make rather a long speech—­a half-hour at least.  He took the single sheet of foolscap, held it almost to his nose, and in his high tenor voice, without the least attempt at effect, delivered that most extraordinary address which belongs to the classics of literature.  The photographer was bustling about, preparing to take the President’s picture while he was speaking, but Mr. Lincoln finished before the photographer was ready.”

It is stated that when President Lincoln reached the town of Gettysburg, on his way to attend the exercises at the cemetery, he inquired for “Old John Burns,” the hero of the battle of Gettysburg, who left his farm and fought with the Union soldiers upon that bloody field.  The veteran was sent for; and on his arrival the President showed him marked attention, taking him by the arm and walking with him in the procession through the streets to the cemetery.

Edward Everett, who was associated with Lincoln during these two or three days, says of the impression the President made on him:  “I recognized in the President a full measure of the qualities which entitle him to the personal respect of the people.  On the only social occasion on which I ever had the honor to be in his company, viz., the Commemoration at Gettysburg, he sat at the table of my friend David Willis, by the side of several distinguished persons, foreigners and Americans; and in gentlemanly appearance, manners, and conversation, he was the peer of any man at the table.”

CHAPTER XXVI

Lincoln and Grant—­Their Personal Relations—­Grant’s Successes at Chattanooga—­Appointed Lieutenant-general—­Grant’s First Visit to Washington—­His Meeting with Lincoln—­Lincoln’s First Impressions of Grant—­The First “General” Lincoln Had Found—­“That Presidential Grub”—­True Version of the Whiskey Anecdote—­Lincoln Tells Grant the Story of Sykes’s Dog—­“We’d Better Let Mr. Grant Have his Own Way”—­Grant’s Estimate of Lincoln.

From the hour of Grant’s triumph at Vicksburg to the close of the war, Lincoln never withdrew his confidence from the quiet, persistent, unpretending man who led our armies slowly but surely along the path of victory.  As soon as the campaign at Vicksburg was over, Grant’s sphere of operations was enlarged by his appointment to the command of the military division of the Mississippi.  In November following he fought the famous battles of Chattanooga, including Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge; and, aided by his efficient corps commanders, Sherman, Thomas, and Hooker, gained a succession of brilliant victories for the Union cause.  The wisdom of Grant’s policy of concentration and “fighting it out” had now become apparent.