A: You can go ahead and forget all about today’s modern Civil War recreations; they’re as meaningful as a Disneyland Ice Capades show compared to the first reenactment, one of history’s greatest reunions.

Back in 1913, just fifty years after the momentous Battle of Gettysburg, 50,000 Confederate and Union veterans returned to camp together on the fields where they had once been locked in mortal combat. The highlight, however, was a reenactment of the infamous Pickett’s Charge, in which more than 3,000 men died in a matter of minutes. But this time, instead of meeting one another with bayonets and artillery fire, the old men threw down their weapons and embraced one another. Now that’s a story that warms our hearts.