Civil War Veterans-- Part 3: Still, Old Animosities

The veterans of both sides had complex attitudes toward each other and non-combatants. Wartime hatreds never completely went away. The GAR pressured President Grover Cleveland to retract the 1887 order to return captured Confederate battle flags. There was also a great controversy as to the proper telling of the Civil War.

They were prone to idealize at the expense of civilians.

From 1884 to 1887, Century's "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War" managed to avoid politics and sectionalsim and gave a balanced northern and southern viewpoint of the war by printing reports from both sides. That 4 volume set that resulted is still one of the great resources for historians.

Blue and Gray Reunions were held starting in the 1880s and reached a pinnacle with the huge Gettysburg Reunion of 1913, on the battle's 50th anniversary.

--Old Secesh