg reunion was a Gettysburg Battlefield encampment of American Civil War veterans for the Battle of Gettysburg’s 50th anniversary. The June 29–July 4 gathering of 53,407 veterans was the largest ever Civil War veteran reunion, and “never before in the world’s history had so great a number of men so advanced in years been assembled under field conditions”.
All honorably discharged veterans in the Grand Army of the Republic and the United Confederate Veterans were invited, and veterans from 46 of the 48 states attended. Despite concerns “that there might be unpleasant differences, at least, between the blue and gray”, the peaceful reunion was repeatedly marked by events of Union–Confederate camaraderie.
Gettysburg PA: Brady Stewart traveled to Gettysburg for the 50th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg. It was the largest combined reunion of Civil War veterans ever held with over 50,000 Union and Confederate soldiers in attendance. President Wilson gave a new Gettysburg’s address to the 50,000 attendees on July 4th – 1913
President Woodrow Wilson‘s July 4 reunion address summarized the spirit: We have found one another again as brothers and comrades in arms, enemies no longer, generous friends rather, our battles long past, the quarrel forgotten—except that we shall not forget the splendid valor.”
Religion in the Civil War
NOVEMBER 30, 2015 / https://ctlsites.uga.edu/hist2111-wolf2015/2015/11/30/religion-in-the-civil-war/
(SN: I’m sad to see these links are broken. The magazine that carried them has in some way changed or gone off line. Departments in universities change! Protesters destroy historical monuments and replace them with monuments to evil. Evil these days is called good and what was Good we are now told is evil. I can only be thankful I captured this information before it was removed and I can only but wonder if God wanted me to capture it before this important portion of American history was removed from the Internet.)
Introduction
The purpose for the movement to America from Europe was to escape religious persecution and seek refuge from the cruelty of monarchy.
Religion has always been a factor in the making of the United States and it especially played an immense role throughout the Civil War. The Union and the Confederacy both interpreted scripture in ways that would support their reasonings behind their battles. Both sides called upon God as their defendant and as their persecutor. The slave population also turned to a higher power as something to support them throughout the inhumane cruelty they suffered.
Many believed that God controlled the war and that He would decide how long it would last and who was going to win. People sought out religion to also find comfort throughout a deadly war that seemed like it would never end. Overall, religion was manipulated to satisfy the differing beliefs between the Union, the Confederacy, and the slaves throughout this “War Between The States.”
A preacher giving a sermon in the midst of the Civil War
Abraham Lincoln felt it was his duty to preserve the Union
The Union
Churches during this time period had a unique influence on those that followed the teachings in the Bible. The Union wanted to preserve itself and continue on the greatness that is America and its government. To convince people of the Christian based ideals and to further the power that America had on the world, the Union believed that it had to stop the Confederate rebellion. Christian ministers taught congregations that the war was a step in the right direction by using specific scripture such as the twentieth chapter of Revelation as well as many other chapters.
Clergy leaders “suggested that a Northern victory might prepare the way for the Kingdom of God on earth.” Besides the basis of the fight being to preserve the Union, people who sided with the north wanted to put an end to slavery. Research shows that people who sided with the Union believed “that God would continue to chastise the North and would not allow it to win the war until it took steps to end slavery.” The church essentially caused the northern war effort to become more radicalized so that it would be ensured that the Union would claim the victory.
Because Union soldiers could not go to church, most would often carry a small bible or hymnal that they could look to. A different way that religion influenced views and participation throughout the Civil War was that some churches wanted to restore peace to the Union. They believed that instead of fighting in a war, the people of the nation should settle the argument in a pacifistic way. However, this belief only influenced a small population because the war had already become a violent and extremist event that was not going to end unless there was a reigning victor.
Union soldier
The Confederacy
It could be argued that people who believed in the practice of slavery could never rely on God as their defendant. However, Confederates did support that belief with religious aspects just as people of the Union did. They manipulated scripture and used the church as a sounding board to their struggle to battle the north and secede from the Union.
The south was frightened of the expanding Union; There was a growing belief that the government was becoming too controlling because of the increasing desire to abolish slavery. Sources have shown that “southern preachers declared that slavery was a sacred trust imposed on the South by the slave traders of Great Britain and the northern states. Furthermore, some averred, God had ordained slavery as a punishment for African paganism.” Another way that religion played a role in the Confederate fight throughout the Civil War was that men were off in battle leaving behind their wives and children to attend church.
In turn, their faithful adherence improved life on the home front and increased morale, which is an essential factor throughout a war. The women felt a responsibility to uphold a religious aspect at the home front and they did so by doing the jobs that the men left behind; they thought of this as keeping the “Christian nationhood” alive.
The Confederacy made their own constitution, which included naming themselves a Christian nation. Confederate President Jefferson Davis was influential in religious views, as were others close to President Davis. Davis said that the time had come “to recognize our dependence upon God … [and] supplicate his merciful protection.” The south was so radical that some believed that a godless government ran the Union.
Confederate uniform and hand gun
Religion and Slaves
What else was there to do during this time period in a slave’s situation other than to look to a higher power for comfort and clarity? When slaves were brought to America they were forced to convert to Christianity; they had no control over what they were allowed to practice religiously. Eventually, slaves began to truly believe in the Bible and the scripture it taught.
Most slaves turned to God during a torturous time in their lives. Others maintained their traditional beliefs from Africa such as Hoodoo and other forms of demon worship.
Christianity teaches that God has a plan for each of us, and that He decides one’s fate. Many slaves relied on that doctrine to help them through the war and the harshness inflicted on them during this era. In these modern times some argue that it was contradictory for the white people to call themselves Christian but still have slaves.
Slave owners sometimes used scripture to argue for their point of view and slave ownership. Others taught slaves that slavery is unlawful and inhumane treatment that needed to be stopped. Slaves fought on both sides of the war because they had to. All that most slaves wanted was their freedom and if God was going to help them with that then they would believe upon Him.
In Conclusion
Religion has often been a contradictory factor throughout the world. During the American Civil War era Christianity dominated and influenced many people concerning what they thought of the war, how they were going to act on it, and what the outcome would be.
Clearly the Union and the Confederacy both played roles in using religion to support their politico-religious views. Slaves were comforted by their faith to help them throughout the war and throughout the time of slavery.
Religion influenced some to change their lives to coincide with what their religion taught. Scripture was used to specify why either side of the war was right.
Christian religion played a key role throughout the American Civil War and was a major influence regarding thoughts and actions.
Works Cited
“Search Results.” Lincoln with Major Union Figures. 29 Nov. 1860. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.<http://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?q=record_ID%3Anpg_NPG.89.61&repo=DPLA>
“Religion in the Civil War: The Southern Perspective, Divining America, TeacherServe©, National Humanities Center.” Religion in the Civil War: The Southern Perspective, Divining America, TeacherServe©, National Humanities Center. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.<http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/cwsouth.htm>
“Religion in the Civil War: The Northern Perspective, The Nineteenth Century, Divining America: Religion in American History, TeacherServe, National Humanities Center.” Religion in the Civil War: The Northern Perspective, The Nineteenth Century, Divining America: Religion in American History, TeacherServe, National Humanities Center. Web. 29 Nov. 2015. <http://www.nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/cwnorth.htm#aminot>.
Web. 29 Nov. 2015. <https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/journal_of_the_civil_war_era/v001/1.3.cashin.html >.
“Union Soldiers – Civil War Soldiers.” Civil War Soldiers. 7 Aug. 2003. Web. 29 Nov. 2015. <http://civilwar.ws/cws_union_soldiers.htm>.
PBS. PBS. Web. 29 Nov. 2015. <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/religion/history2.html>.
Proslavery Ideology in the Antebellum South
July 3, 1913: Gettysburg Great Reunion Commemorates Pickett’s Charge
On this day in 1913, Civil War veterans commemorated Pickett’s Charge at the Great Reunion of 1913. The reunion, held on Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania on the 50th anniversary of our country’s bloodiest fight, was the largest gathering of Civil War veterans ever.
On this day in 1913, Civil War veterans commemorated Pickett’s Charge at the Great Reunion of 1913. The reunion, held on Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania on the 50th anniversary of our country’s bloodiest fight, was the largest gathering of Civil War veterans ever.
Reunions of Civil War soldiers began occurring in the early 1900s. For the 50th anniversary of Gettysburg, the War Department and the Gettysburg National Park Commission prepared a special celebration. The Battle of Gettysburg raged from July 1-3, 1863, with the culminating point being Pickett’s Charge, during which 12,500 Confederate soldiers co-led by General George Pickett charged Union lines thorough over three-quarters of a mile of open field. The attack resulted in Confederate casualties of more than 50 percent and ended the battle. The Union victory at Gettysburg was the turning point in the Civil War.
The Great Reunion was held from June 29-July 4 and during those five days, more than 53,000 Civil War veterans, including the 8,750 Confederates, came to commemorate the battle. While President Woodrow Wilson spoke on the last day, the most memorable event was the remembrance of Pickett’s Charge. Two units that participated in the charge advanced 50 feet on the “Bloody Angle,” the spot where 1,500 Confederate soldiers actually did break through Union lines. Upon reaching each other, the veterans shook hands and hugged.
This article is from here: http://aarontallent.com/?p=3631
For further study I recommend these URL’s
http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/samson/samson.html a very long piece but quite insightful.
https://guides.library.harvard.edu/hds/civil-war/hds/civil-war-1861
Stephen Newdell
FINAL COMMENTARY
Conscience, color, politics, economics and religious views all contributed to reasons why so many went off to war never to be seen again.
1913 Gettysburg reunion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1913_Gettysburg_reunion
The 1913 Gettysburg reunion was a Gettysburg Battlefield encampment of American Civil War veterans for the Battle of Gettysburg’s 50th anniversary. The June 29–July 4 gathering of 53,407 veterans was the largest ever Civil War veteran reunion, and “never before in the world’s history so great a number of men so advanced in years been assembled under field conditions”. All honorably discharged veterans in the Grand Army of the Republic and the United Confederate Veterans were invited, and veterans from 46 of the 48 states attended.
Despite concerns “that there might be unpleasant differences, at least, between the blue and gray”, the peaceful reunion was repeatedly marked by events of Union–Confederate camaraderie.
President Woodrow Wilson’s July 4 reunion address summarized the spirit: “We have found one another again as brothers and comrades in arms, enemies no longer, generous friends rather, our battles long past, the quarrel forgotten—except that we shall not forget the splendid valor.”
Splendid valor... Sometimes we say, “let the facts speak for themselves” so I’ll reel off a few and when you’re done reading ask yourself if there was any glory, glamor or splendor in that terrible conflagration.
And ask yourself too, if we have another in the USA, will there be anything splendid about that one?
620,000 Civil War soldiers dead, Two-Thirds died of disease in boot camp and never saw battle. Fine young men and many women too, Blacks and Whites, enSlaved and Free, Protestants, Jews and Catholics, — all told, it amounted to 2% of the US population. We don’t have a tally of civilian losses, but the loss of military women and men was more than we lost in all other wars combined until the middle of the Vietnam conflict.
Gettysburg wasn’t the only unusually bloody battle.
More Americans were killed in two days at the Battle of Shiloh than in all previous American wars combined. The Battle of Antietam was only one day long but left 12,401 Union soldiers killed, missing, or wounded — which is higher than typical estimates of Allied casualties on D-Day. With 23,000 casualties overall, it was the bloodiest single day of the Civil War. At Cold Harbor, Virginia, 7,000 men fell in just 20 minutes.
Nearly 56,000 soldiers died in prison camps from starvation and disease — a quarter of those deaths happened at one camp.
No American prisoner of war camp had ever held more than 100 men at a time prior to 1861. During the Civil War, each camp held thousands. Although they weren’t intentionally killing prisoners, ignorance of proper sanitation, overcrowding, and a lack of resources led to an egregious number of soldier deaths. Camp Sumter in Georgia was the largest of the 150 military prisons and also the deadliest. Nearly 40,000 soldiers were imprisoned there, and 13,000, or about one-third, of them died.
African-Americans made up less than 1 percent of the North’s population but were 10 percent of the Union Army.
Black men weren’t allowed to join the army until 1863. About 180,000 black men, more than 85 percent of eligible African-Americans in the Northern states, fought. While white soldiers earned $13 a month, black soldiers earned only $10 — and then were charged a $3 clothing fee that lowered their monthly pay to $7. The highest paid black soldier made less than the lowest paid white one. After protesting by refusing to accept their wages and gaining support from abolitionist Congressmen, black soldiers finally received equal pay in 1864 — paid retroactively to their enlistment date.
About 20 percent of soldiers were under 18.
The Confederacy had no minimum enlistment age. Even though the Union Army technically required soldiers to be 18, many officers looked the other way when it came to underage soldiers. Some younger soldiers signed up as drummers or bunglers. Musicians weren’t supposed to fight, but when the battles began, they often set down their instruments and picked up a weapon.
Women secretly fought in the war.
Both sides prohibited women from enlisting. However, that didn’t stop them from joining in disguise. Since they were incognito, exact numbers aren’t known. But some estimates say 400 women served in the war by pretending to be men. Many certainly did it out of a sense of loyalty to their cause, but historians say some women were just in it to make ends meet during desperate times.
The estimated cost of the war was $6.19 billion ($146 billion in today’s dollars).
While the cost in human lives was the most tragic, the Civil War also had a high financial toll. Before the war, the U.S. government spent roughly $1 million a week. By the end of the war, the federal government was spending $3.5 million a day. The South was the primary battlefield of the war and suffered greatly with $10 billion in property damage and two-fifths of its livestock destroyed.
As of 2014, the Department of Veterans Affairs was still paying a Civil War pension.
The last surviving child of a Union Veteran was still receiving a small, monthly pension payment 149 years after the Civil War ended.
The source of these Stunning Facts: https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/12-stunning-civil-war-facts/
Final Commentary by Dr. Stephen Newdell:
What our nation needs to do is focus on what makes us alike rather than what makes us different! We need weeks of prayer and serious consideration.
We need to recognize that God and The Bible are not mythology, and that the idea that God forbade some of today’s fashionably lusty and spiritually denigrating behaviors is not “hate speech,” it is truthful and necessary discussion which we need more than we ever have.
We must restore “old fashioned” moral values and recognize the errors of our profligate ways! We must go before The True and Living God, beg forgiveness for breaking His commandment and immediately work diligently to change our ways.
If our national population continues in the present immoral course of actions, the same punishments that fell on earlier sin-saturated societies will fall upon ours. There will be nothing left of us!
July 4th, “Independence Day” in the USA is often a day for forgetfulness. Some of us hold a parade, watch a game, dine together, start a long weekend, and really get into the swing of summer vacations. I have often wondered if the summer of 2019 was our last splendid summer. I worry about it. Of course for many homeless it was terrible. What will become of them in the harsh winter of 2019. Who will put a name on their graves or remember them? What will become of these poor lost souls? I believe they will have one last chance to become one of God’s subjects in his coming Kingdom. But of course theological doctrine differs.
This entire website is intended to entertain, interest, and teach you and then point you back to God’s words and proofs that God is real and is our only hope for salvation eternally, and salvation of our nation in the near future. If you still have a home and hope for a decent future thank God in the many little things you do all through the day. That’s a real good beginning for your future protection and preservation.
Good folks remember these things. Honest, morally upright leaders remember. Only Fools Forget!
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