GETTYSBURG JUBILEE.

Northern Advocate, 8 September 1913, Page 3

GETTYSBURG JUBILEE.

40,000 VETERANS REVIEWED BY PRESIDENT WILSON. +j

European civilisation, with its centuries of strife and bloodshed, has not yet furnished a spectacle comparable to that witnessed on July 3, on the historic field of Gettysburg. There, 50 years ago, 80,000 men, representing the army of the North, clashed with 75,000 men of the Southern Confederacy in the decisive battle of America's Civil War, and there again, on the day mentioned, 40,000 men, all survivors of the Civil War, including several thousands actually engaged in the great fight, grizzled veterans bearing the scars of time, paraded in their former regimental organisations, and were reviewed by the President of the Republic of the United States. * It was impossible to spend a day in • the tented city, prettily situated on the slopes of green pasture, where brave men fought and died so that the Republic might live, without proA'ing what every American realises, that the North and the South have trodden under their feet the bitter weeds of hate and anger, and in their place have upsprung the pure flowers of friendship, esteem, and affection. Northerners and Southerners, about 500 all told, all survivors of Pickett's charge and the resisting force, clasped hands across the barricade and cheered, while some old fellows, overwrought by their exer- . tions in the tropical heat, broke down and wept. CENTENARIAN SURVIVOR. m It was a mighty and dramatic spectacle, full of realism and pathos, and it was witnessed by General Sickles, aged 93, the only surviving corps commander of the North, who was accompanied by Mrs Longstreet, widow of that fdmous Confederate general who was second only to General Lee in the command of the Southerners. Two other highly interested spectators were Sergeant Weiss, aged 112, and Sergeant Clem, aged 63, who was the spoilt baby of the camp. Weiss, despite his 112 years, authenticated by original papers attesting - his birth and enlistment in the Pennsylvania Regiment, still walks and talks, and is relatively a gay young soldier boy. He drank coffee in his tent, and talked for hours of the fateful days when Gettysburg was not a field of smiling happy hearts, great joys, but a field of carnage, and woe. Within a mile of the field telegraph station, whence the Western Union Cable Company sent its despatches, over 5000 men y lay buried. • Sergeant Clem, the baby of the camp, was a Union drummer boy. He gave his age at the time of enlisting at IC, but he was actually 13. Now at 63 he is still able to bear arms, and on this memorable day he carried before President Wilson the Star-span-gled flag to which nearly 100 millions owe allegiance. W)LEMN CEREMONIAL. In honour of the known and unknown dead of both armies, to whose memory Gettysburg has been hallowed and consecrated by President Lincoln in a speech which still endures as a masterpiece of English oratory and literature —America's greatest prose poem it is called—there was enacted a wonderfully impressive and "~~ unique ceremonial. Precisely at midday President Wilson, accompanied by members of his Cabinet, high officers of the army and navy, and surrounded by a goodly company of veterans of the North and South, foregathered at the base of the flagstaff outside the camp headquarters. Just as the church bells at Gettysburg tolled the hour of twelve, there was a salute by a battery of field artillery. A regiment of s infantry fired a volley, and massed military bands played a few strains of music from the "Messe Solenelle," in which the dominant note was not

all of sadness, but rather of triumph and joy. The Stars and Stripes "were lowered to half-mast, and then, for five'solemn, sacred minutes, all that mighty host of grizzled veterans, some feeble, old men, tottering on the brink of the grave, regulars of the United States Army in the prime of their strength and manhood, Boy Scouts of America, and civilians stood silently, impressively at attention. PRESIDENT'S SPEECH. It is conceded by many authoritative Americans at Gettysburg that Mr Bryce was probably right when he declared that statesmanship nowadays would be equal to the task of preventing such a great civil war such as rent the Northern and Southern States of America; but it is doubted by most people in the United States whether mere judicial machinery would have removed the rancour and bitterness so effectually as the bloody struggle, with untold sacrifice of life and money, entailed by the great war, whose climax at Gettysburg has now been celebrated. President Wilson's speech to the veterans was made in a big tent holding 3000 people. The keynote was that the worn: of upbuilding the country must not cease, but continue with unceasing vigilance. N6w, as in the days of the Civil War, America was confronted by great problems, and to solve them required painstaking effort and a united front. The President was loudly cheered by the throng as he left the tent escorted by veterans holding flags. So great was the throng that cavalry and the State mounted police were necessary to secure a passage for the President to his train.