1913 Gettysburg Reunion - Planning

Planning

After numerous smaller Gettysburg reunions, including the 1906 Philadelphia Brigade/Pickett's Division reunion during which Brig. Gen. Armistead's captured sword was returned to the South, in April 1908 General Henry S. Huidekoper of Philadelphia suggested a 1913 50th anniversary reunion to Pennsylvania Governor Edwin Sydney Stuart. On September 8, the Gettysburg National Park Commission met with Gettysburg borough officials about the event, Stuart conducted a sub-committee meeting on October 25, and Stuart addressed the General Assembly in January 1909.

On May 13, 1909, the Pennsylvania Assembly created the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg Commission, and the commission's "first tentative programme" of October 13, 1910 included a "Peace Jubilee" with noon July 3 placement of the cornerstone for a "Great Peace Memorial". The August 26, 1912, US Congress bill appropriated $150K and directed the War Department establish the camp, but the memorial funding was not approved and the "Peace Jubilee" plans were removed from the schedule. The site for the camp and the 8 acres for the Great Tent west of the Codori House were selected in 1912 and mapped by the Gettysburg National Park Commission. The Park Commission also completed painting of avenue fencing, gun carriages, iron tablets, pyramids, and shells from 1912 through June 30, 1913. On April 13, 1913, the PA commission completed the Pennsylvania State Memorial and also mailed 40,000 veteran's invitations. On June 28, President Woodrow Wilson notified the PA commission he would attend the reunion for a "very limited period". The 33 contributing states provided a total of $1,033,000 for the reunion ($450,000 from PA).

The PA commission headquarters at Gettysburg was at 231 Baltimore St, with the Harrisburg office of the Secretary (later nicknamed the "Duke of Gettysburg") in Pennsylvania State Capitol Room 509. Various commemorative tokens and programs were developed for attendees, including 3 types of Pennsylvania badges ("PRESS", "GUEST", "SCOUT"), a commemorative medal, and a souvenir program of poems by the attending "Veteran Scout", Jack Crawford. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also added "a telephone line between Gettysburg and Hanover along the Western Maryland Railway, over which the Pennsy operate a large number of trains during the battle anniversary". On the Chambersburg-Gettysburg turnpike and the Gettysburg-Petersburg turnpike, tolls ended in time for the reunion when on June 27, the PA Supreme Court upheld the 1911 Sproul Roads Act, by which the Commonwealth acquired private toll roads.

By February 1, 1913, water wells were being drilled for the July encampment, and by June 26 hotels in Hanover, Chambersburg, Hagerstown, and "the Blue Ridge section filling rapidly". For entertainment, a Gettysburg facility was started in 1912 to display the Boston version of the Gettysburg Cyclorama, and the now lost The Battle of Gettysburg black & white film of 1913 was first run at Walter's Theatre on June 26. Local planning for the reunion included expanding the Gettysburg hackman's tax to automobiles (upheld by the PA Supreme Court in 1914), a 50 cent maximum for taxi fares in the borough, and an obscure request from a few Missouri veterans regarding the availability near Gettysburg of "a few good widows or old maids … good housekeepers and not too young" to go west after the reunion (the "kind-hearted mayor", J. A. Holtzworth, agreed to forward photos to the veterans in the "Cupid … operations")!