Confederate Veterans Convention
Reunions of Civil War veterans from both the North and South were a prominent feature of public life in the United States in the early decades of the 20th century. This 1914 silent film records the meeting of 40,000 Confederate veterans in Jacksonville, Florida, nearly a half century after the end of the war. Titles are used to explain each sequence. The motion of the film is somewhat jerky but the quality of the images is good. Aging veterans dance to the music of two fiddlers and gather to parade on foot, by horse, or in cars. Also shown are crowd scenes, general views of the camp with its tents, an emergency medical tent staffed by the Red Cross, and thousands of veterans dining together in a mess tent. Scenes from the Sons of Confederate Veterans Parade include marching bands, a passing electric street car, and the Forrest Cavalry of Tennessee, named after Confederate cavalry general Nathan Bedford Forrest. An African-American loyal to the Confederacy is shown, as well as F.M. Iremonger, said to be the youngest living Confederate veteran.
Type of Item
16:15 minutes; black and white; silent
Last updated: September 29, 2014