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(USGovernment-News.Com, June 07, 2013 ) Gettysburg, PA -- A survivor of the Battle of Gettysburg marched from Pittsburgh to the battle site fifty years after its bloody end for a reunion between soldiers from both sides.
150 years later another veteran will recreate the same march in commemoration of Memorial Day. Originally from Hempfield, Pennsylvania, Jim Smith, 70, will use the same drum worn 100 years ago by Union Army veteran Peter Guibert to honor all the American lives lost in wars since the beginning of the nation.
Smith happened upon the drum in a fortuitous series of events. A veteran of the Vietnam War and now a retired mechanical engineer, Smith has been able to focus on his hobbies of drumming and restoring musical instruments. About 30 years ago, a newspaper profiled him when he started drum crops in western Pennsylvania.
Betty Mower, 87, read the story and made a connection. Her uncle, Otto Guibert, had recently died, and from him she had inherited several pieces from his attic. One of which was “Grandpa Peter’s army drum.
As a child Mower had not been allowed to touch the drum. After deciding against throwing it away, Mower thought it might be of interest to Smith. She then reached out to him.
Finding it in the attic in poor condition, covered in coal dust and in need of restoration, she eventually restored it and gave it to Smith.
Smith, who was unaware of the origins of the drum, scoured local records to find out more about Peter Guibert. He eventually unearthed his trek to Gettysburg.
The march will be recreated with another Vietnam veteran, Ray Zimmerman. They intend to arrive in Gettysburg for the commemoration ceremonies marking the battle’s 150th anniversary, which took place between July 1-3, 1863, and is considered a turning point in the Civil War that allowed the United States to remain a single nation. About Gettysburg Museum of History
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