[4][5] Despite official concerns "that there might be unpleasant differences, at least, between the blue and gray"[6] (as after England's War of the Roses and the French Revolution),[7] the peaceful reunion was characterized by instances of Union–Confederate camaraderie.

[8] President Woodrow Wilson's July 4 reunion address summarized the spirit: "We have found one another again as brothers and comrades in arms, enemies no longer, generous friends rather, our battles long past, the quarrel forgotten—except that we shall not forget the splendid valor.

The site of the camp and the 8 acres (3.2 ha) for the Great Tent, west of the Codori House, were selected in 1912 and mapped by the Gettysburg National Park Commission.

[1]: 22  On June 28, President Woodrow Wilson notified the Pennsylvania commission that he would attend the reunion for a "very limited period".

[16] The Pennsylvania Railroad added "a telephone line between Gettysburg and Hanover along the Western Maryland Railway, over which the Pennsy [would] operate a large number of trains during the battle anniversary".

Water wells were being drilled for the July encampment by February 1, 1913,[15]: 7  and hotels in Hanover, Chambersburg, Hagerstown, and "the Blue Ridge section [were] filling rapidly" by June 26.

[18] Local planning for the reunion included expanding the Gettysburg hackman tax to automobiles[19] (upheld by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1914), a 50-cent maximum for taxi fares in the borough,[20] and a request from a few Missouri veterans for "a few good widows or old maids ... good housekeepers and not too young" to go west after the reunion.

[24]: 82  The department tested borough wells and mitigated contamination sources upstream from the water-works supply on Marsh Creek.

[11]: '14  Companies A-D (14 officers and 285 men)[11] of the Fifteenth United States Cavalry arrived on June 26 to guard the battlefield,[11]: '13  camping west of Seminary Ridge on the Hagerstown Road.

Anticipating that some veterans might arrive early (especially those traveling a long distance), the Great Camp was opened for supper on June 29.

[18] Captain McCaskey of the Quartermasters Corps had estimated that 6,000 men might arrive on June 29, and temporarily struggled with shortages of food and supplies.

W. B. Henry (a Southerner living in Philadelphia) uttered a "vile epithet" about President Abraham Lincoln and caused an argument at his table.

[31] The Virginia governor spoke to officials on behalf of Henry, and his father (a Confederate major) posted bail for his son.