National reunions of American Civil War veterans began as early as 1866, and continued every year until, amazingly, 1951. Union veterans formed the Grand Army of the Republic veterans' group in 1866, barely a year after the war's end. Except for 1867, they held a national reunion every year until 1949. The corresponding Confederate organization, United Confederate Veterans, formed in 1889 and held a national reunion almost every year until 1951's final. It was common for members of the GAR and UCV to visit each other's reunions. Both organizations maintained a spirit of reconciliation and American patriotism.
I thought of those reunions, recently, while doing some unrelated research when I came across a newspaper photo from 1929. A group of local Boy Scouts and their scoutmaster, C.B. Deane Sr., were preparing to attend the UCV's 39th national reunion in Charlotte during June 4-7, 1929.
Among the Scouts, of interest to generations of local public school alumni, were Howard Stogner and Dan Gore. Stogner taught world history and related subjects to high school students over his long career. A local businessman, Gore chaired the school board for a few years; and, his wife, Clyde Gore, spent a career teaching grammar school here.
Considered one of the more progressive-minded members of the mid-20th century U.S. Congress, C.B. Deane Sr. served five terms representing our district in the U.S. House of Representatives. As scoutmaster in 1929, he led members of his troop to a very successful reunion of Confederate veterans in Charlotte.
Around 3,500 veterans were joined by another 20,000 invited guests of the UCV for the event, but that reveals only a small part of the story. According to Charlotte news accounts, between 150,000 and 200,000 persons made their way to the Queen City during those four days. That doubled the city's 1929 population of about 80,000. The week's highlight featured an estimated 80-minute parade through the heart of the city on June 7, with multiple bands, veterans of U.S. wars, other military outfits, and numbers of the CSA veterans marching in a five-mile procession.
Boy Scouts from all over our state and region — as far away as Texas — joined the march after days of assisting the aged vets. Over the many years of UCV and GAR annual gatherings, including those at Gettysburg in 1913 and 1938, Scouts played an increasingly important role in assisting the old vets as they grew more frail.
The enthusiasm of the CSA veterans for their reunions never seemed to wane, however. My own veteran great-great-granddad, Iverson Caddell, attended that '29 reunion at age 85. It likely helped that he was living in Charlotte then. Sadly, he would pass a few weeks later. I have his badges from both that Charlotte gathering, and from the 1915 reunion in Columbia, South Carolina. I suspect he attended others.
A June 8, 1929 Charlotte Observer account appropriately sums the importance of the Boy Scouts to the success of the UCV reunion, and of the elderly veterans' appreciation of the boys:
"Competing even with the veterans yesterday for the admiration of the throngs who saw the parade were the Boy Scouts. When the youngsters swung the corner at Mint and Trade streets and the watchers along Trade saw them coming up the street ... there was a spontaneous burst of applause. One old Confederate in the reviewing stand ... got up from his seat and proposed three cheers for the Boy Scouts. Several of his buddies ... joined him in lusty yells for the Scouts. The work the lads have been doing ... has won the unanimous approval of everybody [especially] the veterans themselves."
One aged veteran put his admiration of the Scouts in a humorous aside to a pal: "There wasn't a place I wanted to go but what some Scout would take me there. All I had to do was ask him and he would hop right to it. And ... these Boy Scouts are the most obliging bunch I ever saw. I believe if I'd ask one to get me a hunk out of the moon, the dratted little devil would try to get him a ladder and go after it."
One is left to mull whether the old gentleman could be referring to either young Mr. Stogner, or Mr. Gore.
Rockingham's ceremonies to dedicate the local CSA monument, some 17 months later, seemed to mirror the Charlotte reunion. As detailed by local stenographer Lois Haywood in a November 1930 Rockingham Post-Dispatch account, there may have been some Confederate flags present, but there were more American flags as nearly every local business was displaying one. Many of the estimated 1,500 onlookers joined in singing "America," while a quartet presented "American Hymn," by Matthias Keller. There were a few gray CSA vets in attendance as well.
Local Scouts were on hand, too. They had assisted in raising funds for the memorial — paid for, largely, by donations from individuals. Interestingly, this was a year into the Great Depression. The monument was donated to our county by a local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The history of America, particularly of the South, was indeed a checkered one during Reconstruction, and in the decades immediately following the Civil War. An examination of its negative aspects is useful. But we should remember that southern soldiers stacked their arms after Appomattox instead of taking to the hills to wage a guerilla war, as was feared in some quarters.
Former CSA leaders, such as Robert E. Lee, counseled reconciliation with the Union. When Lee's own Oath of Allegiance to the U.S. was discovered many decades later, Congress, and President Gerald Ford, acted overwhelmingly to restore his citizenship.
Veterans of that long-ago war led the way — especially via the GAR and the UCV — in restoring both the Union and American patriotism. Union Corporal James Tanner lost his legs to CSA artillery in 1862 before heading GAR chapters in New York and nationally. He, nevertheless, helped organize a home for Confederate veterans long after the war; then, eagerly addressed his former enemies in friendship at the CSA Memorial dedication in Arlington National Cemetery in 1912.
We can take pride in members of our local Boy Scout troop who joined their scouting comrades in Charlotte nearly a century ago to play more than a small part in that important endeavor.
Their example is still ours to claim in the 21st century.
Columnist Douglas Smith lives and writes in Rockingham.
