Edward Everett, "Gettysburg Oration," 19 November 1863
STANDING beneath this serene sky, overlooking these broad fields
now reposing from the labors of the waning year, the mighty Alleghanies
dimly towering before us, the graves of our brethren beneath our feet,
it is
with hesitation that I raise my poor voice to break the eloquent silence
of
God and Nature. But the duty to which you have called me must be
performed; grant me, I pray you, your indulgence and your sympathy.
It was appointed by law in Athens, that the obsequies of the citizens
who fell in battle should be performed at the public expense, and in the
most honorable manner. Their bones were carefully gathered up from the
funeral pyre where their bodies were consumed, and brought home to the
city. There, for three days before the interment, they lay in state, beneath
tents of honor, to receive the votive offerings of friends and relatives,
-
flowers, weapons, precious ornaments, painted vases (wonders of art,
which after two thousand years adorn the museums of modern Europe),
the last tributes of surviving affection. Ten coffins of funereal cypress
received the honorable deposit, one for each of the tribes of the city,
and
an eleventh in memory of the unrecognized, but not therefore unhonored,
dead, and of those whose remains could not be recovered. On the fourth
day the mournful procession was formed: mothers, wives, sisters,
daughters, led the way, and to them it was permitted by the simplicity
of
ancient manners to utter aloud their lamentations for the beloved and the
lost; the male relatives and friends of the deceased followed; citizens
and
strangers closed the train. Thus marshalled, they moved to the place of
interment in that famous Ceramicus, the most beautiful suburb of Athens,
which had been adorned by Cimon, the son of Miltiades, with walks and
fountains and columns, whose groves were filled with altars, shrines,
and temples, whose gardens were kept forever green by the streams
from the neighboring hills, and shaded with the trees sacred to Minerva
and coëval with the foundation of the city, whose circuit enclosed
"the olive grove of Academe,
Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird
Trilled his thick-warbled note the summer long,"
whose pathways gleamed with the monuments of the illustrious dead, the
work of the most consummate masters that ever gave life to marble.
There, beneath the overarching plane-trees, upon a lofty stage erected
for
the purpose, it was ordained that a funeral oration should be pronounced
by some citizen of Athens, in the presence of the assembled multitude.
Such were the tokens of respect required to be paid at Athens to the
memory of those who had fallen in the cause of their country. For those
alone who fell at Marathon a peculiar honor was reserved. As the battle
fought upon that immortal field was distinguished from all others in Grecian
history for its influence over the fortunes of Hellas, as it depended
upon
the event of that day whether Greece should live, a glory and a light to
all
coming time, or should expire, like the meteor of a moment; so the honors
awarded to its martyr-heroes were such as were bestowed by Athens on
no other occasion. They alone of all her sons were entombed upon the
spot which they had forever rendered famous. Their names were inscribed
upon ten pillars erected upon the monumental tumulus which covered their
ashes (where, after six hundred years, they were read by the traveller
Pausanias), and although the columns, beneath the hand of time and
barbaric violence, have long since disappeared, the venerable mound still
marks the spot where they fought and fell, -
"That battle-field where Persia's victim-horde
First bowed beneath the brunt of Hellas' sword."
And shall I, fellow-citizens, who, after an interval of twenty-three
centuries, a youthful pilgrim from the world unknown to ancient Greece,
have wandered over that illustrious plain, ready to put off the shoes from
off my feet, as one that stands on holy ground, who have gazed with
respectful emotion on the mound which still protects the dust of those
who
rolled back the tide of Persian invasion, and rescued the land of popular
liberty, of letters, and of arts, from the ruthless foe, stand unmoved
over the graves of our dear brethren, who so lately, on three of those
all-important days which decide a nation's history, days on whose issue
it depended whether this august republican Union, founded by some of the
wisest statesmen that ever lived, cemented with the blood of some of the
purest patriots that ever died, should perish or endure, rolled back
the
tide of an invasion, not less unprovoked, not less ruthless, than that
which
came to plant the dark banner of Asiatic despotism and slavery on the free
soil of Greece? Heaven forbid! And could I prove so insensible to every
prompting of patriotic duty and affection, not only would you,
fellow-citizens, gathered many of you from distant States, who have come
to take part in these pious offices of gratitude, you, respected fathers,
brethren, matrons, sisters, who surround me, cry out for shame, but the
forms of brave and patriotic men who fill these honored graves would
heave with indignation beneath the sod.
We have assembled, friends, fellow-citizens, at the invitation of the
Executive of the great central State of Pennsylvania, seconded by the
Governors of seventeen other loyal States of the Union, to pay the last
tribute of respect to the brave men who, in the hard-fought battles of
the
first, second, and third days of July last, laid down their lives for the
country on these hillsides and the plains before us, and whose remains
have
been gathered into the cemetery which we consecrate this day. As my eye
ranges over the fields whose sods were so lately moistened by the blood
of
gallant and loyal men, I feel, as never before, how truly it was said of
old
that it is sweet and becoming to die for one's country. I feel, as never
before, how justly, from the dawn of history to the present time, men have
paid the homage of their gratitude and admiration to the memory of those
who nobly sacrifice their lives, that their fellow-men may live in safety
and
in honor. And if this tribute were ever due, to whom could it be more justly
paid than to those whose last resting-place we this day commend to the
blessing of Heaven and of men?
For consider, my friends, what would have been the consequences to
the country, to yourselves, and to all you hold dear, if those who sleep
beneath our feet, and their gallant comrades who survive to serve their
country on other fields of danger, had failed in their duty on those
memorable days. Consider what, at this moment, would be the condition
of the United States, if that noble Army of the Potomac, instead of gallantly
and for the second time beating back the tide of invasion from Maryland
and Pennsylvania, had been itself driven from these well-contested heights,
thrown back in confusion on Baltimore, or trampled down, discomfited,
scattered to the four winds. What, in that sad event, would not have been
the fate of the Monumental City, of Harrisburg, of Philadelphia, of
Washington, the Capital of the Union, each and every one of which would
have lain at the mercy of the enemy, accordingly as it might have pleased
him, spurred by passion, flushed with victory, and confident of continued
success, to direct his course?
For this we must bear in mind, it is one of the great lessons of the
war, indeed of every war, that it is impossible for a people without military
organization, inhabiting the cities, towns, and villages of an open country,
including of course the natural proportion of non-combatants of either
sex
and of every age, to withstand the inroad of a veteran army. What defence
can be made by the inhabitants of villages mostly built of wood, of cities
unprotected by walls, nay, by a population of men, however high-toned
and resolute, whose aged parents demand their care, whose wives and
children are clustering about them, against the charge of the war-horse
whose neck is clothed with thunder, against flying artillery and batteries
of rifled cannon planted on every commanding eminence, against the
onset of trained veterans led by skilful chiefs? No, my friends, army must
be met by army, battery by battery, squadron by squadron; and the shock
of organized thousands must be encountered by the firm breasts and valiant
arms of other thousands, as well organized and as skilfully led. It is
no
reproach, therefore, to the unarmed population of the country to say, that
we owe it to the brave men who sleep in their beds of honor before us,
and to their gallant surviving associates, not merely that your fertile
fields,
my friends of Pennsylvania and Maryland, were redeemed from the
presence of the invader, but that your beautiful capitals were not given
up
to threatened plunder, perhaps laid in ashes, Washington seized by the
enemy, and a blow struck at the heart of the nation.
Who that hears me has forgotten the thrill of joy that ran through the
country on the Fourth of July, auspicious day for the glorious tidings,
and rendered still more so by the simultaneous fall of Vicksburg, when
the telegraph flashed through the land the assurance from the President
of
the United States that the Army of the Potomac, under General Meade,
had again smitten the invader? Sure I am, that, with the ascriptions of
praise that rose to Heaven from twenty millions of freemen, with the
acknowledgments that breathed from patriotic lips throughout the length
and breadth of America, to the surviving officers and men who had
rendered the country this inestimable service, there beat in every loyal
bosom a throb of tender and sorrowful gratitude to the martyrs who had
fallen on the sternly contested field. Let a nation's fervent thanks make
some amends for the toils and sufferings of those who survive. Would that
the heartfelt tribute could penetrate these honored graves!
In order that we may comprehend, to their full extent, our obligations
to the martyrs and surviving heroes of the Army of the Potomac, let us
contemplate for a few moments the train of events which culminated in the
battles of the first days of July. Of this stupendous rebellion, planned,
as its
originators boast, more than thirty years ago, matured and prepared for
during an entire generation, finally commenced because, for the first time
since the adoption of the Constituion, election of President had been
effected without the votes of the South (which retained, however, the
control of the two other branches of the government), the occupation of
the national capital, with the seizure of the public archives and of the
treaties with foreign powers, was an essential feature. This was in
substance, within my personal knowledge, admitted, in the winter of
1860-61, by one of the most influential leaders of the rebellion; and it
was
fondly thought that this object could be effected by a bold and sudden
movement on the 4th of March, 1861. There is abundant proof, also, that
a darker project was contemplated, if not by the responsible chiefs of
the
rebellion, yet by nameless ruffians, willing to play a subsidiary and
murderous part in the treasonable drama. It was accordingly maintained
by
the Rebel emissaries in England, in the circles to which they found access,
that the new American Minister ought not, when he arrived, to be received
as the envoy of the United States, inasmuch as before that time
Washington would be captured, and the capital of the nation and the
archives and muniments of the government would be in the possession of
the Confederates. In full accordance also with this threat, it was declared
by the Rebel Secretary of War, at Montgomery, in the presence of his
Chief and of his colleagues, and of five thousand hearers, while the tidings
of the assault on Sumter were travelling over the wires on that fatal 12th
of
April, 1861, that before the end of May "the flag which then flaunted the
breeze," as he expressed it, "would float over the dome of the Capitol
at
Washington."
At the time this threat was made the rebellion was confined to the
cotton-growing States, and it was well understood by them, that the only
hope of drawing any of the other slaveholding States into the conspiracy
was in bringing about a conflict of arms, and "firing the heart of the
South"
by the effusion of blood. This was declared by the Charleston press to
be
the object for which Sumter was to be assaulted; and the emissaries sent
from Richmond, to urge on the unhallowed work, gave the promise, that,
with the first drop of blood that should be shed, Virginia would place
herself by the side of South Carolina.
In pursuance of this original plan of the leaders of the rebellion, the
capture of Washington has been continually had in view, not merely for
the
sake of its public buildings, as the capital of the Confederacy, but as
the
necessary preliminary to the absorption of the Border States, and for the
moral effect in the eyes of Europe of possessing the metropolis of the
Union.
I allude to these facts, not perhaps enough borne in mind, as a
sufficient refutation of the presence, on the part of the Rebels, that
the war
is one of self-defence, waged for the right of self-government. It is in
reality
a war originally levied by ambitious men in the cotton-growing States,
for
the purpose of drawing the slaveholding Border States into the vortex of
the conspiracy, first by sympathy, which in the case of Southeastern
Virginia, North Carolina, part of Tennessee, and Arkansas succeeded,
and then by force, and for the purpose of subjugating Maryland, Western
Virginia, Kentucky, Eastern Tennessee, and Missouri; and it is a most
extraordinary fact, considering the clamors of the Rebel chiefs on the
subject of invasion, that not a soldier of the United States has entered
the
States last named, except to defend their Union-loving inhabitants from
the
armies and guerillas of the Rebels.
In conformity with these designs on the city of Washington, and
notwithstanding the disastrous results of the invasion of 1862, it was
determined by the Rebel government last summer to resume the offensive
in that direction. Unable to force the passage of the Rappahannock where
General Hooker, notwithstanding the reverse at Chancellorsville in May,
was strongly posted, the Confederate general resorted to strategy. He had
two objects in view. The first was, by a rapid movement northward, and
by manuvring with a portion of his army on the east side of the Blue
Ridge, to tempt Hooker from his base of operations, thus leading him to
uncover the approaches to Washington, to throw it open to a raid by
Stuart's cavalry, and to enable Lee himself to cross the Potomac in the
neighborhood of Poolesville and thus fall upon the capital. This plan of
operations was wholly frustrated. The design of the Rebel general was
promptly discovered by General Hooker, and, moving with great rapidity
from Fredericksburg, he preserved unbroken the inner line, and stationed
the various corps of his army at all the points protecting the approach
to
Washington, from Centreville up to Leesburg. From this vantage-ground
the Rebel general in vain attempted to draw him. In the mean time, by the
vigorous operations of Pleasonton's cavalry, the cavalry of Stuart, though
greatly superior in numbers, was so crippled as to be disabled from
performing the part assigned it in the campaign. In this manner General
Lee's first object, namely, the defeat of Hooker's army on the south of
the
Potomac, and a direct march on Washington, was baffled.
The second part of the Confederate plan, which is supposed to have
been undertaken in opposition to the views of General Lee, was to turn
the
demonstration northward into a real invasion of Maryland and
Pennsylvania, in the hope that, in this way, General Hooker would be
drawn to a distance from the capital, and that some opportunity would
occur of taking him at disadvantage, and, after defeating his army, of
making a descent upon Baltimore and Washington. This part of General
Lee's plan, which was substantially the repetition of that of 1862, was
not
less signally defeated, with what honor to the arms of the Union the heights
on which we are this day assembled will forever attest.
Much time had been uselessly consumed by the Rebel general in his
unavailing attempts to out-manuvre General Hooker. Although General
Lee broke up from Fredericksburg on the 3d of June, it was not till the
24th that the main body of his army entered Maryland. Instead of crossing
the Potomac, as he had intended, east of the Blue Ridge, he was
compelled to do it at Shepherdstown and Williamsport, thus materially
deranging his entire plan of campaign north of the river. Stuart, who had
been sent with his cavalry to the east of the Blue Ridge, to guard the
passes of the mountains, to mask the movements of Lee, and to harass the
Union general in crossing the river, having been very severely handled
by
Pleasonton at Beverly Ford, Aldie, and Upperville, instead of being able
to
retard General Hooker's advance, was driven himself away from his
connection with the army of Lee, and cut off for a fortnight from all
communication with it, a circumstance to which General Lee, in his
report, alludes more than once, with evident displeasure. Let us now
rapidly glance at the incidents of the eventful campaign.
A detachment from Ewell's corps, under Jenkins, had penetrated, on
the 15th of June, as far as Chambersburg. This movement was intended at
first merely as a demonstration, and as a marauding expedition for supplies.
It had, however, the salutary effect of alarming the country; and vigorous
preparations were made, not only by the General Government, but here in
Pennsylvania and in the sister States, to repel the inroad. After two days
passed at Chambersburg, Jenkins, anxious for his communications with
Ewell, fell back with his plunder to Hagerstown. Here he remained for
several days, and then, having swept the recesses of the Cumberland
valley, came down upon the eastern flank of the South Mountain, and
pushed his marauding parties as far as Waynesboro. On the 22d the
remainder of Ewell's corps crossed the river and moved up the valley.
They were followed on the 24th by Longstreet and Hill, who crossed at
Williamsport and Shepherdstown, and, pushing up the valley, encamped at
Chambersburg on the 27th. In this way the whole Rebel army, estimated at
90,000 infantry, upwards of 10,000 cavalry, and 4,000 or 5,000 artillery,
making a total of 105,000 of all arms, was concentrated in Pennsylvania.
Up to this time no report of Hooker's movements had been received
by General Lee, who, having been deprived of his cavalry, had no means
of obtaining information. Rightly judging, however, that no time would
be
lost by the Union army in the pursuit, in order to detain it on the eastern
side of the mountains in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and thus preserve his
communications by the way of Williamsport, he had, before his own arrival
at Chambersburg, directed Ewell to send detachments from his corps to
Carlisle and York[.] The latter detachment, under Early, passed through
this place on the 26th of June. You need not, fellow-citizens of Gettysburg,
that I should recall to you those moments of alarm and distress, precursors
as they were of the more trying scenes which were so soon to follow.
As soon as General Hooker perceived that the advance of the
Confederates into the Cumberland valley was not a mere feint to draw him
away from Washington, he moved rapidly in pursuit. Attempts, as we have
seen, were made to harass and retard his passage across the Potomac.
These attempts were not only altogether unsuccessful, but were so
unskilfully made as to place the entire Federal army between the cavalry
of
Stuart and the army of Lee. While the latter was massed in the
Cumberland valley, Stuart was east of the mountains, with Hooker's army
between, and Gregg's cavalry in close pursuit. Stuart was accordingly
compelled to force a march northward, which was destitute of strategical
character, and which deprived his chief of all means of obtaining
intelligence.
18
Not a moment had been lost by General Hooker in the pursuit of Lee.
The day after the Rebel army entered Maryland the Union army crossed
the Potomac at Edwards' Ferry, and by the 28th of June lay between
Harper's Ferry and Frederick. The force of the enemy on that day was
partly at Chambersburg, and partly moving on the Cashtown road in the
direction of Gettysburg, while the detachments from Ewell's corps, of
which mention has been made, had reached the Susquehannah opposite
Harrisburg and Columbia. That a great battle must soon be fought no one
could doubt; but, in the apparent and perhaps real absence of plan on the
part of Lee, it was impossible to foretell the precise scene of the encounter.
Wherever fought, consequences the most momentous hung upon the result.
19
In this critical and anxious state of affairs General Hooker was
relieved, and General Meade was summoned to the chief command of the
army. It appears to my unmilitary judgment to reflect the highest credit
upon him, upon his predecessor, and upon the corps commanders of the
Army of the Potomac, that a change could take place in the chief
command of so large a force on the eve of a general battle, the various
corps necessarily moving on lines somewhat divergent, and all in ignorance
of the enemy's intended point of concentration, and that not an hour's
hesitation should ensue in the advance of any portion of the entire army.
20
Having assumed the chief command on the 28th, General Meade
directed his left wing, under Reynolds, upon Emmettsburg and his right
upon New Windsor, leaving General French with 11,000 men to protect
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and convoy the public property from
Harper's Ferry to Washington. Buford's cavalry was then at this place,
and
Kilpatrick's at Hanover, where he encountered and defeated the rear of
Stuart's cavalry, who was roving the country in search of the main army
of
Lee. On the Rebel side, Hill had reached Fayetteville on the Cashtown
road on the 28th, and was followed on the same road by Longstreet on the
29th. The eastern side of the mountain, as seen from Gettysburg, was
lighted up at night by the camp-fires of the enemy's advance, and the
country swarmed with his foraging parties. It was now too evident to be
questioned, that the thunder-cloud, so long gathering blackness, would
soon burst on some part of the devoted vicinity of Gettysburg.
21
The 30th of June was a day of important preparation. At half past
eleven o'clock in the morning General Buford passed through Gettysburg,
upon a reconnoissance in force, with his cavalry, upon the Chambersburg
road. The information obtained by him was immediately communicated to
General Reynolds, who was, in consequence, directed to occupy
Gettysburg. That gallant officer accordingly, with the First Corps, marched
from Emmettsburg to within six or seven miles of this place, and encamped
on the right bank of Marsh's Creek. Our right wing, meantime, was moved
to Manchester. On the same day the corps of Hill and Longstreet were
pushed still farther forward on the Chambersburg road, and distributed
in
the vicinity of Marsh's Creek, while a reconnoissance was made by the
Confederate General Petigru up to a very short distance from this place.
Thus at nightfall on the 30th of June the greater part of the Rebel force
was
concentrated in the immediate vicinity of two corps of the Union army,
the
former refreshed by two days passed in comparative repose and deliberate
preparation for the encounter, the latter separated by a march of one or
two days from their supporting corps, and doubtful at what precise point
they were to expect an attack.
22
And now the momentous day, a day to be forever remembered in the
annals of the country, arrived. Early in the morning on the 1st of July
the
conflict began. I need not say that it would be impossible for me to
comprise, within the limits of the hour, such a narrative as would do
anything like full justice to the all-important events of these three great
days, or to the merit of the brave officers and men of every rank, of every
arm of the service, and of every loyal State, who bore their part in the
tremendous struggle, alike those who nobly sacrificed their lives for
their country, and those who survive, many of them scarred with honorable
wounds, the objects of our admiration and gratitude. The astonishingly
minute, accurate, and graphic accounts contained in the journals of the
day,
prepared from personal observation by reporters who witnessed the
scenes and often shared the perils which they describe, and the highly
valuable "Notes" of Professor Jacobs of the University in this place, to
which I am greatly indebted, will abundantly supply the deficiency of my
necessarily too condensed statement. [1]
23
General Reynolds, on arriving at Gettysburg in the morning of the 1st,
found Buford with his cavalry warmly engaged with the enemy, whom he
held most gallantly in check. Hastening himself to the front, General
Reynolds directed his men to be moved over the fields from the
Emmettsburg road, in front of McMillan's and Dr. Schmucker's, under
cover of the Seminary Ridge. Without a moment's hesitation, he attacked
the enemy, at the same time sending orders to the Eleventh Corps (General
Howard's) to advance as promptly as possible. General Reynolds
immediately found himself engaged with a force which greatly outnumbered
his own, and had scarcely made his dispositions for the action when he
fell,
mortally wounded, at the head of his advance. The command of the First
Corps devolved on General Doubleday, and that of the field on General
Howard, who arrived at 11.30 with Schurz's and Barlow's divisions of the
Eleventh Corps, the latter of whom received a severe wound. Thus
strengthened, the advantage of the battle was for some time on our side.
The attacks of the Rebels were vigorously repulsed by Wadsworth's
division of the First Corps, and a large number of prisoners, including
General Archer, were captured. At length, however, the continued
reinforcement of the Confederates from the main body in the
neighborhood, and by the divisions of Rodes and Early, coming down by
separate lines from Heidlersberg and taking post on our extreme right,
turned the fortunes of the day. Our army, after contesting the ground for
five hours, was obliged to yield to the enemy, whose force outnumbered
them two to one; and toward the close of the afternoon General Howard
deemed it prudent to withdraw the two corps to the heights where we are
now assembled. The greater part of the First Corps passed through the
outskirts of the town, and reached the hill without serious loss or
molestation. The Eleventh Corps and portions of the First, not being aware
that the enemy had already entered the town from the north, attempted to
force their way through Washington and Baltimore Streets, which, in the
crowd and confusion of the scene, they did with a heavy loss in prisoners.
24
General Howard was not unprepared for this turn in the fortunes of
the day. He had in the course of the morning caused Cemetery Hill to be
occupied by General Steinwehr, with the second division of the Eleventh
Corps. About the time of the withdrawal of our troops to the hill General
Hancock arrived, having been sent by General Meade, on hearing of the
death of Reynolds, to assume the command of the field till he himself could
reach the front. In conjunction with General Howard, General Hancock
immediately proceeded to post troops and to repel an attack on our right
flank. This attack was feebly made and promptly repulsed. At nightfall,
our
troops on the hill, who had so gallantly sustained themselves during the
toil
and peril of the day, were cheered by the arrival of General Slocum with
the Twelfth Corps and of General Sickles with a part of the Third.
25
Such was the fortune of the first day, commencing with decided
success to our arms, followed by a check, but ending in the occupation
of
this all-important position. To you, fellow-citizens of Gettysburg, I need
not
attempt to portray the anxieties of the ensuing night. Witnessing as you
had
done with sorrow the withdrawal of our army through your streets, with
a
considerable loss of prisoners, - mourning as you did over the brave men
who had fallen, shocked with the wide-spread desolation around you,
of which the wanton burning of the Harman House had given the signal,-
ignorant of the near approach of General Meade, you passed the weary
hours of the night in painful expectation.
26
Long before the dawn of the 2d of July, the new Commander-in-Chief
had reached the ever-memorable field of service and glory. Having
received intelligence of the events in progress, and informed by the reports
of Generals Hancock and Howard of the favorable character of the
position, he determined to give battle to the enemy at this point. He
accordingly directed the remaining corps of the army to concentrate at
Gettysburg with all possible expedition, and breaking up his head-quarters
at Taneytown at 10 P.M., he arrived at the front at one o'clock in the
morning of the 2d of July. Few were the moments given to sleep, during
the rapid watches of that brief midsummer's night, by officers or men,
though half of our troops were exhausted by the conflict of the day, and
the
residue wearied by the forced marches which had brought them to the
rescue. The full moon, veiled by thin clouds, shone down that night on
a
strangely unwonted scene. The silence of the graveyard was broken by the
heavy tramp of armed men, by the neigh of the war-horse, the harsh rattle
of the wheels of artillery hurrying to their stations, and all the indescribable
tumult of preparation. The various corps of the army, as they arrived,
were
moved to their positions, on the spot where we are assembled and the
ridges that extend southeast and southwest; batteries were planted, and
breastworks thrown up. The Second and Fifth Corps, with the rest of the
Third, had reached the ground by seven o'clock, A.M.; but it was not till
two o'clock in the afternoon that Sedgwick arrived with the Sixth Corps.
He had marched thirty-four miles since nine o'clock on the evening before.
It was only on his arrival that the Union army approached an equality of
numbers with of the Rebels, who were posted upon the opposite and
parallel ridge, distant from a mile to a mile and a half, overlapping our
position on either wing, and probably exceeding by ten thousand the army
of General Meade. [2]
27
And here I cannot but remark on the providential inaction of the Rebel
army. Had the contest been renewed by it at daylight on the 2d of July,
with the First and Eleventh Corps exhausted by the battle and the retreat,
the Third and Twelfth weary from their forced march, and the Second,
Fifth, and Sixth not yet arrived, nothing but a miracle could have saved
the
army from a great disaster. Instead of this, the day dawned, the sun rose,
the cool hours of the morning passed, the forenoon and a considerable part
of the afternoon wore away, without the slightest aggressive movement on
the part of the enemy. Thus time was given for half of our forces to arrive
and take their place in the lines, while the rest of the army enjoyed a
much-needed half-day's repose.
28
At length, between three and four o'clock in the afternoon, the work
of death began. A signal-gun from the hostile batteries was followed by
a
tremendous cannonade along the Rebel lines, and this by a heavy advance
of infantry, brigade after brigade, commencing on the enemy's right against
the left of our army, and so onward to the left centre. A forward movement
of General Sickles, to gain a commanding position from which to repel the
Rebel attack, drew upon him a destructive fire from the enemy's batteries,
and a furious assault from Longstreet's and Hill's advancing troops. After
a
brave resistance on the part of his corps, he was forced back, himself
falling severely wounded. This was the critical moment of the second day;
but the Fifth and a part of the Sixth Corps, with portions of the First
and
Second, were promptly brought to the support of the Third. The struggle
was fierce and murderous, but by sunset our success was decisive, and the
enemy was driven back in confusion. The most important service was
rendered toward the close of the day, in the memorable advance between
Round Top and Little Round Top, by General Crawford's division of the
Fifth Corps, consisting of two brigades of the Pennsylvania Reserves, of
which one company was from this town and neighborhood. The Rebel
force was driven back with great loss in killed and prisoners. At eight
o'clock in the evening a desperate attempt was made by the enemy to
storm the position of the Eleventh Corps on Cemetery Hill; but here, too,
after a terrible conflict, he was repulsed with immense loss. Ewell, on
our
extreme right, which had been weakened by the withdrawal of the troops
sent over to support our left, had succeeded in gaining a foothold within
a
portion of our lines, near Spangler's Spring. This was the only advantage
obtained by the Rebels to compensate them for the disasters of the day,
and of this, as we shall see, they were soon deprived.
29
Such was the result of the second act of this eventful drama, a day
hard fought, and at one moment anxious, but, with the exception of the
slight reverse just named, crowned with dearly earned but uniform success
to our arms, auspicious of a glorious termination of the final struggle.
On
these good omens the night fell.
30
In the course of the night General Geary returned to his position on the
right, from which he had hastened the day before to strengthen the Third
Corps. He immediately engaged the enemy, and, after a sharp and decisive
action, drove them out of our lines, recovering the ground which had been
lost on the preceding day. A spirited contest was kept up all the morning
on this part of the line; but General Geary, reinforced by Wheaton's
brigade of the Sixth Corps, maintained his position, and inflicted very
severe losses on the Rebels.
31
Such was the cheering commencement of the third day's work, and
with it ended all serious attempts of the enemy on our right. As on the
preceding day, his efforts were now mainly directed against our left centre
and left wing. From eleven till half past one o'clock all was still, -
a solemn
pause of preparation, as if both armies were nerving themselves for the
supreme effort. At length the awful silence, more terrible than the wildest
tumult of battle, was broken by the roar of two hundred and fifty pieces
of
artillery from the opposite ridges, joining in a cannonade of unsurpassed
violence, the Rebel batteries along two thirds of their line pouring
their
fire upon Cemetery Hill, and the centre and left wing of our army. Having
attempted in this way for two hours, but without success, to shake the
steadiness of our lines, the enemy rallied his forces for a last grand
assault.
Their attack was principally directed against the position of our Second
Corps. Successive lines of Rebel infantry moved forward with equal spirit
and steadiness from their cover on the wooded crest of Seminary Ridge,
crossing the intervening plain, and, supported right and left by their
choicest
brigades, charged furiously up to our batteries. Our own brave troops of
the Second Corps, supported by Doubleday's division and Stannard's
brigade of the First, received the shock with firmness; the ground on both
sides was long and fiercely contested, and was covered with the killed
and
the wounded; the tide of battle flowed and ebbed across the plain, till,
after
"a determined and gallant struggle," as it is pronounced by General Lee,
the
Rebel advance, consisting of two thirds of Hill's corps and the whole of
Longstreet's, - including Pickett's division, the élite of his corps,
which had
not yet been under fire, and was now depended upon to decide the fortune
of this last eventful day, was driven back with prodigious slaughter,
discomfited and broken. While these events were in progress at our left
centre, the enemy was driven, with a considerable loss of prisoners, from
a
strong position on our extreme left, from which he was annoying our force
on Little Round Top. In the terrific assault on our centre Generals Hancock
and Gibbon were wounded. In the Rebel army, Generals Armistead,
Kemper, Petigru, and Trimble were wounded, the first named mortally, the
latter also made prisoner, General Garnett was killed, and thirty-five
hundred officers and men made prisoners.
32
These were the expiring agonies of the three days' conflict, and with
them the battle ceased. It was fought by the Union army with courage and
skill, from the first cavalry skirmish on Wednesday morning to the fearful
rout of the enemy on Friday afternoon, by every arm and every rank of the
service, by officers and men, by cavalry, artillery, and infantry. The
superiority of numbers was with the enemy, who were led by the ablest
commanders in their service; and if the Union force had the advantage of
a
strong position, the Confederates had that of choosing time and place,
the
prestige of former victories over the Army of the Potomac, and of the
success of the first day. Victory does not always fall to the lot of those
who
deserve it; but that so decisive a triumph, under circumstances like these,
was gained by our troops, I would ascribe, under Providence, to the spirit
of exalted patriotism that animated them, and a consciousness that they
were fighting in a righteous cause.
33
All hope of defeating our army, and securing what General Lee calls
"the valuable results" of such an achievement, having vanished, he thought
only of rescuing from destruction the remains of his shattered forces.
In
killed, wounded, and missing he had, as far as can be ascertained, suffered
a loss of about 37,000 men, rather more than a third of the army with
which he is supposed to have marched into Pennsylvania. Perceiving that
his only safety was in rapid retreat, he commenced withdrawing his troops
at daybreak on the 4th, throwing up field-works in front of our left, which,
assuming the appearance of a new position, were intended probably to
protect the rear of his army in their retreat. That day - sad celebration
of
the 4th of July for an army of Americans! was passed by him in hurrying
off his trains. By nightfall the main army was in full retreat on the Cashtown
and Fairfield roads, and it moved with such precipitation, that, short
as the
nights were, by daylight the following morning, notwithstanding a heavy
rain, the rear-guard had left its position. The struggle of the last two
days
resembled in many respects the Battle of Waterloo; and if, in the evening
of
the third day, General Meade, like the Duke of Wellington, had had the
assistance of a powerful auxiliary army to take up the pursuit, the rout
of
the Rebels would have been as complete as that of Napoleon.
34
Owing to the circumstance just named, the intentions of the enemy
were not apparent on the 4th. The moment his retreat was discovered, the
following morning, he was pursued by our cavalry on the Cashtown road
and through the Emmettsburg and Monterey passes, and by Sedgwick's
corps on the Fairfield road. His rear-guard was briskly attacked at
Fairfield; a great number of wagons and ambulances were captured in the
passes of the mountains; the country swarmed with his stragglers, and his
wounded were literally emptied from the vehicles containing them into the
farm-houses on the road. General Lee, in his report, makes repeated
mention of the Union prisoners whom he conveyed into Virginia, somewhat
overstating their number. He states, also, that "such of his wounded as
were in a condition to be removed" were forwarded to Williamsport. He
does not mention that the number of his wounded not removed, and left to
the Christian care of the victors, was 7,540, not one of whom failed of
any
attention which it was possible, under the circumstances of the case, to
afford them, not one of whom, certainly, has been put upon Libby Prison
fare, lingering death by starvation. Heaven forbid, however, that we
should claim any merit for the exercise of common humanity!
35
Under the protection of the mountain-ridge, whose narrow passes are
easily held even by a retreating army, General Lee reached Williamsport
in
safety, and took up a strong position opposite to that place. General
Meade necessarily pursued with the main army by a flank movement
through Middletown, Turner's Pass having been secured by General
French. Passing through the South Mountain, the Union army came up with
that of the Rebels on the 12th, and found it securely posted on the heights
of Marsh Run. The position was reconnoitred, and preparations made for
an attack on the 13th. The depth of the river, swollen by the recent rains,
authorized the expectation that the enemy would be brought to a general
engagement the following day. An advance was accordingly made by
General Meade on the morning of the 14th; but it was soon found that the
Rebels had escaped in the night, with such haste that Ewell's corps forded
the river where the water was breast-high. The cavalry which had rendered
the most important services during the three days, and in harassing the
enemy's retreat, was now sent in pursuit and captured two guns and a large
number of prisoners. In an action which took place at Falling Waters,
General Petigru was mortally wounded. General Meade, in further pursuit
of the Rebels, crossed the Potomac at Berlin. Thus again covering the
approaches to Washington, he compelled the enemy to pass the Blue
Ridge at one of the upper gaps; and in about six weeks from the
commencement of the campaign, General Lee found himself again on the
south side of the Rappahannock, with the probable loss of about a third
part of his army.
36
Such, most inadequately recounted, is the history of the
ever-memorable three days, and of the events immediately preceding and
following. It has been pretended, in order to diminish the magnitude of
this
disaster to the Rebel cause, that it was merely the repulse of an attack
on a
strongly defended position. The tremendous losses on both sides are a
sufficient answer to this misrepresentation, and attest the courage and
obstinacy with which the three days' battle was waged. Few of the great
conflicts of modern times have cost victors and vanquished so great a
sacrifice. On the Union side, there fell, in the whole campaign, of generals
killed, Reynolds, Weed, and Zook, and wounded, Barlow, Barnes,
Butterfield, Doubleday, Gibbon, Graham, Hancock, Sickles, and Warren;
while of officers below the rank of general, and men, there were 2,834
killed, 13,709 wounded, and 6,643 missing. On the Confederate side,
there were killed on the field or mortally wounded, Generals Armistead,
Barksdale, Garnett, Pender, Petigru, and Semmes, and wounded, Heth,
Hood, Johnson, Kemper, Kimball, and Trimble. Of officers below the
rank of general, and men, there were taken prisoners, including the
wounded, 13,621, an amount ascertained officially. Of the wounded in a
condition to be removed, of the killed, and the missing, the enemy has
made no return. They are estimated, from the best data which the nature
of
the case admits, at 23,000. General Meade also captured three cannon
and forty-one standards; and 24,978 small arms were collected on the
battlefield.
37
I must leave to others, who can do it from personal observation, to
describe the mournful spectacle presented by these hillsides and plains
at
the close of the terrible conflict. It was a saying of the Duke of Wellington,
that next to a defeat, the saddest thing is a victory. The horrors of the
battle-field, after the contest is over, the sights and sounds of woe,
- let me
throw a pall over the scene, which no words can adequately depict to
those who have not witnessed it on which no one who has witnessed it,
and who has a heart in his bosom, can bear to dwell. One drop of balm
alone, one drop of heavenly life-giving balm, mingles in this bitter cup
of
misery. Scarcely has the cannon ceased to roar, when the brethren and
sisters of Christian benevolence, ministers of compassion, angels of pity,
hasten to the field and the hospital, to moisten the parched tongue, to
bind
the ghastly wounds, to soothe the parting agonies alike of friend and foe,
and to catch the last whispered messages of love from dying lips. "Carry
this miniature back to my dear wife, but do not take it from my bosom till
I
am gone." "Tell my little sister not to grieve for me; I am willing to
die for
my country." "O that my mother were here!" When since Aaron stood
between the living and the dead was there ever so gracious a ministry as
this? It has been said that it is characteristic of Americans to treat
women
with a deference not paid to them in any other country. I will not undertake
to say whether this is so; but I will say, that, since this terrible war
has been
waged, the women of the loyal States, if never before, have entitled
themselves to our highest admiration and gratitude, alike those who at
home, often with fingers unused to the toil, often bowed beneath their
own
domestic cares, have performed an amount of daily labor not exceeded by
those who work for their daily bread, and those who, in the hospital and
the tents of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, have rendered
services which millions could not buy. Happily, the labor and the service
are their own reward. Thousands of matrons and thousands of maidens
have experienced a delight in these homely toils and services, compared
with which the pleasures of the ball-room and the opera-house are tame
and unsatisfactory. This on earth is reward enough, but a richer is in
store
for them. Yes, brothers, sisters of charity, while you bind up the wounds
of
the poor sufferers, the humblest, perhaps, that have shed their blood
for
the country, forget not WHO it is that will hereafter say to you,
"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my
BRETHREN, ye have done it unto me."
38
And now, friends, fellow-citizens, as we stand among these honored
graves, the momentous question presents itself, Which of the two parties
to
the war is responsible for all this suffering, for this dreadful sacrifice
of life,
the lawful and constituted government of the United States, or the
ambitious men who have rebelled against it? I say "rebelled" against it,
although Earl Russell, the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
in
his recent temperate and conciliatory speech in Scotland, seems to intimate
that no prejudice ought to attach to that word, inasmuch as our English
forefathers rebelled against Charles I. and James II., and our American
fathers rebelled against George III. These certainly are venerable
precedents, but they prove only that it is just and proper to rebel against
oppressive governments. They do not prove that it was just and proper for
the son of James II. to rebel against George I., or his grandson Charles
Edward to rebel against George II.; nor, as it seems to me, ought these
dynastic struggles, little better than family quarrels, to be compared
with
this monstrous conspiracy against the American Union. These precedents
do not prove that it was just and proper for the "disappointed great men
"
of the cotton-growing States to rebel against "the most beneficent
government of which history gives us any account," as the Vice-President
of the Confederacy, in November, 1860, charged them with doing. They
do not create a presumption even in favor of the disloyal slaveholders
the
South, who, living under a government of which Mr. Jefferson Davis, in
the
session of 1860-61,said that it was "the best government ever instituted
by
man, unexceptionably administered, and under which the people have been
prosperous beyond comparison with any other people whose career has
been recorded in history," rebelled against it because their aspiring
politicians, himself among the rest, were in danger of losing their monopoly
of its offices. What would have been thought by an impartial posterity
of
the American rebellion against George III., if the colonists had at all
times
been more than equally represented in Parliament, and James Otis and
Patrick Henry and Washington and Franklin and the Adamses and
Hancock and Jefferson, and men of their stamp, had for two generations
enjoyed the confidence of the sovereign and administered the government
of the empire? What could have been thought of the rebellion against
Charles I., if Cromwell and the men of his school had been the responsible
advisers of that prince from his accession to the throne, and then, on
account of a partial change in the ministry, had brought his head to the
block, and involved the country in a desolating war, for the sake of
dismembering it and establishing a new government south of the Trent?
What would have been thought of the Whigs of 1688, if they had
themselves composed the cabinet of James II., and been the advisers of
the measures and the promoters of the policy which drove him into exile
?
The Puritans of 1640 and the Whigs of 1688 rebelled against arbitrary
power in order to establish constitutional liberty. If they had risen against
Charles and James because those monarchs favored equal rights, and in
order themselves "for the first time in the history of the world" to establish
an oligarchy "founded on the corner-stone of slavery," they would truly
have furnished a precedent for the Rebels of the South, but their cause
would not have been sustained by the eloquence of Pym or of Somers, nor
sealed with the blood of Hampden or Russell.
39
I call the war which the Confederates are waging against the Union a
"rebellion," because it is one, and in grave matters it is best to call
things by
their right names. I speak of it as a crime, because the Constitution of
the
United States so regards it, and puts "rebellion" on a par with "invasion."
The constitution and law, not only of England, but of every civilized
country, regard them in the same light; or rather they consider the rebel
in
arms as far worse than the alien enemy. To levy war against the United
States is the constitutional definition of treason, and that crime is by
every
civilized government regarded as the highest which citizen or subject can
commit. Not content with the sanctions of human justice, of all the crimes
against the law of the land it is singled out for the denunciations of
religion.
The litanies in every church in Christendom whose ritual embraces that
office, as far as I am aware, from the metropolitan cathedrals of Europe
to
the humblest missionary chapel in the islands of the sea, concur with the
Church of England in imploring the Sovereign of the universe, by the most
awful adjurations which the heart of man can conceive or his tongue utter,
to deliver us from "sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion." And reason
good; for while a rebellion against tyranny a rebellion designed, after
prostrating arbitrary power, to establish free government on the basis
of
justice and truth is an enterprise on which good men and angels may
fool; with complacency, an unprovoked rebellion of ambitious men against
a beneficent government, for the purpose the avowed purpose - of
establishing, extending, and perpetuating any form of injustice and wrong,
is an imitation on earth of that first foul revolt of "the Infernal Serpent,"
against which the Supreme Majesty of heaven sent forth the armed myriads
of his angels, and clothed the right arm of his Son with the three-bolted
thunders of omnipotence.
40
Lord Bacon, in "the true marshalling of the sovereign degrees of
honor," assigns the first place to "the Conditores Imperiorum, founders
of
States and Commonwealths "; and, truly, to build up from the discordant
elements of our nature the passions, the interests, and the opinions of
the
individual man, the rivalries of family, clan, and tribe, the influences
of
climate and geographical position, the accidents of peace and war
accumulated for ages, - to build up from these oftentimes warring elements
a well-compacted, prosperous, and powerful State, if it were to be
accomplished by one effort or in one generation would require a more than
mortal skill. To contribute in some notable degree to this, the greatest
work
of man, by wise and patriotic counsel in peace and loyal heroism in war,
is
as high as human merit can well rise, and far more than to any of those
to
whom Bacon assigns this highest place of honor, whose names can hardly
be repeated without a wondering smile, Romulus, Cyrus, Caesar,
Othman, Ismael, is it due to our Washington as the founder of the
American Union. But if to achieve or help to achieve this greatest work
of
man's wisdom and virtue gives title to a place among the chief benefactors,
rightful heirs of the benedictions, of mankind, by equal reason shall the
bold
bad men who seek to undo the noble work, Eversores Imperiorum,
destroyers of States, who for base and selfish ends rebel against beneficent
governments, seer; to overturn wise constitutions, to lay powerful
republican Unions at the foot of foreign thrones, to bring on civil and
foreign war, anarchy at home, dictation abroad, desolation, ruin, by
equal reason, I say, yes, a thousand-fold stronger, shall they inherit
the
execrations of the ages.
41
But to hide the deformity of the crime under the cloak of that sophistry
which strives to make the worse appear the better reason, we are told by
the leaders of the Rebellion that in our complex system of government the
separate States are "sovereigns," and that the central power is only an
"agency," established by these sovereigns to manage certain little affairs,
such, forsooth, as Peace, War, Army, Navy, Finance, Territory, and
Relations with the Native Tribes, which they could not so conveniently
administer themselves. It happens, unfortunately for this theory, that
the
Federal Constitution (which has been adopted by the people of every
State of the Union as much as their own State constitutions have been
adopted, and is declared to be paramount to them) nowhere recognizes
the States as "sovereigns," in fact, that, by their names, it does not
recognize them at all; while the authority established by that instrument
is
recognized, in its text, not as an "agency," but as "the Government of
the
United States." By that Constitution, moreover, which purports in its
preamble to be ordained and established by "the people of the United
States," it is expressly provided, that "the members of the State legislatures,
and all executive and judicial officers, shall be bound by oath or affirmation
to support the Constitution." Now it is a common thing, under all
governments, for an agent to be bound by oath to be faithful to his
sovereign; but I never heard before of sovereigns being bound by oath to
be faithful to their agency.
42
Certainly I do not deny that the separate States are clothed with
sovereign powers for the administration of local affairs. It is one of
the
most beautiful features of our mixed system of government; but it is equally
true, that, in adopting the Federal Constitution, the States abdicated,
by
express renunciation, all the most important functions of national
sovereignty, and, by one comprehensive self denying clause, gave up all
right to contravene the Constitution of the United States. Specifically,
and
by enumeration, they renounced all the most important prerogatives of
independent States for peace and for war, the right to keep troops or
ships of war in time of peace, or to engage in war unless actually invaded;
to enter into compact with another State or a foreign power; to lay any
duty on tonnage, or any impost on exports or imports, without the consent
of Congress; to enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; to grant
letters of marque or reprisal, and to emit bills of credit, while all
these
powers and many others are expressly vested in the general government.
To ascribe to political communities, thus limited in their jurisdiction,
who
cannot even establish a post-office on their own soil, the character
of
independent sovereignty, and to reduce a national organization, clothed
with all the transcendent powers of government, to the name and condition
of an "agency" of the States, proves nothing but that the logic of secession
is on a par with its loyalty and patriotism.
43
O, but "the reserved rights"! And what of the reserved rights? The
tenth amendment of the Constitution, supposed to provide for "reserved
rights," is constantly misquoted. By that amendment, "the powers not
delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it
to
the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
The
"powers" reserved must of course be such as could have been, but were
not delegated to the United States, could have been, but were not
prohibited to the States; but to speak of the right of an individual State
to
secede, as a power that could have been, though it was not delegated to
the United States, is simple nonsense.
44
But waiving this obvious absurdity, can it need a serious argument to
prove that there can be no State right to enter into a new confederation
reserved under a Constitution which expressly prohibits a State to "enter
into any treaty, alliance, or confederation," or any "agreement or compact
with another State or a foreign power"? To say that the State may, by
enacting the preliminary farce of secession, acquire the right to do the
prohibited things, to say, for instance, that though the States in forming
the Constitution delegated to the United States, and prohibited to
themselves, the power of declaring war, there was by implication reserved
to each State the right of seceding and then declaring war; that, though
they
expressly prohibited to the States and delegated to the United States the
entire treaty-making power, they reserved by implication (for an express
reservation is not pretended) to the individual States, to Florida, for
instance, the right to secede, and then to make a treaty with Spain
retroceding that Spanish colony, and thus surrendering to a foreign power
the key to the Gulf of Mexico, to maintain propositions like these, with
whatever affected seriousness it is done, appears to me egregious trifling.
45
Pardon me, my friends, for dwelling on these wretched sophistries.
But it is these which conducted the armed hosts of rebellion to your doors
on the terrible and glorious days of July, and which have brought upon
the
whole land the scourge of an aggressive and wicked war, a war which
can have no other termination compatible with the permanent safety and
welfare of the country but the complete destruction of the military power
of
the enemy. I have, on other occasions, attempted to show that to yield
to
his demands and acknowledge his independence, thus resolving the Union
at once into two hostile governments, with a certainty of further
disintegration, would annihilate the strength and the influence of the
country
as a member of the family of nations; afford to foreign powers the
opportunity and the temptation for humiliating and disastrous interference
in
our affairs; wrest from the Middle and Western States some of their great
natural outlets to the sea and of their most important lines of internal
communication; deprive the commerce and navigation of the country of
two thirds of our sea-coast and of the fortresses which protect it: not
only
so, but would enable each individual State, some of them with a white
population equal to a good-sized Northern county, or rather the
dominant party in each State, to cede its territory, its harbors, its
fortresses, the mouths of its rivers, to any foreign power. It cannot be
that
the people of the loyal States that twenty-two millions of brave and
prosperous freemen will, for the temptation of a brief truce in an eternal
border-war, consent to this hideous national suicide.
46
Do not think that I exaggerate the consequences of yielding to the
demands of the leaders of the Rebellion. I understate them. They require
of
us, not only all the sacrifices I have named, not only the cession to them,
a
foreign and hostile power, of all the territory of the United States at
present
occupied by the Rebel forces, but the abandonment to them of the vast
regions we have rescued from their grasp, of Maryland, of a part of
Eastern Virginia and the whole of Western Virginia; the sea-coast of North
and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida; Kentucky, Tennessee, and
Missouri; Arkansas, and the larger portion of Mississippi, Louisiana, and
Texas, in most of which, with the exception of lawless guerillas, there
is
not a Rebel in arms, in all of which the great majority of the people are
loyal to the Union. We must give back, too, the helpless colored
population, thousands of whom are perilling their lives in the ranks of
our
armies, to a bondage rendered tenfold more bitter by the momentary
enjoyment of freedom. Finally, we must surrender every man in the
Southern country, white or black, who has moved a finger or spoken a
word for the restoration of the Union, to a reign of terror as remorseless
as
that of Robespierre, which has been the chief instrument by which the
Rebellion has been organized and sustained, and which has already filled
the prisons of the South with noble men, whose only crime is that they
are
not the worst of criminals. The South is full of such men. I do not believe
there has been a day since the election of President Lincoln, when, if
an
ordinance of secession could have been fairly submitted, after a free
discussion, to the mass of the people in any single Southern State, a
majority of ballots would have been given in its favor. No, not in South
Carolina. It is not possible that the majority of the people, even of that
State, if permitted, without fear or favor, to give a ballot on the question,
would have abandoned a leader like Petigru, and all the memories of the
Gadsdens, the Rutledges, and the Cotesworth Pinckneys of the
Revolutionary and Constitutional age to follow the agitators of the present
day.
47
Nor must we be deterred from the vigorous prosecution of the war by
the suggestion, continually thrown out by the Rebels and those who
sympathize with them, that, however it might have been at an earlier stage,
there has been engendered by the operations of the war a state of
exasperation and bitterness, which, independent of all reference to the
original nature of the matters in controversy, will forever prevent the
restoration of the Union, and the return of harmony between the two great
sections of the country. This opinion I take to be entirely without
foundation.
48
No man can deplore more than I do the miseries of every kind
unavoidably incident to war. Who could stand on this spot and call to mind
the scenes of the first days of July with any other feeling? A sad foreboding
of what would ensue, if war should break out between North and South,
has haunted me through life, and led me, perhaps too long, to tread in
the
path of hopeless compromise, in the fond endeavor to conciliate those who
were predetermined not to be conciliated. But it is not true, as is pretended
by the Rebels and their sympathizers, that the war has been carried on
by
the United States without entire regard to those temperaments which are
enjoined by the law of nations, by our modern civilization, and by the
spirit
of Christianity. It would be quite easy to point out, in the recent military
history of the leading European powers, acts of violence and cruelty, in
the
prosecution of their wars, to which no parallel can be found among us.
In
fact, when we consider the peculiar bitterness with which civil wars are
almost invariably waged, we may justly boast of the manner in which the
United States have carried on the contest. It is of course impossible to
prevent the lawless acts of stragglers and deserters, or the occasional
unwarrantable proceedings of subordinates on distant stations; but I do
not
believe there is, in all history, the record of a civil war of such gigantic
dimensions where so little has been done in the spirit of vindictiveness
as in
this war, by the Government and commanders of the United States; and
this notwithstanding the provocation given by the Rebel Government by
assuming the responsibility of wretches like Quantrell, refusing quarter
to
colored troops, and scourging and selling into slavery free colored men
from the North who fall into their hands, by covering the sea with pirates,
refusing a just exchange of prisoners, while they crowd their armies with
paroled prisoners not exchanged, and starving prisoners of war to death.
49
In the next place, if there are any present who believe, that, in addition
to the effect of the military operations of the war, the confiscation acts
and
emancipation proclamations have embittered the Rebels beyond the
possibility of reconciliation, I would request them to reflect that the
tone of
the Rebel leaders and Rebel press was just as bitter in the first months
of
the war, nay, before a gun was fired, as it is now. There were speeches
made in Congress in the very last session before the outbreak of the
Rebellion, so ferocious as to show that their authors were under the
influence of a real frenzy. At the present day, if there is any discrimination
made by the Confederate press in the affected scorn, hatred, and
contumely with which every shade of opinion and sentiment in the loyal
States is treated, the bitterest contempt is bestowed upon those at the
North who still speak the language of compromise, and who condemn
those measures of the administration which are alleged to have rendered
the return of peace hopeless.
50
No, my friends, that gracious Providence which overrules all things for
the best, "from seeming evil still educing good," has so constituted our
natures, that the violent excitement of the passions in one direction is
generally followed by a reaction in an opposite direction, and the sooner
for the violence. If it were not so, if injuries inflicted and retaliated
of
necessity led to new retaliations, with forever accumulating compound
interest of revenge, then the world, thousands of years ago, would have
been turned into an earthly hell, and the nations of the earth would have
been resolved into clans of furies and demons, each forever warring with
his neighbor. But it is not so; all history teaches a different lesson.
The
Wars of the Roses in England lasted an entire generation, from the battle
of
St. Albans in 1455 to that of Bosworth Field in 1485. Speaking of the
former, Hume says: "This was the first blood spilt in that fatal quarrel,
which was not finished in less than a course of thirty years; which was
signalized by twelve pitched battles; which opened a scene of
extraordinary fierceness and cruelty; is computed to have cost the lives
of
eighty princes of the blood; and almost entirely annihilated the ancient
nobility of England. The strong attachments which, at that time, men of
the
same kindred bore to each other, and the vindictive spirit which was
considered a point of honor, rendered the great families implacable in
their
resentments, and widened every moment the breach between the parties."
Such was the state of things in England under which an entire generation
grew up; but when Henry VII., in whom the titles of the two houses were
united, went up to London after the Battle of Bosworth Field, to mount
the
throne, he was everywhere received with joyous acclamations, "as one
ordained and sent from heaven to put an end to the dissensions" which had
so long afflicted the country.
51
The great Rebellion in England of the seventeenth century, after long
and angry premonitions, may be said to have begun with the calling of the
Long Parliament in 1640, and to have ended with the return of Charles II.
in 1660, twenty years of discord, conflict, and civil war; of confiscation,
plunder, havoc; a proud hereditary peerage trampled in the dust; a national
church overturned, its clergy beggared, its most eminent prelate put to
death; a military despotism established on the ruins of a monarchy which
had subsisted seven hundred years, and the legitimate sovereign brought
to
the block; the great families which adhered to the king proscribed,
impoverished, ruined; prisoners of war a fate worse than starvation in
Libby sold to slavery in the West Indies; in a word, everything that
can
embitter and madden contending factions. Such was the state of things for
twenty years; and yet, by no gentle transition, but suddenly, and "when
the
restoration of affairs appeared most hopeless," the son of the beheaded
sovereign was brought back to his father's blood-stained throne, with such
"unexpressible and universal joy " as led the merry monarch to exclaim
"he
doubted it had been his own fault he had been absent so long, for he saw
nobody who did not protest he had ever wished for his return." "In this
wonderful manner," says Clarendon, "and with this incredible expedition,
did God put an end to a rebellion that had raged near twenty years, and
had been carried on with all the horrid circumstances of murder,
devastation, and parricide, that fire and sword, in the hands of the most
wicked men in the world" (it is a royalist that is speaking) "could be
instruments of, almost to the desolation of two kingdoms, and the
exceeding defacing and deforming of the third. . . . . By these remarkable
steps did the merciful hand of God, in this short space of time, not only
bind up and heal all those wounds, but even made the scar as undiscernible
as, in respect of the deepness, was possible. which was a glorious addition
to the deliverance."
52
In Germany, the wars of the Reformation and of Charles V. in the
sixteenth century, the Thirty Years' War in the seventeenth century, the
Seven Years' War in the eighteenth century, not to speak of other less
celebrated contests, entailed upon that country all the miseries of intestine
strife for more than three centuries. At the close of the last-named war,
-
which was the shortest of all and waged in the most civilized age, "an
officer," says Archenholz, "rode through seven villages in Hesse, and found
in them but one human being." More than three hundred principalities,
comprehended in the Empire, fermented with the fierce passions of proud
and petty States; at the commencement of this period the castles of robber
counts frowned upon every hill-top; a dreadful secret tribunal, whose seat
no one knew, whose power none could escape, froze the hearts of men
with terror throughout the land; religious hatred mingled its bitter poison
in
the seething caldron of provincial animosity: but of all these deadly enmities
between the States of Germany scarcely the memory remains. There are
controversies in that country, at the present day, but they grow mainly
out
of the rivalry of the two leading powers. There is no country in the world
in
which the sentiment of national brotherhood is stronger.
53
In Italy, on the breaking up of the Roman Empire, society might be
said to be resolved into its original elements, into hostile atoms, whose
only movement was that of mutual repulsion. Ruthless barbarians had
destroyed the old organizations, and covered the land with a merciless
feudalism. As the new civilization grew up, under the wing of the Church,
the noble families and the walled towns fell madly into conflict with each
other; the secular feud of Pope and Emperor scourged the land; province
against province, city against city, street against street, waged remorseless
war with each other from father to son, till Dante was able to fill his
imaginary hell with the real demons of Italian history. So ferocious had
the
factions become, that the great poet-exile himself, the glory of his native
city and of his native language, was, by a decree of the municipality,
condemned to be burned alive if found in the city of Florence. But these
deadly feuds and hatreds yielded to political influences, as the hostile
cities
were grouped into States under stable governments; the lingering traditions
of the ancient animosities gradually died away, and now Tuscan and
Lombard, Sardinian and Neapolitan, as if to shame the degenerate sons of
America, are joining in one cry for a united Italy.
54
In France, not to go back to the civil wars of the League in the
sixteenth century and of the Fronde in the seventeenth; not to speak of
the
dreadful scenes throughout the kingdom which followed the revocation of
the edict of Nantes; we have, in the great revolution which commenced at
the close of the last century, seen the bloodhounds of civil strife let
loose as
rarely before in the history of the world. The reign of terror established
at
Paris stretched its bloody Briarean arms to every city and village in the
land; and if the most deadly feuds which ever divided a people had the
power to cause permanent alienation and hatred, this surely was the
occasion. But far otherwise the fact. In seven years from the fall of
Robespierre, the strong arm of the youthful conqueror brought order out
of
this chaos of crime and woe; Jacobins whose hands were scarcely
cleansed from the best blood of France met the returning emigrants, whose
estates they had confiscated and whose kindred they had dragged to the
guillotine, in the Imperial antechambers; and when, after another turn
of the
wheel of fortune, Louis XVIII. was restored to his throne, he took the
regicide Fouché who had voted for his brother's death, to his cabinet
and
confidence.
55
The people of loyal America will never ask you, sir, to take to your
confidence or admit again to a share in the government the hard-hearted
men whose cruel lust of power has brought this desolating war upon the
land, but there is no personal bitterness felt even against them. They
may
live, if they can bear to live after wantonly causing the death of so many
thousands of their fellow-men; they may live in safe obscurity beneath
the
shelter of the government they have sought to overthrow, or they may fly
to
the protection of the governments of Europe, some of them are already
there, seeking, happily in vain, to obtain the aid of foreign powers in
furtherance of their own treason. There let them stay. The humblest dead
soldier, that lies cold and stiff in his grave before us, is an object
of envy
beneath the clods that cover him, in comparison with the living man, I
care
not with what trumpery credentials he may be furnished, who is willing
to
grovel at the foot of a foreign throne for assistance in compassing the
ruin
of his country.
56
But the hour is coming and now is, when the power of the leaders of
the Rebellion to delude and inflame must cease. There is no bitterness
on
the part of the masses. The people of the South are not going to wage an
eternal war for the wretched pretexts by which this rebellion is sought
to be
justified. The bonds that unite us as one People, a substantial
community of origin, language, belief, and law (the four great ties that
hold
the societies of men together); common national and political interests;
a
common history; a common pride in a glorious ancestry; a common interest
in this great heritage of blessings; the very geographical features of
the
country; the mighty rivers that cross the lines of climate, and thus facilitate
the interchange of natural and industrial products, while the
wonder-working arm of the engineer has levelled the mountain-walls which
separate the East and West, compelling your own Alleghanies, my
Maryland and Pennsylvania friends, to open wide their everlasting doors
to
the chariot-wheels of traffic and travel, - these bonds of union are of
perennial force and energy, while the causes of alienation are imaginary,
factitious, and transient. The heart of the People, North and South, is
for
the Union. Indications, too plain to be mistaken, announce the fact, both
in
the East and the West of the States in rebellion. In North Carolina and
Arkansas the fatal charm at length is broken. At Raleigh and Little Rock
the dips of honest and brave men are unsealed, and an independent press
is unlimbering its artillery. When its rifled cannon shall begin to roar,
the
hosts of treasonable sophistry the mad delusions of the day will fly
like the Rebel army through the passes of yonder mountain. The weary
masses of the people are yearning to see the dear old flag again floating
upon their capitols, and they sigh for the return of the peace, prosperity,
and happiness which they enjoyed under a government whose power was
felt only in its blessings.
57
And now, friends, fellow-citizens of Gettysburg and Pennsylvania, and
you from remoter States, let me again, as we part, invoke your benediction
on these honored graves. You feel, though the occasion is mournful, that
it
is good to be here. You feel that it was greatly auspicious for the cause
of
the country, that the men of the East and the men of the West, the men
of
nineteen sister States, stood side by side, on the perilous ridges of the
battle. You now feel it a new bond of union, that they shall lie side by
side,
till a clarion, louder than that which marshalled them to the combat, shall
awake their slumbers. God bless the Union; it is dearer to us for the
blood of brave men which has been shed in its defence. The spots on
which they stood and fell; these pleasant heights; the fertile plain beneath
them; the thriving village whose streets so lately rang with the strange
din of
war; the fields beyond the ridge, where the noble Reynolds held the
advancing foe at bay, and, while he gave up his own life, assured by his
forethought and self-sacrifice the triumph of the two succeeding days;
the
little streams which wind through the hills, on whose banks in after-times
the wondering ploughman will turn up, with the rude weapons of savage
warfare, the fearful missiles of modern artillery; Seminary Ridge, the
Peach-Orchard, Cemetery, Culp, and Wolf Hill, Round Top, Little Round
Top, humble names, henceforward dear and famous, no lapse of time,
no distance of space, shall cause you to be forgotten. "The whole earth,"
said Pericles, as he stood over the remains of his fellow-citizens, who
had
fallen in the first year of the Peloponnesian War, "the whole earth is
the
sepulchre of illustrious men." All time, he might have added, is the
millennium of their glory. Surely I would do no injustice to the other
noble
achievements of the war, which have reflected such honor on both arms of
the service, and have entitled the armies and the navy of the United States,
their officers and men, to the warmest thanks and the richest rewards
which a grateful people can pay. But they, I am sure, will join us in saying,
as we bid farewell to the dust of these martyr-heroes, that wheresoever
throughout the civilized world the accounts of this great warfare are read,
and down to the latest period of recorded time, in the glorious annals
of
our common country there will be no brighter page than that which relates
THE BATTLES OF GETTYSBURG.
____________
Notes:
1 Besides the sources of information mentioned in the text, I have been
kindly
favored with a memorandum of the operations of the three days drawn up
for me by
direction of Major-General Meade (anticipating the promulgation of his
official
report), by one of his aids, Colonel Theodore Lyman, from whom also I have
received other important communications relative to the campaign. I have
received
very valuable documents relative to the battle from Major-General Halleck,
Commander-in-Chief of the army, and have been much assisted in drawing
up the
sketch of the campaign, by the detailed reports, kindly transmitted to
me in
manuscript from the Adjutant-General's office, of the movements of every
corps of
the army, for each day, after the breaking up from Fredericksburg commenced.
I have
derived much assistance from Colonel John B. Bachelder's oral explanations
of his
beautiful and minute drawing (about to be engraved) of the field of the
three days'
struggle. With the information derived from these sources I have compared
the
statements in General Lee's official report of the campaign, dated 31st
July, 1863, a
well-written article, purporting to be an account of the three days' battle,
in the
Richmond Enquirer of the 22d of July, and the article on "The Battle of
Gettysburg
and the Campaign of Pennsylvania," by an officer, apparently a colonel
in the British
army, in Blackwood's Magazine for September. The value of the information
contained in this last essay may be seen by comparing the remark under
date 27th of
June, that "private property is to be rigidly protected," with the statement
in the next
sentence but one, that "all the cattle and farm-horses having been seized
by Ewell,
farm labor had come to a complete stand-still." He also, under date of
4th July,
speaks of Lee's retreat being encumbered by "Ewell's immense train of plunder."
This writer informs us, that, on the evening of the 4th of July, he heard
"reports
coming in from the different Generals that the enemy (Meade's army) was
retiring,
and had been doing so all day long." At a consultation at head-quarters
on the 6th,
between Generals Lee, Longstreet, Hill, and Wilcox, this writer was told
by some
one, whose name he prudently leaves in blank, that the army had no intention
at
present of retreating for good, and that some of the enemy's despatches
had been
intercepted, in which the following words occur: "The noble, but unfortunate
Army
of the Potomac has again been obliged to retreat before superior numbers
!" He does
not appear to be aware, that, in recording these wretched expedients, resorted
to in
order to keep up the spirits of Lee's army, he furnishes the most complete
refutation
of his own account of its good condition. I much regret that General Meade's
official
report was not published in season to enable me to take full advantage
of it, in
preparing the brief sketch of the battles of the three days contained in
this Address.
It reached me but the morning before it was sent to the press. (return
to text)
2 In the Address as originally prepared, judging from the best sources
of
information then within my reach, I assumed the equality of the two armies
on the 2d
and 3d of July. Subsequent inquiry has led me to think that I underrated
somewhat
the strength of Lee's force at Gettysburg, and I have corrected the text
accordingly.
General Halleck, however, in his official report accompanying the President's
messages, states the armies to have been equal
58