How the 1913 Gettysburg Reunion Came to Be the ‘Greatest Gathering of Conqueror and Conquered’

Fifty Years After the Civil War Battle, Politicians Preached Patriotic Amnesia, While Veterans Attempted to Find Solace 

The old veterans couldn’t wait to come. Roads ran thick with automobiles and horse buggies. Most arrived on the nation’s sprawling rails. A few walked more than 100 miles. An 85-year-old man, fearing his son would prevent him from going, crawled out a window and caught a train.

Altogether, an estimated 50,000 of the blue and gray trekked to the Great Reunion, a grand commemoration at iconic Gettysburg, on that battle’s 50th anniversary: July 1 to 3, 1913.

Why did they go? According to the many politicians and generals who …