On the morning of October 8, 1877 -- the fifteenth anniversary of the Battle of Perryville -- the veterans of the 79th Pennsylvania assembled for the first time since the war's end. Colonel Hambright led a parade through the streets of Lancaster that culminated in a meeting at Fulton Hall that featured singing, a history of the regiment by Sigmund Wisner, and an oration by E. K. Martin.
The Daily New Era reported, "Long will live in memory the recollection of the 8th day of October, 1877, for it was a gala day in Lancaster -- a day when the survivors of as brave a regiment as ever fired a gun met in fraternal good fellowship for the first time since the close of the bloody war which called them into existence."
A full report of the day's proceedings and speeches appeared in the New Era. See the following link for a scan of these newspaper articles: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R_iwUQ48iwORhy832tYRUhhEWMgwSasc/view?usp=sharing
Recently, I acquired some ephemera related to this event on eBay. Appearing here are scans of the envelope, ticket, and program that were presumably saved by one of the veterans attending the event.
Hopefully a future post could go further in depth on the content of the speeches and the people present.
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| 79th Pennsylvania Reunion Program, 1877 |
A special find!
ReplyDeleteIs there any document on who attended. My grandfather Martin Blankenmeyer served in the 79th.
ReplyDelete