One more Historical Event for the 4th...

[ELB]

Just found this tonight after I came home from the evening's firewatch. It is a bit belated, since it is now the 5th of July as I write, but this is too doggone interesting to pass up.

In the first few days of July 1938, the 75th, and apparently last, reunion of Civil War veterans was held at Gettysburg Pennsylvania. About 1,800 veterans, all of whom must have been in their 90s, were brought to a large tent city, and looks like each was provided with an attendant. From the pictures I saw, it looks like soldiers acted as attendants, as well as staffing the hospital (a 300 bed hospital!) and ambulances, etc. Boy Scouts, National Guard, etc were all involved. President Roosevelt came. There were parades and flyovers and cavalry and tank demonstrations.

There are surviving pictures, and what I found very interesting, some newsreels that are on Youtube. I've read about the "Rebel Yell" many times in history books -- and now I know what it sounds like. Was different than I expected.

Here is a website documenting the event with some narrative and a lot of B&W pictures:
http://www.horsesoldier.com/catalog/reunion.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here is another with the newsreel clips. The second clip shows Union and Confederate veterans shaking hands over a stone wall that was part of the Bloody Angle --- Twenty (20) hours of hand-to-hand combat during the Battle of Spotsylvania. During the handshaking you can hear some yodeling type calls, and the Reb vet closest to the camera looks at the camera and says "That's a Rebel yell." This is followed by just a sound clip that is apparently a recording of a chorus of rebel yells. I am somewhat astonished to be able to hear "the real thing." It is also amazing to contemplate these guys were contemporaries of Abraham Lincoln, Stephan Douglass, Grant, Lee, and all the rest.
http://www.artsjournal.com/aboutlastnig ... ast_1.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here is a National Park Service explanation of the Bloody Angle fight.
http://www.nps.gov/frsp/bloody.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just amazing, to me as a history buff anyway, that this exists, especially the newsreels.

[CrimsonSoul]

That was extremly entertaining, thank you.

[seamusTX]

Fascinating, as Spock would say.

- Jim