Barnaby Breaks History 🇺🇸@BarnabyHistory
🇺🇸 The 1913 Gettysburg 50th Reunion ended in the most beautiful way.
When almost everyone had left the encampment, a few veterans from each side stayed behind. They were from the Signal Corps.
They went out to the battlefield with their ‘talking flags’ and set up two ‘wigwag’ communication stations.
One station was Union, on Little Round Top, and the other Confederate, on Seminary Ridge, about 2 miles away.
Then, across the empty battlefield, they started talking to each other.
First from Little Round Top, veteran Sgt. Charles Dewitt Marcy, of Boston, MA, wigwagged out Gen. Grant's words: “Let us have peace.”
It brought cheers from those veterans present.
On Seminary Ridge, veteran Lt. George C. Round, of Manassas, VA, responded with Gen. Lee’s declaration of “Duty, the sublimest word in our language.”
Little Round Top responded back with “Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men.”
Seminary Ridge sent back “Glory to God in the Highest.”
Little Round Top responded with “America! All hail to Thee! Thanks be to God, who made us free!”
And in a fitting end to the grandest reunion of them all, in a final message between Union and Confederate lines, Seminary Ridge ended it with “North, South, East, and West, hand clasped in hand, United, we the children stand.”
Enemies no longer. Brothers at last.