Library of Congress image First Lieutenant Thomas B. Winslow of Co. G, 42nd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment in uniform with sword and, for our purposes here, a bucktail in his cap.

This is the 31st edition of this version of Bucktails reunions.

But the men themselves gathered throughout their lives.

And at least one of those reunions – the 1918 edition was held in Warren.

The genesis of these stories (at least this week and next week) is a photo that Daniel Wetmore shared with me of a group of aged Bucktail veterans standing in front of the Civil War monument in Soldiers and Sailors Park.

Photo from the Warren Morning Chronicle This is one of more than a dozen articles published in papers in Warren County about the 1918 reunion of the Bucktails - a famed Civil War regiment. Descendants of those men are gathering for a reunion this weekend in Kane.

I’ll get to the photo, who is in and what we know about them next week.

This week? This event was a pretty big deal in Warren.

And, held in Sept. 1918, it was situated at the height of American involvement in World War I, a parallel that was impossible to ignore.

First of all, what’s a Bucktail?

In short, the Bucktails were recruited for service just a month into the Civil War. A company from Warren was bound to be made up of hearty outdoorsmen given the quality of life in Warren at the time.

As a mark of their common bond, the men in the regiment decided to affix deer tails to their standard issue army headwear. The Bucktail became a distinct point of pride.

Need proof? I suspect people know far more about the “Bucktails” than they do about the Thirteenth Pennsylvania Reserve Regiment or the 42nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, even though those three terms all apply to the same men.

The 1918 reunion was first announced locally two months before the event.

“The annual reunion of the famous Bucktail regiment will be held in the city during the month of September,” the Warren Evening Times reported on July 18. “The number who will attend this year will naturally be greatly reduced from last year, because of the deaths which have occurred in the company. Among those who have died are Sidney Crocker and Comrade Knupp of Warren.”

As the calendar switched to August, details started to emerge of how the two-day celebration would unfold.

“Warren will do honor to the Bucktail Regiment when the surviving members of that famous Civil War regiment assemble in this city September 16 and 17 for its annual reunion,” the Warren Morning Chronicle reported on Aug. 9.

A central committee was established to work out “an interesting program of entertainment to supplement the business sessions.”

“Warren will be proud to do her utmost to honor and entertain the survivors of the famous fighting regiment that did so much to pave the way for the success of our present day warriors on the battle front in France,” the Morning Chronicle concluded.

The headquarters for the regiment were to be the Carver House hotel (that was located on the corner of Hickory St. and Pennsylvania Ave. A banquet would be held with a fire and dancing. Automobiles would ferry Bucktails to wherever in the county they wanted to go.

The town was dedicated with flags and bunting, live music and speeches.

And one paper insisted there would “not be a single dull moment.”

A total of 25 veterans arrived in Warren.

If they were between 18 and 20 years old when they enlisted (and that’s a guess), the men would have been in the mid-70s or older.

“Most of the Bucktails are full of stories of the old days of ’61 and they spent many an hour yesterday telling about their adventures,” the Evening Times reported on Sept. 16. “Most of them have been through several campaigns and have served under a number of generals including McClellan, Meade, McCall, Seymour, Sykes, Crawford and Grant.”

“A large number of Warren friends of the Old Bucktails joined them in the dance,” one paper reported. “The old veterans tripped the light fantastic and some showed a lively step that made some of the younger element wonder if they would enjoy the same stage of preservation when around the eightieth milestone of life.”

The Warren Morning Chronicle published the speeches that were presumably given at the banquet.

“I wish it were possible to give you an account of the history and heroic deeds of the Bucktail Regiment,” the speech of Frank Moore, general manager of the Conewango Refining Co, said. “I wish I could tell you the story of the 1,000 men who banded together and offered their services to the union cause.”

Local refiners largely offset the cost of the union.

“(N)ever in the annals of war is there a grander page than the record of that army, which for over three years fought with a determination never excelled; fought the best and bravest troops of the Confederates, and fought against the magnificent generalship of these men of the highest military genius, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee.

Of the 13 regiments composing the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves, of which the Bucktails belonged, 12 of them were infantry regiments. Bucktails were rifle men. They were men trained from boyhood to handle a rifle.

They were backwoodsmen, raftsmen and hunters. They were enured to hardship and they had the training that nature gives to those who followed the hardly outdoor life of the frontiersman.

This regiment won for the Union Army at Dranesville the first victory on the Potomac. It opened the seven-day battle on the peninsula. At Mechanicsville it held its position without losing a foot of ground, against overwhelming odds.

At Gaines Mill and New Market Cross Roads it hurled back Lee’s Army when an attempt was made to break through the Union flank. The regiments of this division and the Warrentown Pike and retained for the Union Army under (Pope) its line of retreat.

It scaled the heights of South Mountain and opened the battle of Antietam; while at Fredericksburg it advanced further into the Confederate lines than any other troops.

And at Gettysburg, the Corps did a service which reacts to other eternal credit. When (Sickles) Corps gave way and the Union troops came flying up the slopes of Little Round Top, hotly pursued by the Confederates, they formed for a charge and closed with his victorious army. They drove back the enemy and secured possession for the Union Army of this key to the battlefield of Gettysburg.

The men fought with Grant through the long bloody campaigns of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania; and to complete your splendid career you repulsed Ewell’s Corps at Bethesda Church.

Of the 1,165 men who compressed the rolls of the Bucktail Regiment but 471 came home through the three years of hell which they endured.

History records no greater or grander deeds than those you have rendered your country. You are an example which the younger men now may well emulate.

“I wish it were possible to mention the many individual acts of heroism and sacrifice which you have done but all should be mentioned or none…. Their deeds and yours are imperishable and shall live as long as your nation endures.”

One Bucktail, identified as “Comrade Brown” spoke specifically on the connection between the Civil War and World War I.

“The sacrifice of blood in the cause of liberty is never in vain…. It was the sacrifices made by our forefathers in the Revolutionary War which taught us in ’61 to be ready to give our blood in the cause of liberty and the spirit of the days gone by is reawakened today in the hearts of our boys who are fighting so nobly over there in the cause of Liberty. America has a three fold duty to perform. She is feeding, financing and fighting and doing all three in a way that leaves never a doubt in the minds of our people as to what the ultimate result of the conflict will be…. Our flag will come back unsullied by defeat and with new glory added to its folds.”

The Warren Evening Times on Sept. 19 published a resolution approved by the Bucktails themselves.

“Twenty-five Bucktails gathered in Warren. Sept. 16, 1918 at the summons of our present, the brave little corporal W.H. Rauch. Our joy of reunion with sadness as missing our secretary, his wife, the mother of the regiment. As in the war times, however, we had our hearts lightened by her letter from home, breathing of loving desire to be with her boys. We send back our message of affectionate greeting.

We extend to the President and Congress of the United States renewed expression of loyal support and approval of the present war for freedom, righteousness and permanent peace. We, who resisted until blood striving against our sin in our own beloved land, shall continue to hope and pray for the triumph of the ideals of the grant republic for the victory of our brave boys on the battlefields of Europe, for the continued loyal toil and self-denial of the men and women in the fields, mines and factories, and for such a regeneration of virtue and righteousness in our own homeland, that the returning victors may feel nothing but joyous pride in their return.

We thank the people of Warren for their abundant and cordial welcome. For the good things they gave us to eat, to see and to hear. We grizzled old warriors, rejoice in the abundance of peace and in the hospitality of the generation of our children. We congratulate the fair city beside the beautiful river, and in the beauty of their city, the prosperity of its business, the industry of its inhabitants and the wisdom and virtue of the citizens who made it pure and dry. Their hardships, toil and words in the dark days of the revolution have not been borne in vain.”