A Presidential Trip to Gettysburg
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
A Presidential Trip to Gettysburg Karlton Smith, Gettysburg National Military Park Dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg, November 19, 1863. (Library of Congress) On or before November 7, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln had determined to attend the dedication of the new Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was reported that he did so at “considerable personal inconvenience.” It was felt, however, that Lincoln’s presence would “help to deepen the impressiveness of the scene…” This trip should also be placed in the context of the events surrounding the establishment of the cemetery and the national and international events that preoccupied the President’s time and attention.1 After three days of fighting at Gettysburg, July 1 – 3, 1863, the Army of the Potomac suffered approximately 3,149 killed and 14,501 wounded. Pennsylvania troops engaged in the battle lost 740 killed and 3,762 wounded. Governor Andrew G. Curtin of Pennsylvania visited the battlefield on July 10. Shocked at the sight of the battlefield dotted with so many makeshift graves, Curtin made arrangements with David Wills, a local attorney, “…for the removal of all Pennsylvanians killed in the late battles, furnishing transportation for the body and one attendant at the expense of the State.”2 On July 24, 1863, Wills wrote to Curtin that “Mr. [John F.]Seymour is here on behalf of his Brother the Governor of New York to look after the wounded &. on the battlefield and I have suggested to him and also the Rev. Cross of Baltimore and others the propriety and actual necessity of the purchase of a common burial ground for the dead, now only partially buried over miles of country around Gettysburg.” Other northern states Page | 34 eventually joined with Pennsylvania in this project to establish the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg.3 Wills’ idea of purchasing a plot of ground for the burial of the Federal dead was inadvertently helped by Col. Henry C. Alleman. Alleman, commanding the 36th Pennsylvania Militia, had arrived in town on July 9, relieving the 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry of patrolling and policing the Gettysburg area. Alleman issued General Order #2 on July 30: “During the months of August and September A. D., 1863, no corpse will be allowed to be disinterred from any cemeteries, or battle ground of Gettysburg. The health of the wounded soldiers and citizens of this community requires the stringent enforcement of this order…” Maj. Gen. Darius N. Couch, appointed to command the Department of the Susquehanna on June 11, 1863, concurred with Colonel Alleman when he issued a general order on August 18 that “no disinterment of bodies shall take place, until authorized from these headquarters.” Organized on June 9, 1863, the Department of the Susquehanna was “that portion of the State of Pennsylvania east of Johnstown and the Laurel Hill range of mountains.” Gettysburg was naturally in this department and administration of military affairs in the county fell under Couch’s administration. 4 The official delay gave Wills the necessary time to pursue his plans for the national cemetery that would hopefully provide a proper burial ground for all Union dead of Gettysburg, sparing the grieving families the expense and personal trauma of having their loved one’s remains recovered and shipped home for burial, In the middle of August, Secretary of State William Henry Seward took several foreign diplomats on a journey into New York. Among these dignitaries were Lord Lyons (Great Britain), Henri Mercier (France), and Joseph Bertinatti (Italy). Mercier and Bertinatti would accompany the president to Gettysburg that November, but on this excursion they were to be impressed by the Northern spirit, both industrial and social. Seward’s objective was to show these foreign ministers that once away from Washington, “the country was not becoming exhausted, or that the causes which led to the draft riots in William Seward (LOC) New York might not be at work in every town.” Frederick W. Seward, the Secretary’s son, remembered: “Hundreds of factories with whirring wheels, thousands of acres of golden harvest fields, miles of railway trains, laden with freight, busy fleets on rivers, lakes and canals, showed a period of unexampled commercial activity and prosperity. Then, the flag flying everywhere, the drum heard everywhere, the recruiting offices Page | 35 open and busy, the churches, the hospitals, the commissions and benevolent associations, laboring for the soldiers’ care and comfort, all attested the resources of an empire, and the self-reliant patriotism of a great Republic.”5 Whether the trip impressed the foreigners was not clear, though what they saw in New York was far and away different from the recovery occurring in Gettysburg that same month. Lord Richard Bickerton Pemell Lyons, Chevalier Joseph Bertinatti, Ambassador From Great Britain and minister of the Kingdom of Italy, ally of the Lincoln Administration. recognized by the United States (LOC) Government in 1861. (Rootsweb) By August, Wills had made arrangements with William Saunders, “an eminent landscape gardener, to lay out the grounds [of the new cemetery] in State lots.” Botanist and Superintendent of Horticulture at the newly created Bureau of Agriculture, Saunders was responsible for Rose Hill Cemetery in Chicago (1859) and Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield (1858). Saunders’ plan laid out the cemetery in a semicircle around one central point, his intention being the “principal expression of the improvement should be that produced by simple grandeur and propriety.” As each State was to have its own plot, Saunders wanted to “obviate criticism as to position,” adding “the peculiar solemnity of the interest attached by each State to each internment, allows of no distinction.”6 After working on the design remotely, Saunders, came to Gettysburg that fall and by October 5 was “plotting and laying out the grounds” of the cemetery, a job that would take most of the month to complete.7 Wills wrote to Curtin on August 26 to update the governor. Fifteen of seventeen governors had responded to Wills’ letters asking for co-operation, while 14 acres of land on Cemetery Hill had been purchased. He also pointed out that “it would be showing only proper respect for the health of this community not to commence the exhuming of the dead and removal to the Cemetery until the month of November, and in the meantime the grounds should be artistically laid out and Page | 36 consecrated by appropriate ceremonies.” Curtin responded to Wills on August 31, with the excuse, “but you know how I am pressed,” for his tardy reply, though in full agreement that the “proper consecration of the grounds must claim our early attention; and, as soon as we can do so, our fellow purchasers should be invited to join with us in the performance of suitable ceremonies on the occasion.”8 The governor’s delay was due to a scheduled meeting with the President on August 28 concerning draft quotas in Pennsylvania. It’s highly likely that with Wills’ communique in hand, Curtin asked Lincoln at that time if he could come to Gettysburg and help dedicate the new cemetery. Lincoln evidently responded that he would if he could get away from the business in Washington. As much of a sign of respect for the office, it was also politically motivated for a Republican governor to not have asked the first Republican president to attend this special event.9 Lincoln probably owed Governor Curtin a visit to Pennsylvania not only because the biggest battle of the war had just been fought in the governor’s “backyard” but because Curtin had convinced the Pennsylvania delegation at the Chicago Republican Convention in 1860 to back the nomination of Lincoln instead of favorite son Simon Cameron. Additionally, at the beginning of the war, Pennsylvania had met its quota of troops and went over it by almost 15,000 men. Instead of sending those men home, Curtin convinced the legislature to organize the surplus into three brigades of five regiments each and referred to the group as the Pennsylvania Reserves. The Reserves were called to Washington following the First Battle of Bull Run and became an important part of the Army of the Potomac. Curtin would visit Pennsylvania soldiers at the front when his time allowed, thus becoming known as the “Soldiers’ Friend” and convinced the Pennsylvania legislature to establish a fund for the support and education of war orphans. At the War Governors’ Conference held in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in October 1862, Curtin helped to garner most of the governors’ support for the Emancipation Proclamation. If anything, Curtin “was profoundly loyal and an enthusiast in everything pertaining to the war….he never for a moment lost sight of his paramount duty to give unfaltering support to the government in the great struggle for the maintenance of the Union.”10 Wills had originally intended to dedicate the cemetery on October 23 with Edward Everett as the main speaker, the united choice of the state representatives to the cemetery project. Everett was a graduate of Harvard College (1811) and had served as a U. S. Representative (1825 – 1835), governor of Massachusetts (1836 – 1840), minister to Great Britain (1841 – 1845), president of Harvard (1846 – 1849), interim U. S. Secretary of State (1852 – 1853), member of the U. S. Senate (1853 – 1854), and was a vice presidential candidate in 1860. He was also considered the greatest orator of his day. This impressive resume' explains why David Wills wanted him as the main speaker.11 Everett’s response to Wills’ invitation was positive though he was under engagements, “which will occupy all my time from Monday next to the 12th of October…As it will take me two days to reach Gettysburg, and it will be highly desirable that I should have at least one day to survey the battle-field, I cannot safely name an earlier date than the 19th of Page | 37 November.” Wills readily changed the date of the dedication to November 19 to suit Mr.