![]() One article even commented that the reunion “crowded out the thought that the time is closing in and that the remnants of the once proud Union and Confederate armies soon must join their comrades.” This characterization seemed to survive the ensuing decades, as an article about the anniversary in 1979 referred to it as the “graybeard reunion.” However, even more damaging was the presentation of the veterans as not only aging, but also cartoonish and childlike. Terms such as “old-timers,” “hobbling,” and “feeble” were common. The language used by media outlets stressed this impending mortality with vigor. Many veterans invited were forced to decline attending due to poor health, and others were truly risking their lives in order to reach Gettysburg. The “tent city” provided for the veterans comfort as much as possible, including a fully functional hospital and over four hundred wheelchairs, complete with Boy Scouts and National Guardsmen to push them. The average age of the attending veterans was ninety-four, and they were all aware that this would be the final Gettysburg reunion. One unique characteristic of media coverage concerning the 75th Anniversary was the overemphasis of the veterans’ age. Memorialization would shift from being largely for the veterans to for the nation, and Tim Flaherty and his comrades would be placed firmly into antiquity. Over the four days of commemoration, the media’s representation of the aging veterans would mirror a fundamental change in the commemoration of the American Civil War. Nearly 775,000 tourists clogged Gettysburg’s narrow alleys, modern military equipment was used to reenact iconic moments of the battle, and over one hundred national press outlets insured the nation was saturated with news concerning the Battle of Gettysburg and its significance, perhaps for the first time since the battle itself. ![]() However, this reunion was different than the others. Seventy-five years after the battle of Gettysburg, 1,845 veterans were able to reach the rolling hills of southern Pennsylvania to once more commemorate the defining four years of their generation. ![]() The year was 1938, the July heat sweltering, and the final grand reunion of the blue and gray well underway. An accompanying photograph portrayed Union veteran Tim Flaherty, well into his nineties, dancing a jig for his comrades. “There’s Still Life in the Old Boys Yet!,” a newspaper article emphatically exclaimed. ![]()
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