GAR Gettysburg reunion attendees...what year?

[Becky Morgan]

I know this is not period, but it is indeed CW-related. appeal to you folks who are much better at picking detail from picture than I'll ever be. My great-great-grandpa Dan, the coatless man at top left, is seeing his veteran brothers in their matching jackets off on their GAR trip to the Gettysburg reunion. Moses (we think that's him in front) was a 75th Ohio survivor. All of these brothers lived well into their nineties. There's the rub...were they on their way to the 50th or the 75th, and does anything in this picture suggest either answer to any of you?

Thanks in advance...

Becky Morgan

[MissMaggie]

Re: GAR Gettysburg reunion attendees...what year?

Becky,
Based on the cut of their jackets and the general overall look of their clothing I'm guessing its the 75th. They just look more 1930 than 1910 to me.

[FlatLandFed]

Re: GAR Gettysburg reunion attendees...what year?

Ladies,
I wonder if they were off to a regimental reunion at the GNP, in which case it could have been in late 1920s or early 1930s, not just the national 50th or 75th reunions?
I'd agree the suits look more appropriate for 1938 than 1913, but I will leave that to the clothing experts. Any idea how old these men would have been by then? If all of the guys in the photo lived to be at least 94, then they certainly could have been teenagers (and of enlistment age) at the time of Gettysburg and therefore "young" enough to attend the 75th.
Someone in the SUVCW Camps from Ohio might know how to find minutes saying who was elected as G.A.R. delegates to the 50th and 75th Gettysburg Encampments.
Here's a photo (I think?!) from the 1938 GBurg reunion -- do you think your models' clothing more resembles these guys' suits or an earlier period? Rats -- I didn't save the background info on this picture!
Hope this is of some help,
Paul Hadley

[Michael Shea]

Re: GAR Gettysburg reunion attendees...what year?

Ladies,

There are a few good shots of the 1938 reunion here:

http://www.horsesoldier.com/catalog/reunion.html

My favorite - possible my favorite photo of anything having to do with the war is the one below.

Kind regards,
Michael Shea

[Becky Morgan]

Re: GAR Gettysburg reunion attendees...what year?

That one explains it all, doesnt it?

I want to thank all who responded. Grandpa Dan lived to be 104, and except for one brother who got killed in a mine accident at 76, most of his family weren't far behind him. (Dan didnt enlist. He was a lifelong adherent to Quaker principle, although he got read out of meeting for marrying into the Church of Christ.)

My father, who was born in 1916, recalled the rest of them teasing one brother about going to Gettysburg, saying they'd have to confiscate his cane. Apparently, when he went to the 50th reunion, he was part of the group shaking hands at the stone wall. He encountered a previously unknown cousin who fought for a Virginia CS regiment (we haven't figured out which.) Their discussion unfortunately turned to states' rights, and the two of them augmented their voiced opinions by whaling on each other with their walking sticks.

The history of what the men (and women) did before and after the war is as interesting to me as what they did during the conflict. They didn't appear out of nowhere and disappear after; they had homes, work and families, and all of it shaped what they did during those four years.

--Becky Morgan