The Wayne County Civil War Roundtable will host John L. Hopkins, author of The World Will Never See the Like: The Gettysburg Reunion of 1913, on Tuesday, Aug. 20, at 6:30 p.m. at the Wayne County Historical Society, 546 E. Bowman St., in Wooster. The free program will be held in the schoolhouse on the historical society’s campus. Parking is available in the historical society’s lot off Spink St., as well as along the fence at the eastern end of the Drug Mart lot on Bowman St.
The Wall Street Journal calls The World Will Never See the Like “a compelling, poignant and sometimes heartbreaking account of the biggest gathering of the Blue and Gray since the Civil War.”
It’s a story of 53,000 old comrades and former foes reunited on the fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg, and of the tension, even half a century later, between competing narratives of reconciliation and remembrance. Filled with detail from the letters, diaries, and published accounts of Union and Confederate veterans, the archival records of the reunion’s organizers, and the daily stories filed by the scores of reporters who covered it, The World Will Never See the Like tells the full story of this extraordinary event’s genesis and planning, the obstacles overcome on the way to making it a reality, its place in the larger narrative of sectional reunion and reconciliation, and the individual stories of the veterans who attended.
Hopkins is a communication and public relations professional with more than three decades of experience in higher education, nonprofit, and agency settings, including 17 years at the College of Wooster. This is his first book.
Questions? Call Penny Gasbarre at 330-845-3069, or email pennygasbarre@gmail.com.
