Chapter IV: Part 4

Dr. Barton gives various interesting reasons why Lincoln chose to come to Gettysburg, though his presence was not very earnestly desired by the committee of arrangements. His ability as anything but a political speaker had not been demonstrated, and it was feared that he might spoil the occasion. Until two weeks before the dedication, the only invitation sent him was one of the printed circulars mailed to all national officials, congressmen, and others.

He was eager, Dr. Barton thinks, to see the field of Gettysburg. He had rejoiced in the victory, and had deplored with equal earnestness Meade’s cautious policy in making no pursuit. He wished to urge the people to renewed devotion to the cause which at that moment did not look altogether promising. He wished also, Dr. Barton believes, to counteract the impression made by a cruel slander which had wide circulation. Again and again newspapers inimical to him had published an account of his visit to the Antietam battlefield a year earlier, asserting that he had asked his friend Ward Hill Lamon to sing a ribald song as they drove about among the unburied dead.

Lincoln turned a deaf ear to most slanders, but this touched him to the quick. It was not unlikely that he longed to prove the libel false by a visit to another battlefield. The story continued to be told, however, throughout his life.

Following is Ward Hill Lamon’s account of the visit to Gettysburg, from his “Recollections of Lincoln.” It is the opinion of the author of this book, an eye-witness, that the reception which Lamon describes had other causes than failure to value Lincoln’s words. The address was intended to be merely a simple dedication which would not naturally be followed by applause. The audience had stood through the address of Edward Everett which occupied two hours, and through a prayer and musical numbers in addition. Many of the crowd were turning away—they turned back and listened earnestly, but with no impulse to applaud.

At the time of the dedication, Mr. Lamon was chief marshal of the parade and was with Lincoln on the platform when the address was delivered. Lamon writes:

... A day or two before the dedication of the National Cemetery at
Gettysburg, Mr. Lincoln told me that he would be expected to make a
speech on the occasion; that he was extremely busy, and had no time
for preparation; and that he greatly feared he would not be able to
acquit himself with credit, much less to fill the measure of public
expectation. From his hat (the usual receptacle for his private notes
and memoranda) he drew a sheet of foolscap, one side of which was
closely written with what he informed me was a memorandum of his
intended address. This he read to me, first remarking that it was not
at all satisfactory to him. It proved to be in substance, if not the
exact words, what was afterwards printed as his famous Gettysburg
speech.

After its delivery on the day of commemoration, he expressed deep
regret that he had not prepared it with greater care. He said to me on
the stand, immediately after concluding the speech: “Lamon, that
speech won’t scour! It is a flat failure, and the people are
disappointed.” (The word “scour” he often used in expressing his
conviction that a thing lacked merit, or would not stand the test of
close criticism or the wear of time.) He seemed deeply concerned about
what the people might think of his address; more deeply, in fact, than
I had ever seen him on any public occasion. His frank and regretful
condemnation of his effort, and more especially his manner of
expressing that regret, struck me as somewhat remarkable; and my own
impression was deepened by the fact that the orator of the day, Mr.
Everett, and Secretary Seward both coincided with Mr. Lincoln in his
unfavorable view of its merits.

The occasion was solemn, impressive, and grandly historic. The people,
it is true, stood apparently spellbound; and the vast throng was
hushed and awed into profound silence while Mr. Lincoln delivered his
brief speech. But it seemed to him that this silence and attention to
his words arose more from the solemnity of the ceremonies and the
awful scenes which gave rise to them, than anything he had said. He
believed that the speech was a failure. He thought so at the time, and
he never referred to it afterwards, in conversation with me, without
some expression of unqualified regret that he had not made the speech
better in every way.

On the platform from which Mr. Lincoln delivered his address, and only
a moment after it was concluded, Mr. Seward turned to Mr. Everett and
asked him what he thought of the President’s speech. Mr. Everett
replied, “It is not what I expected from him. I am disappointed.” Then
in his turn Mr. Everett asked, “What do you think of it, Mr. Seward?”
The response was, “He has made a failure, and I am sorry for it. His
speech is not equal to him.” Mr. Seward then turned to me and asked,
“Mr. Marshal, what do you think of it?” I answered, “I am sorry to say
that it does not impress me as one of his great speeches.”

In the face of these facts it has been repeatedly published that this
speech was received by the audience with loud demonstrations of
approval; that “amid the tears, sobs, and cheers it produced in the
excited throng, the orator of the day, Mr. Everett, turned to Lincoln,
grasped his hand and exclaimed, ‘I congratulate you on your success!’
adding in a transport of heated enthusiasm, ‘Ah, Mr. President, how
gladly would I give my hundred pages to be the author of your twenty
lines!’” Nothing of the kind occurred. It is a slander on Mr. Everett,
an injustice to Mr. Lincoln, and a falsification of history. Mr.
Everett would not have used the words attributed to him, in the face
of his own condemnation of the speech uttered a moment before, without
subjecting himself to the charge of being a toady and a hypocrite; and
he was neither one or the other.

As a matter of fact, the silence during the delivery of the speech,
and the lack of hearty demonstrations of approval immediately after
its close, were taken by Mr. Lincoln as certain proof that it was not
well received. In that opinion we all shared. If any person then
present saw, or thought he saw, the marvelous beauties of that
wonderful speech, as intelligent men in all lands now see and
acknowledge them, his superabundant caution closed his lips and stayed
his pen. Mr. Lincoln said to me after our return to Washington, “I
tell you, Hill, that speech fell on the audience like a wet blanket. I
am distressed about it. I ought to have prepared it with more care.”
Such continued to be his opinion of that most wonderful of all his
platform addresses up to the time of his death.

HARVEST

Only the seasons and the years invade
These quiet wheatfields where the Armies crashed.
And mockingbirds and quail fly unafraid
Within the forest where the rifles flashed.
Here where the bladed wings of death have mown
And gleaned their harvestry of golden lives,
The fruitful seeds of corn and wheat are sown,
And where the cannon smoked, an orchard thrives.

Long are the war years over, with their pain,
Their passionate tears and fury, and the sun
Lies hot and yellow on the heavy grain,
And all the fighting on these fields is done.
But in their peace, the quivering heart recalls
The youth that bled beside these old stone walls.

—Agnes Kendrick Gray.
_By Permission of the Author._

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The principal source of data for this work is the “War of the Rebellion Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies.” The appended list of other sources has been made for those who wish to make an extended study.

Annals of the War McClure
Attack and Defense of Little Round Top Norton
Abraham Lincoln Charnwood
Abraham Lincoln, Life of Barton
Battles and Leaders, 4 vols. Century Co.
Battle of Gettysburg Young
Battle of Gettysburg Comte de Paris
Battle of Gettysburg Haskell
Barlow, Major-General, at Gettysburg N. Y. Mon. Com.
Campaign and Battle of Gettysburg Fiebeger
Campaigns of the Civil War Geer
Civil War Papers Mass. O. L. L.
Chancellorsville and Gettysburg Doubleday
Confederate Portraits Bradford
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac de Trobriand
From Manassas to Appomattox Longstreet
Gettysburg Then and Now Vanderslice
Gregg’s Cavalry Fight at Gettysburg Rawle
Hays, Gen. Alexander, Life and Letters Fleming
Lee, Gen. R. E., Recollections and Letters of Capt. R. E. Lee
Lee, Gen. R. E., Personal Reminiscences of Jones
Lee, Gen. R. E., Memoirs of Long
Lincoln and His Generals Macartney
Maine at Gettysburg Maine Com.
Meade, Maj.-Gen., Life of Bache
Meade at Gettysburg, With George G. Meade
Meade, General George Gordon Pennypacker
Military Memoirs of a Confederate Alexander
Numbers and Losses in the Civil War Livermore
New York at Gettysburg, 3 vols. N. Y. Mon. Com.
Pennsylvania at Gettysburg Pa. Mon. Com.
Recollections of Lincoln Lamon
Regimental Losses in the Civil War Fox
The War between the States Stevens
The War between the Union and the Confederacy Oates
Reminiscences of the Civil War Gordon
Stuart’s Cavalry in the Gettysburg Campaign Mosby

In addition to the many histories and biographies which include the battle among their subjects, there are novels, short stories, and poems whose authors have made a careful study of Gettysburg as a background. Among them are the following:

John Brown’s Body—Benet
Cease Firing—Johnston
Gettysburg: Stories of the Red Harvest and the Aftermath—Singmaster
_For Young People_
Emmeline—Singmaster
A Boy at Gettysburg—Singmaster
Sewing Susie—Singmaster

ORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC
Major-General George G. Meade

First Corps
John F. Reynolds, Major General
John Newton, Major General

Divisions Brigades
1. James S. Wadsworth 1. Solomon Meredith, Brig. Gen.
Brigadier General 2. Lysander Cutler, Brig. Gen.
2. John C. Robinson 1. Gabriel R. Paul, Brig. Gen.
Brigadier General 2. Henry Baxter, Brig. Gen.
3. Abner Doubleday 1. Thomas Rowley, Brig. Gen.
Major General 2. Roy Stone, Col.
3. George J. Stannard, Brig. Gen.

Second Corps
Winfield S. Hancock, Major General

Divisions Brigades
1. John C. Caldwell 1. Edward E. Cross, Col.
Brigadier General 2. Patrick Kelly, Col.
3. Samuel K. Zook, Brig. Gen.
4. John R. Brooke, Col.
2. John Gibbon 1. William Harrow, Brig. Gen.
Brigadier General 2. Alexander Webb, Brig. Gen.
3. Norman J. Hall, Col.
3. Alexander Hays 1. Samuel S. Carroll, Col.
Brigadier General 2. Thomas A. Smyth, Col.
3. George L. Willard, Col.

Third Corps
Daniel E. Sickles, Major General

Divisions Brigades
1. David D. Birney 1. Charles K. Graham, Brig. Gen.
Major General 2. J. H. Hobart Ward, Brig. Gen.
3. Regis de Trobriand, Col.
2. Andrew A. Humphreys 1. Joseph B. Carr, Brig. Gen.
Brigadier General 2. Wm. R. Brewster, Col.
3. George C. Burling, Col.

Fifth Corps
George Sykes, Major General

Divisions Brigades
1. James Barnes 1. William S. Tilton, Col.
Brigadier General 2. Jacob B. Sweitzer, Col.
3. Strong Vincent, Col.
2. George Sykes 1. Hannibal Day, Col.
Major General 2. Sidney Burbank, Col.
Romeyne B. Ayres 3. Stephen Weed, Brig. Gen.
Brigadier General
3. Samuel W. Crawford 1. William McCandless, Col.
Brigadier General 2. Joseph W. Fisher, Col.

Sixth Corps
John Sedgwick, Major General

Divisions Brigades
1. Horatio G. Wright 1. Alfred T. A. Torbet, Brig. Gen.
Brigadier General 2. Joseph J. Bartlett, Brig. Gen.
3. David A. Russell, Brig. Gen.
2. Albion P. Howe 1. Lewis A. Grant, Col.
Brigadier General 2. Thomas H. Neill, Brig. Gen.
3. John Newton 1. Alexander Shaler, Brig. Gen.
Major General 2. Henry L. Eustis, Col.
Frank Wheaton 3. Frank Wheaton, Brig. Gen.
Brigadier General

Eleventh Corps
Oliver O. Howard, Major General

Divisions Brigades
1. Francis C. Barlow 1. Leopold von Gilsa, Col.
Brigadier General 2. Adelbert Ames, Brig. Gen.
2. Adolph von Steinwehr 1. Charles Coster, Col.
Brigadier General 2. Orlando Smith, Col.
3. Carl Schurz 1. Alexander Schimmelfennig, Brig. Gen.
Major General 2. W. Krzyzanowski, Col.

Twelfth Corps
Henry W. Slocum, Major General

Divisions Brigades
1. Alpheus S. Williams 1. Archibald L. McDougal, Col.
Brigadier General 2. Henry H. Lockwood, Brig. Gen.
3. Thomas H. Huger, Brig. Gen.
2. John W. Geary 1. Charles Candy, Col.
Brigadier General 2. George A. Cobham, Col.

Cavalry
Alfred Pleasanton, Major General

Divisions Brigades
1. John Buford 1. William Gamble, Col.
Brigadier General 2. Thomas C. Devin, Col.
3. Wesley Merritt, Brig. Gen.
2. David McM. Gregg 1. John B. McIntosh, Col.
Brigadier General 2. Pennock Ruey, Col.
3. J. Irvin Gregg, Col.
3. Judson Kilpatrick 1. Elon J. Farnsworth, Brig. Gen.
Brigadier General 2. George A. Custer, Brig. Gen.

Chief of Artillery, Brigadier-General Henry J. Hunt
Number of guns belonging to the Artillery, 362
Number of guns at Gettysburg, 354

ORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA
General Robert E. Lee

First Corps
James E. Longstreet, Lieutenant General

Divisions Brigades
1. Lafayette McLaws 1. John B. Kershaw, Brig. Gen.
Major General 2. William Barksdale, Brig. Gen.
3. Paul J. Semmes, Brig. Gen.
4. William T. Wofford, Brig. Gen.
2. George E. Pickett 1. Richard B. Garnett, Brig. Gen.
Major General 2. James L. Kemper, Brig. Gen.
3. Lewis A. Armistead, Brig. Gen.
3. John B. Hood 1. Evander Law, Brig. Gen.
Major General 2. Jerome B. Robertson, Brig. Gen.
3. George T. Anderson, Brig. Gen.
4. Henry L. Benning, Brig. Gen.

Second Corps
Richard S. Ewell, Lieutenant General

Divisions Brigades
1. Jubal A. Early 1. Harry T. Hays, Brig. Gen.
Major General 2. Robert F. Hoke (Isaac E. Avery), Brig. Gen.
3. William Smith, Brig. Gen.
4. John B. Gordon, Brig. Gen.
2. Edward Johnson 1. George H. Steuart, Brig. Gen.
Major General 2. James A. Walker, Brig. Gen.
3. Francis T. Nicholls (J. M. Williams), Brig.
Gen.
4. John M. Jones, Brig. Gen.
3. Robert E. Rodes 1. Junius Daniel, Brig. Gen.
Major General 2. Alfred Iverson, Brig. Gen.
3. George Doles, Brig. Gen.
4. Stephen D. Ramseur, Brig. Gen.
5. Edward A. O’Neil, Brig. Gen.

Third Corps
Ambrose P. Hill, Lieutenant General

Divisions Brigades
1. Richard H. Anderson 1. Cadmus M. Wilcox, Brig. Gen.
Major General 2. Ambrose R. Wright, Brig. Gen.
3. William Mahone, Brig. Gen.
4. Edward A. Perry (David Lang), Brig. Gen.
5. Garnet Posey, Brig. Gen.
2. Henry Heth 1. James J. Pettigrew, Brig. Gen.
Major General 2. John M. Brockenbrough, Col.
3. James J. Archer, Brig. Gen.
4. Joseph R. Davis, Brig. Gen.
3. William D. Pender 1. James H. Lane, Brig. Gen.
Major General 2. Edward L. Thomas, Brig. Gen.
3. Alfred M. Scales, Brig. Gen.
4. Samuel McGowan (Abner Perrin), Brig. Gen.
4. James E. B. Stuart 1. Wade Hampton, Brig. Gen.
Major General (Cavalry) 2. Beverly H. Robertson, Brig. Gen.
3. Fitzhugh Lee, Brig. Gen.
4. Wm. H. F. Lee (John R. Chambliss), Brig. Gen.
5. William E. Jones, Brig. Gen.
Valley District and
Department of Western
Virginia (Cavalry and
mounted Infantry).
1. Albert G. Jenkins, Brig. Gen.
2. John D. Imboden, Brig. Gen.

Chief of Artillery, William N. Pendleton
Number of guns, 272

Transcriber’s Notes

—Silently corrected a few typographical errors.

—Retained copyright information from the printed edition (which has
entered the public domain in the U.S.)

—In the text versions, enclosed italicized text within _underscore
characters_.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Battle of Gettysburg, by William C. Storrick