Roanoke CSA Reunion

Bottom photographic studio label reads: Davis, Roanoke, VA

Ironically, I sit here blogging while drinking a red wine called "Rebel Red" from a Gettysburg, PA winery that someone gave to me as a gift. I live close to the famed battlefield that changed the course of the war 150 years ago. Gettysburg was filled with sesquicentennial celebrations this summer. Living close to the battlefield I attended quite a few of the events. One can only imagine the horrors these veterans saw during those years.

The 150th anniversary of the end of the war won't arrive until 2015.  They considered the Civil War to be the War of Northern Aggression. They fought, they survived, and here they stand in a country united next to the Stars and Stripes. If they could do this, our modern day political infighting would seem to be small stakes squabbles.

Grand Reunion Gettysburg: 1913

While searching for accounts of Roanoke area Confederate soldiers who attended the Grand Reunion, 50 years after that fateful battle, I came across this great image. I still continue to look for lists of those in attendance to see if my great great great grandfather (who was alive in 1913) chose to return for the reunion. He survived Pickett's Charge and was captured at the angle in Gettysburg. He survived imprisonment and returned to Craig County, Virginia.

Amherst Civil War Veterans Reunion

This is a photograph of an original image at the Amherst County Historical Society of a reunion of Civil War Veterans of Amherst County, Virginia.