Voices of Gettysburg

President Lincoln exchanges letters with Edward Everett, the main orator at Gettysburg. Everett writes: “I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”

Lincoln responds, “In our respective parts yesterday, you could not have been excused to make a short address, nor I a long one. I am pleased to know that, in your judgment, the little I did say was not entirely a failure.”

After breakfast at the Wills house, Lincoln retires to his room, where his secretary John Nicolay joins him. There he completes the preparation of his speech.

About 10 A.M. the President, dressed in black, wearing white gauntlets and black crepe around his hat in memory of Willie, leaves the Wills house to join the procession.

Lincoln mounts his horse and rides in procession to the cemetery. The head of the procession arrives at the speaker’s platform inside the cemetery at 11:15 A.M. President Lincoln receives a military salute.

The President and members of his cabinet, with group of military and civic dignitaries, occupy the platform. Lincoln takes his place between chairs reserved for Sec. Seward and Edward Everett, the orator who will make the principal address. At 11:40 A.M. Everett arrives, is introduced to President, and program music begins.

Once during Everett’s two-hour oration Lincoln stirs in his chair. “He took out his steel-bowed spectacles, put them on his nose, took two pages of manuscript from his pocket, looked them over and put them back.”

About 2 P.M. Lincoln “in a fine, free way, with more grace than is his wont,” according to his secretary John Nicolay, delivers the Gettysburg Address. He holds his manuscript but does not appear to read from it.

The President decides to hear an address by Lt. Gov.-elect Charles Anderson (Pa.) at 4:30 P.M. in the Presbyterian Church. He meets “old John Burns, the soldier of 1812, and the only man in Gettysburg who volunteered to defend it.” Burns accompanies him and Sec. Seward to hear Anderson speak.

The President’s special train leaves Gettysburg about 7 P.M. and arrives in Washington at 1:10 A.M. on Friday. Lincoln returns from Gettysburg with a mild form of smallpox (varioloid) and remains under half quarantine in White House for nearly three weeks.

The President sad and depressed because Tad is too ill to eat breakfast and Mrs. Lincoln is hysterical. He writes a note that William H. Johnson, his African-American valet, will accompany him to Gettysburg.

President Lincoln and his party leave Washington about noon on a special train of four cars furnished by the B. & O. Railroad. The Presidential party reaches Bolton Station in Baltimore in 1 hour and 10 minutes. The train is transported to the North Central tracks and proceeds on that line to Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania, where it changes to the Hanover Line for the remainder of the trip.

The train arrives about 5 P.M. in Gettysburg, where Lincoln is a guest of Judge Wills. After supper President Lincoln receives a telegram from Secretary Stanton: “By inquiry Mrs. Lincoln informed me that your son is better this evening.”

At 10 P.M. the 5th New York Artillery band serenades the President at the Wills house. After repeated calls, Lincoln addresses the crowd briefly. Singers from Washington and a choir from Baltimore also serenade the President.

The President watches a parade of 2,500 from the Invalid Corps pass White House.

He discusses the train schedule to Gettysburg with Sec. Stanton and alters the original one-day schedule to Gettysburg arranged by Stanton : “I do not like this arrangement. I do not wish to so go that by the slightest accident we fail entirely, and, at the best, the whole to be a mere breathless running of the gauntlet.” 

In the evening Lincoln examines a drawing of the burial plot of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg with the designer William Saunders. He informs Attorney General James Speed that he has prepared about half of the Gettysburg Address.

The President’s bodyguard, Marshal Ward Lamon, announces the program for the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863.

Lincoln, accompanied by journalist Noah Brooks, visits Gardner’s Gallery and poses for photographs.

President Lincoln proposes that Judge Logan bring Mrs. W. H. Lamon, his daughter, to the ceremony at Gettysburg on November 19th. Lamon will act as marshal on the occasion of dedicating the cemetery there.

The Presidential party attends a performance at Ford’s Theatre starring John Wilkes Booth in “The Marble Heart.”

The President is photographed by Alexander Gardner, both alone and with his secretaries John Nicolay and John Hay.

The President confers with Judge Advocate General Holt in the morning about courtmartial cases.

Lincoln writes to General George Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac, to request more information about Private Samuel Wellers, who is to be shot for desertion on November 6: “Has he been a good soldier, except the desertion? About how old is he?”

Judge David Wills of Gettysburg invites President Lincoln to dedicate the National Cemetery at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863 with a “few appropriate remarks.”

The President and Mrs. Lincoln visit Ford’s Theatre to see a performance of “Fanchon, the Cricket.”

Lincoln suggests to General Halleck that Army of Potomac “with all possible expedition” get ready to attack General R. E. Lee.

Lincoln issues a proclamation calling for 300,000 volunteers.

Lincoln writes General Halleck: “If General Meade can now attack him [Lee] on a field no worse than equal for us, and will do so with all the skill and courage, which he, his officers and men possess, the honor will be his if he succeeds, and the blame may be mine if he fails.”

The President writes an order to Sec. Stanton : “This lady, Abigail C. Berea, had a husband and three sons in the war, and has been a nurse herself, without pay”; and asks to have her youngest son discharged because of poor health. “Let it be done.”

President Lincoln telegraphs General Meade at 9 A.M.: “What news this morning?”

At 9:50 A.M. the President telegraphs General Meade again: “How is it now?”

General Meade reports there are reasons to believe the enemy is moving into Shenandoah Valley. President Lincoln telegraphs: “Am interested with your despatch of noon. How is it now?”

In the evening, Lincoln attends a performance of Shakespeare’s “Othello” on stage at Grover’s Theater on Pennsylvania Avenue. A newspaper reports, “The President had intended to remain only an hour, but was so pleased with the play that he stayed it out.”

President Lincoln predicts the rebellion’s outcome to Gen. Rosecrans: “If we can hold Chattanooga, and East Tennessee, I think the rebellion must dwindle and die. I think you and Burnside can do this; and hence doing so is your main object.”

By proclamation, the President sets the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving.

The President writes Gov. Bradford (Md.): “Please be here in person at 12. M. Saturday to fix up definitely in writing” the matter about slaves of loyal Marylanders being enlisted along with other Negroes.

Mrs. Lincoln and Tad arrive home in afternoon from New York.

President Lincoln telegraphs his wife, Mary, who is visiting New York City. He reports, “The air is so clear and cool, and apparantly healthy, that I would be glad for you to come. Nothing very particular, but I would be glad see you and Tad.”

The President tells General Halleck that he is opposed to any “attempt to fight the enemy slowly back into his intrenchments at Richmond, and there to capture him… . I have constantly desired the Army of the Potomac, to make Lee’s army, and not Richmond, its objective point.”

The President urges Gov. Johnson (Tenn.) to “do your utmost to get every man you can, black and white, under arms at the very earliest moment.”

Lincoln writes Gen. Halleck that Gen. Meade has requested guidance about what he should do. “My opinion is that he should move upon Lee at once in manner of general attack… . I think this would develope Lee’s real condition and purposes better than the cavalry alone can do. Of course my opinion is not to control you and Gen. Meade.”

President Lincoln telegraphs Mrs. Lincoln at Manchester, Vt.: “All well, and no news, except that Gen. Burnside has Knoxville, Tennessee.”

President Lincoln writes to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton about a young private who was wounded, made a prisoner & paroled at Gettysburg, and is now at Center-Street hospital, New-Jersey. The soldier was under eighteen when he entered the service without the consent of his father or mother. The destitute mother asks President Lincoln for her son’s discharge, and he directs Stanton to do so if her story proves true.

Lincoln cannot leave Washington to deliver his anti-compromise position in person. So he gives some public speaking advice to his his friend: “Herewith is a letter [Aug. 26] instead. You are one of the best public readers. I have but one suggestion. Read it very slowly.”

Lincoln disagrees with those who advocate compromise to save the Union: “I do not believe any compromise, embracing the maintenance of the Union, is now possible. All I learn, leads to a directly opposite belief. The strength of the rebellion, is its military—its army.”

The President and his secretary John Hay go to the Soldiers’ Home, and Hay falls asleep listening to Lincoln read Shakespeare.

The President visits the telegraph office in the afternoon.

President Lincoln enjoys target practice with the Spencer repeating rifle.

President Lincoln writes to Shakespearean actor James H. Hackett, “For one of my age, I have seen very little of the drama. The first presentation of Falstaff I ever saw was yours here, last winter or spring…Some of Shakspeare’s plays I have never read; while others I have gone over perhaps as frequently as any unprofessional reader. Among the latter are Lear, Richard Third, Henry Eighth, Hamlet, and especially Macbeth. I think nothing equals Macbeth. It is wonderful.” Lincoln adds, “I should like to hear you pronounce the opening speech of Richard the Third. Will you not soon visit Washington again?”

Lincoln and his cabinet hear General Meade describe parts of the Battle of Gettysburg.

President Lincoln writes to General Ulysses S. Grant in favor of the recruitment of black soldiers. Lincoln writes, “Gen. [Lorenzo] Thomas has gone again to the Mississippi Valley, with the view of raising colored troops. I have no reason to doubt that you are doing what you reasonably can upon the same subject. I believe it is a resource which, if vigorously applied now, will soon close the contest. It works doubly, weakening the enemy and strengthening us.” 

The President and John Hay visit the new studio of Alexander and James Gardner, corner of 7th and D Sts., over Shephard and Riley’s Bookstore, to pose for several photographs.

President Lincoln writes to his wife Mary, “Tell dear Tad, poor ‘Nanny Goat,’ is lost; and [the housekeeper] Mrs. Cuthbert & I are in distress…The day you left Nanny was found resting…and chewing her little cud, on the middle of Tad’s bed. But now she’s gone! The gardener kept complaining that she destroyed the flowers…it was concluded to bring her down to the White House. This was done, and the second day she had disappeared, and has not been heard of since.”

President Lincoln responds to New York Governor Horatio Seymour, who seeks to halt “the draft in this State.” Seymour cited the recent New York City draft riots and he suggeted that the draft law was unconstitutional. Lincoln disagrees and writes, “time is too important… . We are contending with an enemy who … drives every able bodied man he can reach, into his ranks, very much as a butcher drives bullocks into a slaughter-pen… . It produces an army with a rapidity not to be matched on our side … My purpose is to be just and constitutional; and yet practical.”

President Lincoln writes to General Nathaniel P. Banks regarding Louisiana’s possible readmission into the Union. Lincoln writes, “I would be glad for her to make a new Constitution recognizing the emancipation proclamation … And … to adopt some practical system by which the two races could gradually live themselves out of their old relation to each other, and both come out better prepared for the new. Education for young blacks should be included in the plan.”

President Lincoln signs an Oder of Retaliation outlining measures to protect African-American Union soldiers. Lincoln pledges, “The government of the United States will give the same protection to all its soldiers, and if the enemy shall sell or enslave anyone because of his color, the offense shall be punished by retaliation upon the enemy’s prisoners in our possession.”

The President goes to the Soldiers’ Home with his secretary, John Hay.

President Lincoln suspends the action in six courtmartial cases of men sentenced to be shot for desertion.

The President spends six hours reviewing courtmartial sentences. Lincoln hates to give the death sentence for cowardice.

Robert Lincoln later quoted his father as saying after the Confederate army’s post-Gettysburg escape, “If I had gone up there I could have licked them myself.”

The President proclaims “Thursday the 6th. day of August next, to be observed as a day for National Thanksgiving, Praise and Prayer.”

The President learns that General Lee has crossed into Virginia. Lincoln is later seen lying on the sofa in the War Department, looking dejected and discouraged.

President Lincoln writes General Meade: “I have just seen your despatch to Gen. Halleck, asking to be relieved of your command, because of a supposed censure of mine… . But I was in such deep distress myself that I could not restrain some expression of it… . I do not believe you appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee’s escape. He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him would, in connection with our other late successes, have ended the war… . Your golden opportunity is gone, and I am distressed immeasurably because of it.” The President never signed or sent this letter.

At the telegraph office, the President receives word of General Meade’s plan to attack Lee tomorrow. Lincoln paces floor, wringing his hands and muttering, “Too late.”

The President appears to his secretary John Hay to be in a fine mood “as he had pretty good evidence that the enemy were still on the north side of the Potomac, and Meade had announced his intention of attacking them in the morning.”

Lincoln writes to an Illinois friend “After three days fighting … Lee withdrew and made for the Potomac … he found the river so swolen as to prevent his crossing … he is still this side near Hagerstown and Williamsport, preparing to defend himself … I am more than satisfied with what has happened North of the Potomac so far, and am anxious and hopeful for what is to come.”

A few days after the Gettysburg battle, President Lincoln responds to a telegram regarding Union troops in pursuit of Confederate General Lee’s army. Lincoln writes, “The forces you speak of, will be of no immagineable service, if they can not go forward with a little more expedition.” Lincoln explains that the Union troops must move quickly or they “will, in my unprofessional opinion, be quite as likely to capture the Man-in-the Moon, as any part of Lee’s Army.”

At the telegraph office in the morning the President receives General Grant’s dispatch announcing the capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Later, at a cabinet meeting, Lincoln appears despondent because General Meade has lingered at Gettysburg.

That evening, “a procession with bands of music proceed[s] to the Executive Mansion.” A newspaper reports, “a crowd enthusiastically cheered the President, [who] … appeared at an upper window.” Lincoln remarks that it is fitting that the Vicksburg victory occurred on the “Fourth of July just passed,” when defeat came to “those who opposed the declaration that all men are created equal.”

The President wonders whether General Meade intends to cover Baltimore and Washington, and allow the enemy cross the river again without further collision, or whether Meade plans to prevent Lee’s crossing and destroy him.

At 10 A.M. the President issues a press release announcing that “news from the Army of the Potomac, up to 10 P.M. of the 3rd is such as to cover that Army with the highest honor.”

The President is at the War Department in the morning, examining dispatches from General Meade. Mary Lincoln receives a head injury when she is thrown from her carriage on the way to the Soldiers’ Home.

In the morning President Lincoln reads dispatches from Gen. Meade at the War Department. The President also spends hours in the telegraph office awaiting news.

President Lincoln telegraphs General Couch at 3:25 P.M.: “I judge by absence of news that the enemy is not crossing, or pressing up to the Susquehannah. Please tell me what you know of his movements.”

Lincoln telegraphs General Couch (assigned to protect Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s capital, from a Confederate attack): “What news now? What are the enemy firing at four miles from your works?”

At a conference in the War Dept. President Lincoln agrees to relieve General Hooker of command of the Army of Potomac and to replace him with General George G. Meade.

Lincoln commutes six death sentences that were pending in the army. To a cabinet member, he expresses doubts about General Hooker.

A cabinet member describes the President as looking “sad and careworn.

The President begins his summer residence at the Soldiers’ Home.

The President telegraphs his wife in Philadelphia: “It is a matter of choice with yourself whether you come home. There is no reason why you should not, that did not exist when you went away. As bearing on the question of your coming home, I do not think the raid in Pennsylvania amounts to anything at all.”

Lincoln also telegraphs Gen. Hooker: “Your idea to send your cavalry to this side of the river may be right—probably is; still, it pains me a little that it looks like defensive merely, and seems to abandon the fair chance now presented of breaking the enemy’s long and necessarily slim line, stretched now from the Rappahannock to Pennsylvania.”

President Lincoln telegraphs Mary Lincoln in Philadelphia: “Tolerably well. Have not rode out much yet, but have at last got new tires on the carriage wheels, & perhaps, shall ride out soon.”

The President telegraphs Major General Joseph Hooker, commander of the Army of the Potomac, about defensive strategies on Virginia battlefields. Lincoln writes, “So far as we can make out here, the enemy have [General Robert] Milroy surrounded at Winchester, and [General Robert] Tyler at Martinsburg… . If the head of Lee’s army is at Martinsburg and the tail of it on the Plank road between Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere. Could you not break him?”

President Lincoln writes Gen. Hooker: “If left to me, I would not go South of the Rappahannock, upon Lee’s moving North of it….I think Lee’s Army, and not Richmond, is your true objective point.”

The President telegraphs Mrs. Lincoln, who is visiting Philadelphia with Tad: “Think you better put ‘Tad’s’ pistol away. I had an ugly dream about him.”

President Lincoln accompanies Mrs. Lincoln and Tad to the 3 P.M. train for Philadelphia.

President Lincoln writes to Commander of the Army of the Potomac General Joseph Hooker “In case you find Lee coming to the North of the Rappahannock [River], I would by no means cross to the South of it….In one word, I would not take any risk of being entangled upon the river, like an ox jumped half over a fence, and liable to be torn by dogs, front and rear, without a fair chance to gore one way or kick the other.”

The President tells a committee of New Yorkers that he would gladly receive into the service “not ten thousand but ten times ten thousand colored troops.”

President Lincoln visits three main hospitals and shakes hands with 1,000 soldiers.

In the afternoon in the East Room of the White House President Lincoln meets with disabled veterans from St. Elizabeth’s Hospital veterans. The President says, “These maimed heroes…are eloquent without uttering a word. The limbs that are absent speak more loudly than the arms and legs that are here.”

President Lincoln writes General Hooker: “The recent movement of your army is ended without effecting its object… . What next? Have you already in your mind a plan wholly, or partially formed? If you have, prosecute it without interference from me. If you have not, please inform me, so that I, incompetent as I may be, can try [to] assist in the formation of some plan for the Army.”

Lincoln telegraphs General Hooker: “We have news here that the enemy has reoccupied heights above Fredericksburg. Is that so?”

During the Battle of Chancellorsville President telegraphs Gen. Butterfield: “Where is Gen. Hooker? Where is Sedgwick? where is Stoneman?”

President Lincoln writes Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania, “I do not think the people of Pennsylvania should be uneasy about an invasion.”