CHAPTER XX.

GETTYSBURG.

THE HE sun was setting on the last day of June when a division of Union cavalry under General Buford entered the town of Gettysburg. The scouts had been watching the roads leading through the mountains towards the Cumberland Valley. During the previous night they had seen the Confederate camp-fires gleaming in the west. General Buford had been directed by General Reynolds to proceed to Gettysburg and hold that section of the country. It was known that Ewell's corps of the Confederate army was near Harrisburg, and the main body of the army west of Gettysburg. Reynolds saw that a collision must soon take place. The cavalrymen, as they wheeled into the public square, beheld Pettigrew's brigade of Confederate infantry descending the hill on the Chambersburg turnpike west of the town. They were intending to help themselves to boots, shoes, and clothing from the stores, but, seeing the Union troops, they retraced their steps to Herr's Tavern, beyond Willoughby Run. The cavalry followed to that stream, along which the pickets of both armies watched through the night.

From the road in front of the tavern, at seven o'clock in the July 1. morning, Pegram's cannon sent a shell across Willoughby Run, 1863. and a moment later the guns of Calef's battery made reply. The battle of Gettysburg had begun.

The scenes of that conflict are a part of the history of the war. (See "Marching to Victory.") It has come to be regarded as the turning point of the Rebellion - deciding the destiny of the nation and of publican government.

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Through the forenoon of the national holiday I was riding over battle-field. The Confederates were holding the ground along the woods from whence Pickett's division advanced on the preceding July 4. afternoon, but behind the outposts were unmistakable signs that Lee was preparing to retreat. A little later I saw baggage-wagons

winding along the road westward. At General Meade's headquarters it was believed that Lee was intending to retire at nightfall. The next morning I entered the Eutaw House, in Baltimore. The corridor was filled with anxious men, among them Henry Winter Davis and Elihu B. Washburne, members of Congress. They had heard of the repulse of Pickett's division and were anxious for further information.

"Where are you from?" Washburne asked. "Gettysburg."

"What's the news?"

"We have won the greatest battle of the war."

"Now, see here; don't tell a lie. We have been deceived often enough. Is it true?"

"I have been all over the battle-field, and the rebels are in retreat." "Hurrah! Hurrah!" the shout.

The next moment Washburne and Davis were hugging each other. General Schenck, commander of the military department, seized me by the arm, led me to his own room, closed the door, asked when I had left the field, and what I had seen. He telegraphed the information to the President. It was the first report received in Washington of the movement of Lee towards Virginia.

At no period of the war did the President exhibit such anxiety as during the week succeeding the appointment of General Meade to command the army.

"I shall never forget," writes a Senator, "the painful anxiety of those few days when the fate of the nation seemed to hang in the balance, nor the restless solicitude of Mr. Lincoln, as he paced up and down the room, reading despatches, soliloquizing, and often stopping to trace the map which hung against the wall; nor the relief we all felt when the fact was established that victory, though gained at a fearful cost, was indeed on the side of the Union." (')

July 5.

After the President received the telegram from General Schenck that the Confederates were retreating from Gettysburg, he proceeded to the Ebbitt House to call upon General Sickles, who was wounded during the second day's engagement, and who had arrived in Washington. General James B. Rusling (') was with General Sickles when Mr. Lincoln entered the room. There was no longer any sign of anxiety on the face of the President as he shook hands with the wounded commander.

"Were you not worried, Mr. President, as to what might be the result of the battle?" Sickles asked.

"Oh no; I thought it would all come out right."

"But you must have been the only man who felt so," replied Sickles, "for I understand that there was a deep feeling of anxiety here among the heads of the Government."

"Yes," replied the President, "Stanton, Welles, and the rest were pretty badly rattled. They ordered two or three gunboats up to the city and placed some of the Government archives aboard, and wanted me to go aboard; but I told them it wasn't necessary, and that it would be all right." "But what made you feel so confident, Mr. President?" persisted General Sickles.

"Oh, I had my reasons; but I don't care to mention them, for they would perhaps be laughed at," said Lincoln.

The curiosity of both the other gentlemen was greatly excited, and General Sickles again pressed Mr. Lincoln for the grounds of his confidence. Finally, Lincoln said:

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'Well, I will tell you why I felt confident we should win at Gettysburg. Before the battle I retired alone to my room in the White House, and got down on my knees and prayed to the Almighty God to give us the victory. I said to Him that this was His war, and that if He would stand by the nation now, I would stand by Him the rest of my life. He gave us the victory, and I propose to keep my pledge. I arose from my knees with a feeling of deep and serene confidence, and

had no doubt of the result from that hour."

"General Sickles and myself," said Rusling, "were both profoundly impressed by Lincoln's words, and for some minutes complete silence reigned. Then Sickles, turning over on his couch, said:

"Well, Mr. President, how do you feel about the Vicksburg cam. paign?"

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"Oh, I think that will be all right, too. Grant is pegging away the enemy, and I have great confidence in him. I like Grant. doesn't bother me or give any trouble. I prayed for success there, too; I told the Lord about the Vicksburg campaign; that victory there would cut the Confederacy in two, and would be the decisive one of the war. I have abiding faith that we shall come out all right at Vicksburg. Grant wins I shall stick to him though the war."

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In the congratulatory address issued by General Meade after the battle, he urged the soldiers "to drive the invaders from our soil." The President read it; his hands fell upon his knees and the old-time sadness appeared, as he exclaimed, "Drive the invaders from our soil! My God! Is that all?" (")

While the Confederates were retreating from Gettysburg, General Pemberton was surrendering Vicksburg to General Grant, with 31,000 soldiers and 172 cannon.

July 13.

General Banks was besieging Port Hudson. "Vicksburg is ours!" shouted the Union soldiers. An officer with a white flag came out from the Confederate lines with a letter from General Gardner, July 8. asking if it was true that Vicksburg had fallen. General Banks replied that it was, and enclosed a copy of the letter he had received. from General Grant. The Confederates were on the point of starvation. They had been eating mule meat. Their commander could hold out no longer, and surrendered. The last vestige of Confederate power had disappeared from the Mississippi, and once more its waters were free to peaceful commerce.

We have seen President Lincoln standing before a map in the executive chamber and predicting that the proposed movement of Hooker towards Richmond, the effort of the monitors at Charleston, the attempt of Grant to reach Vicksburg by the Yazoo Pass, would not be successful. His predictions had proved true. But the determination of Grant to capture Vicksburg was strengthened by his repeated failures. Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Port Hudson make a turning-point in history. On July 13th the President wrote to General Grant:

"I do not remember that you and I ever met personally. I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost inestimable service you have done the country. I write to say a word further. When you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should do what you finally did : march the troops across the neck, run the batteries with the transports, and thus go below. I never had any faith, except a general hope, that you knew better than I that the Yazoo Pass expedition and the like could succeed. When you got below and took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity I thought you should go down the river and join General Banks. When you turned northward, east of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right and I was wrong."

"I guess, "said the President to a friend, "I was right in standing by Grant, although there was a great pressure made after Pittsburg Landing to have him censured. I thought I saw enough in Grant to convince me that he was one on whom the country could depend. That unconditional message to Buckner at Donelson suited me. It indicated the spirit of the man."(')

The victories won at Gettysburg and on the Mississippi, instead of kindling the patriotism of the Peace Democrats, made them angry. On July 4th, while Lee was preparing to retreat from Pennsylvania, while

Pemberton's troops were laying down their arms, Governor Seymour, of New York, was addressing a Democratic convention:

"I stand before you on this occasion not as one animated by expected victories, but feeling, as all feel now within sound of my voice, the dread uncertainties of the conflicts which rage around us-not alone in Pennsylvania, but along the whole course of the Mis sissippi-that are carrying down to bloody graves so many of our fellow-countrymen. . . . The doctrine of the suspension of the habeas corpus is unconstitutional, unsound, unjust, and treasonable."

In New Hampshire, at the same hour, ex-President Franklin Pierce, one of the "house-builders," said: "The mailed hand of despotism strikes down the liberties of the people, and its foot tramples a desecrated Constitution."

July 11.

The draft was resisted in New York City. The mob attacked the office of the provost marshal. The President was denounced as being worse than Nero or Caligula of imperial Rome. Negroes were seized and hanged, an asylum for colored children burned, the office of the "Tribune" assailed. Many of the rioters were killed before order was restored.

In Ohio the Peace Democrats had nominated Vallandigham for Governor. A body of Confederate cavalry under John Morgan was making a raid through Southern Indiana and Ohio; but their seizure of horses and plundering of citizens did not contribute to Vallandig ham's success.

The Peace Democrats of Illinois were very bitter against the Presi dent. The Republicans were to hold a convention in September, and desired Mr. Lincoln to be present. That he would not do. circumstances would he attend a political gathering. He wrote:

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"The signs look better. The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great North-west for it. Nor yet wholly to them. Three hundred miles up they met New England, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey, hewing their way right and left. The Sunny South, too, in more colors than one, also lent a hand. On the

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part of the history was jotted down in black and white. The job was a great national one, and let none be banned who bore an honorable part in it. And while those who have cleared the river may well be proud, even that is not all. It is hard to say that any. thing has been more bravely and well done than at Antietam, Murfreesborough, Gettysburg, and on many fields of lesser note. Nor must Uncle Sam's web-feet be forgotten. the watery margins they have been present. Not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also up the narrow, muddy bayou; and wherever the ground was a little damp they have been and made their tracks. Thanks to all! For the great re public, for the principle it lives by and keeps alive, for man's vast future, thanks to all!

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