View attachment 164146
Front row: J. L. Chamberlain, D. Butterfield, J. Longstreet, D. Sickles,
at the Gettysburg 25th Anniversary
For the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg the Society of the Army of the Potomac held its annual meeting on the battlefield. At the suggestion of Gen. Dan Sickles, it was stipulated that veterans of the Army of Northern Virginia also be invited to attend, that all together “might on that occasion record in friendship and fraternity the sentiments of good-will, loyalty, and patriotism which now unite all in sincere devotion to the country.” The gathering, held appropriately on July 1, 2, and 3, 1888, drew some 30,000 participants, veterans and their families, mostly from the North. But, about 300 Confederate veterans attended.
Principal speakers at the reunion were generals Sickles, Longstreet, Henry W. Slocum, and John B. Gordon. The Confederates, notably, were those most identified with the spirit of reunification and reconciliation. And, the copious newspaper accounts all stressed those virtues, downplaying, indeed, rarely mentioning, any disaffection.
It was a time for good will and reunification. It was also a significant event in the development of the Gettysburg battlefield. Many monuments were dedicated during those three days, and many more would follow until the Gettysburg National Military Park became the moving experience it is today. Gen. John B. Gordon, then Governor of Georgia, said, in part:
"My fellow countrymen of the North, if I may be permitted to speak for those whom I represent, let me assure you that in the profoundest depths of their nature they reciprocate that generosity with all the manliness and sincerity of which brave men are capable. In token of that sincerity they join in consecrating for annual patriotic pilgrimage these historic heights, which drained such copious drafts of American blood poured so freely in discharge of duty, as each conceived it, a Mecca for the North, which so grandly defended it; a Mecca for the South, which so bravely and persistently stormed it; we join you in setting apart this land as an enduring monument of peace, brotherhood, and perpetual union."
A fuller account can be found at the GNMP blog,
"From the Fields of Gettysburg."
Also:
"'Killing the Southerners with Kindness."'