"Fighting It Over Again": The Battle of Gettysburg at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition

The joy at this [1876 Centennial] event will be universal in this favored land. . . . From ocean to ocean, by every valley and hillside and stream, and on every shore and sea where the flag of the Union floats, this celebration will take place; none so humble upon whom its sunlight will not fall; none so exalted as to be prouder than the rest of its glorious fruition. It will tell of a nationality won, of a republic vindicated, of long years of peace, . . . of humanity elevated, of progress unsurpassed; and finally, when internal strife arose from the only blot on our civilization, it will register the story of a people redeemed, reunited, and henceforth without a motive of discord.

—Philadelphia congressman Leonard Myers

The triumphalist attitude that Philadelphia congressman Leonard Myers adopted in the planning stages of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition anticipated the widespread belief that the event, occurring at a critical moment in America's history when the nation was rebuilding itself after the Civil War, consummated the reconciliation of sections and restored the coherency of its population. Rhetoric of forgotten grief and dispelled animosity associated with the war consistently guided efforts by those associated with the Centennial—its organizers, administrators, advocates, and participants—to rouse public enthusiasm for the event, in accordance with the greater goals of demonstrating the unity, strength, and prosperity of the national community. Despite the insistence that Civil War memories must be buried and forgotten as the means to enact reconciliation, reminders of the war—in the exhibits, ceremonies, special events, and behavior of visitors—were noticeably present at the Centennial.

Nowhere within the fairgrounds, however, were such references as prevalent or explicit as in the American art exhibition, arguably the most prominent element of the Centennial, where paintings and sculptures referring to the Civil War repeatedly confronted the visitor. Although the Bureau of Art arranged objects by nation in the galleries, the United States faced considerable problems in forming a national collective memory. The nation was still divided psychologically and politically over the Civil War. By disseminating only those memories of the Civil War that would encourage Americans to unite in national brotherhood and proclaim to an international audience the hopeful future it envisioned for its once-divided citizenry, official Centennial culture fostered commitment to the national community and promised a stronger nation for its citizens.

My use of the term memory corresponds to the surge of scholarship over the past few decades that builds on French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs's contention that recollection is not dependent on an individual's unique experiences, but a social phenomenon generated by the relationships one shares within a particular community. Memory is a collective phenomenon that represents the agreed version of past events among the social, familial, religious, national, or other community from which it originates.¹ One must bear in mind, however, that memory is more a reflection of the present needs of the community than of real events, and that the function of memory is not to chronicle the past but to communicate ideas about it. Collective memories exist only insofar as they promote the interests of the group, and the memories which endure are those that work to preserve the community.

Collective memories, however, do not necessarily reflect the official versions of the past presented to the broad public. As W. Fitzhugh Brundage points out, discussion, negotiation, and conflict are a fundamental part of memory work, and memories necessarily vary according to the subjective experiences of any specific group. Michael Kammen agrees, citing that alternative narratives and countermemories necessarily accompany any official version of the past, and the resulting conflict of politics forms the basis of much of his scholarship on memory.² At the time of the Centennial, Americans had not yet been able to form a coherent group identity since the disruption of the war and therefore had difficulty agreeing on a collective memory of it. The debate over conflicting memories and the attending cultural tensions, otherwise unutterable within the self-assured official Centennial culture, were negotiated through...