Good Evening, Mr. Lincoln

On July 4, 1863, the three-day battle at Gettysburg has ended. The south is retreating to Virginia with an 18-mile train of ambulance wagons.  The battle has had as many as 50,000 casualties, about 3,000 dead from the North and 5,000 from the South.  Seven thousand horses have also died.  It’s raining.

Townspeople are beginning to creep out of cellars and to other locations where they’ve fled.  There’s no food.  Martial law has been declared, and it’s illegal to take or sell military souvenirs off the bodies now rotting in the streets.  Residents rub their upper lips with peppermint oil to mask the stench, which will hang in the air till November.  Lawyer David Wills has begun acquiring land for burying both blues and grays.

It’s November 18.  The new cemetery is about to be dedicated.  President Lincoln has ridden the train from Washington and walked a block to Wills’ house where he’d rest that night and complete the address begun earlier at the White House.  About 20,000 hear him give the Gettysburg address.

Tonight we had dinner at the Dobbin House, built in 1776, the home and school of Presbyterian minister Dobbin (father of 19!), who also is part of the underground railroad and harbors runaway slaves.  As we were finishing dinner, in walks President Lincoln!

For about 30 minutes the President (Jim Getty - jimgetty.com) talks about growing up, getting married, entering politics, his rivals, and the war.  After telling us Gen. Grant declined his invitation to the Ford Theatre, he opens it up for questions. . .a "press conference."  After his first five minutes we are in the thrall of this guy who absolutely WAS Abraham Lincoln, in command of the facts of his life and the politics of Illinois as easily as you or I would be of our own.  He’d ask people where they were from – like California – and then relate something about one of his pals and their political or historical goings on with great agility. He was the best storyteller I’ve ever heard, and I think it was fun for him to be in the midst of a knowledgable and curious audience.

What a great, great evening.