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1938 Battle of Gettysburg 75th Blue/Grey Reunion.
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<p>[QUOTE="leeg, post: 3854484, member: 17073"]“There’s Still Life in the Old Boys Yet!’ a newspaper article emphatically exclaimed. An accompanying photograph portrayed Union veteran Tim Flaherty, well into his nineties, dancing a jig for his comrades. The year was 1938, the July heat sweltering, and the final grand reunion of the blue and gray well underway. Seventy-five years after the battle of Gettysburg, 1,845 veterans were able to reach the rolling hills of southern Pennsylvania to once more commemorate the defining four years of their generation.</p><p><br /></p><p> However, this reunion was different than the others.</p><p><br /></p><p> Nearly 775,000 tourists clogged Gettysburg’s narrow alleys, modern military equipment was used to reenact iconic moments of the battle, and over one hundred national press outlets insured the nation was saturated with news concerning the Battle of Gettysburg and its significance, perhaps for the first time since the battle itself. Over the four days of commemoration, the media’s representation of the aging veterans would mirror a fundamental change in the commemoration of the American Civil War. Memorialization would shift from being largely for the veterans to for the nation, and Tim Flaherty and his comrades would be placed firmly into antiquity.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1020937[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>This is an aerial view of the 75th Anniversary encampment. It was located on the plain between Gettysburg College and Oak Ridge where the 11th Corps fought on July 1, 1863. The Carlisle Road is shown on the left side running into the town of Gettysburg. It intersects with West Howard Avenue, which is the road near the bottom of the image running from northeast to southwest in this photograph. This photograph was taken by the U.S. Army Signal Corps. This view was taken facing southwest in 1938. <i>Adam County Historical Society</i>.</b></p><p><br /></p><p> One unique characteristic of media coverage concerning the 75th Anniversary was the overemphasis of the veterans’ age. The average age of the attending veterans was ninety-four, and they were all aware that this would be the final Gettysburg reunion. The ‘tent city’ provided for the veterans comfort as much as possible, including a fully functional hospital and over four hundred wheelchairs, complete with Boy Scouts and National Guardsmen to push them. Many veterans invited were forced to decline attending due to poor health, and others were truly risking their lives in order to reach Gettysburg.</p><p><br /></p><p> The language used by media outlets stressed this impending mortality with vigor. Terms such as ‘old-timers,’ ‘hobbling,’ and ‘feeble’ were common. One article even commented that the reunion ‘crowded out the thought that the time is closing in and that the remnants of the once proud Union and Confederate armies soon must join their comrades.’ This characterization seemed to survive the ensuing decades, as an article about the anniversary in 1979 referred to it as the ‘graybeard reunion.’ However, even more damaging was the presentation of the veterans as not only aging, but also cartoonish and childlike.</p><p><br /></p><p>One headline stated that the ‘Gettysburg Camp Grand Talk Fest for Veterans,’ which went on to describe a ninety-five year old Confederate doing a ‘lively buck and wing dance,’ as well as implying that the only modern day issue concerning Philadelphia resident Allen T. McFarland was the outcome of the Phillies-Giants baseball game. Articles such as these romanticized veterans at best and portrayed them as one-dimensional and simplistic at worst. Even more significantly, the emphasis on age implied that veterans belong to a past era, instead of as a part of modern society.</p><p><br /></p><p> The impetus for organizing this reunion was not from the veterans or the veteran’s organizations, but from local and state commissioners under the leadership of Gettysburg Chamber of Commerce Executive Secretary Paul Roy. Hoping to renew interest in the lucrative practice of reunions and monument building which characterized the late 19th century, Roy saw the anniversary as an opportunity to ‘sell’ Gettysburg to the nation. Obviously, a considerably smaller number of veterans attended the 75th Anniversary in comparison to the 50th, but another key difference lay in the significantly larger number of tourists in 1938. Automobile travel, improved highways, and increased focus on catering to families ensured both access to Gettysburg and an enjoyable experience upon arrival. Interactions between the visiting families and the few remaining elderly veterans were largely for the benefit of the tourists searching for an authenticated experience of the past. In many ways, veterans became integral to creating a unique experience for visitors as part of a commemorative landscape.”<b>4</b></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><b>4 <i>Civil Discourse, a Blog of the Long Silver war Era</i>, by Regekah Oakes, January 01, 2015.</b> </span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"></span>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="leeg, post: 3854484, member: 17073"]“There’s Still Life in the Old Boys Yet!’ a newspaper article emphatically exclaimed. An accompanying photograph portrayed Union veteran Tim Flaherty, well into his nineties, dancing a jig for his comrades. The year was 1938, the July heat sweltering, and the final grand reunion of the blue and gray well underway. Seventy-five years after the battle of Gettysburg, 1,845 veterans were able to reach the rolling hills of southern Pennsylvania to once more commemorate the defining four years of their generation. However, this reunion was different than the others. Nearly 775,000 tourists clogged Gettysburg’s narrow alleys, modern military equipment was used to reenact iconic moments of the battle, and over one hundred national press outlets insured the nation was saturated with news concerning the Battle of Gettysburg and its significance, perhaps for the first time since the battle itself. Over the four days of commemoration, the media’s representation of the aging veterans would mirror a fundamental change in the commemoration of the American Civil War. Memorialization would shift from being largely for the veterans to for the nation, and Tim Flaherty and his comrades would be placed firmly into antiquity. [ATTACH=full]1020937[/ATTACH] [B]This is an aerial view of the 75th Anniversary encampment. It was located on the plain between Gettysburg College and Oak Ridge where the 11th Corps fought on July 1, 1863. The Carlisle Road is shown on the left side running into the town of Gettysburg. It intersects with West Howard Avenue, which is the road near the bottom of the image running from northeast to southwest in this photograph. This photograph was taken by the U.S. Army Signal Corps. This view was taken facing southwest in 1938. [I]Adam County Historical Society[/I].[/B] One unique characteristic of media coverage concerning the 75th Anniversary was the overemphasis of the veterans’ age. The average age of the attending veterans was ninety-four, and they were all aware that this would be the final Gettysburg reunion. The ‘tent city’ provided for the veterans comfort as much as possible, including a fully functional hospital and over four hundred wheelchairs, complete with Boy Scouts and National Guardsmen to push them. Many veterans invited were forced to decline attending due to poor health, and others were truly risking their lives in order to reach Gettysburg. The language used by media outlets stressed this impending mortality with vigor. Terms such as ‘old-timers,’ ‘hobbling,’ and ‘feeble’ were common. One article even commented that the reunion ‘crowded out the thought that the time is closing in and that the remnants of the once proud Union and Confederate armies soon must join their comrades.’ This characterization seemed to survive the ensuing decades, as an article about the anniversary in 1979 referred to it as the ‘graybeard reunion.’ However, even more damaging was the presentation of the veterans as not only aging, but also cartoonish and childlike. One headline stated that the ‘Gettysburg Camp Grand Talk Fest for Veterans,’ which went on to describe a ninety-five year old Confederate doing a ‘lively buck and wing dance,’ as well as implying that the only modern day issue concerning Philadelphia resident Allen T. McFarland was the outcome of the Phillies-Giants baseball game. Articles such as these romanticized veterans at best and portrayed them as one-dimensional and simplistic at worst. Even more significantly, the emphasis on age implied that veterans belong to a past era, instead of as a part of modern society. The impetus for organizing this reunion was not from the veterans or the veteran’s organizations, but from local and state commissioners under the leadership of Gettysburg Chamber of Commerce Executive Secretary Paul Roy. Hoping to renew interest in the lucrative practice of reunions and monument building which characterized the late 19th century, Roy saw the anniversary as an opportunity to ‘sell’ Gettysburg to the nation. Obviously, a considerably smaller number of veterans attended the 75th Anniversary in comparison to the 50th, but another key difference lay in the significantly larger number of tourists in 1938. Automobile travel, improved highways, and increased focus on catering to families ensured both access to Gettysburg and an enjoyable experience upon arrival. Interactions between the visiting families and the few remaining elderly veterans were largely for the benefit of the tourists searching for an authenticated experience of the past. In many ways, veterans became integral to creating a unique experience for visitors as part of a commemorative landscape.”[B]4[/B] [COLOR=#000000][B]4 [I]Civil Discourse, a Blog of the Long Silver war Era[/I], by Regekah Oakes, January 01, 2015.[/B] [/COLOR][/QUOTE]
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