The Life of Abraham Lincoln for Young People, Harriet Putnam [good english books to read .TXT] 📗
- Author: Harriet Putnam
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Then came the Siege of Vicks-burg which went on for near-ly sev-en weeks. The foe held out as long as there was a crust of bread left. Grant said he should stay there till he took the town.
These were his words;
“I can-not tell just when I shall take the town, but I mean to stay till I do, if it takes me thir-ty years.”
The end came on Ju-ly 4, 1863. The foe sent up white flags on all their lines and the men of the South filed out and stacked their arms in front of the Un-ion for-ces.
Grant rode in-to Vicks-burg at head of Lo-gan’s corps. He was proud of his troops and that the right had won. The news flew fast o’er the land. Lin-coln sent strong words of thanks to Grant, gave him high praise, and made him Ma-jor Gen-er-al.
At the same time that Grant was at work on the Vicks-burg Siege, Un-ion troops, led by Gen. N. P. Banks, fought to get Port Hud-son which lay at the south end of the reb-el part of the riv-er. At last it had to yield, and on Ju-ly 9, 1863, it hauled down its flag of stars and bars. Then the brave “boys in blue” marched in and flung out the star-span-gled ban-ner to the breeze. From that time on the great Mis-sis-sip-pi Riv-er was a safe road-way for all un-armed craft which flew the stars and stripes.
In the East, in the Spring of ’63, Hoo-ker fought the “Chan-cel-lors-ville Cam-paign” and lost. Then, on May 6th, he re-crossed the Rap-pa-han-nock.
Lee had tak-en his ar-my a-cross the Po-to-mac and was in Penn-syl-va-ni-a.
Hoo-ker’s place was giv-en to Gen. George G. Meade. The Un-ion ar-my and the foe met on the first day of Ju-ly, 1863. Friends of each side, North and South, held their breath with fear.
Lee, who had been so strong in de-fence was now to prove, for the last time, what he could do in at-tack. His plan to move in-to Penn-syl-va-ni-a was a good one, but Jack-son, who had long been a great help to him, was hurt and could not be there. Lee felt this loss.
June 3, 1863, Lee marched up the Val-ley of Shen-an-do-ah to-wards Cham-bers-burg. The Un-ion ar-my too took the same course, but on the oth-er, or eas-tern, side of the Blue Ridge. “Stu-art’s Cav-al-ry” held the pass-es and this kept the Un-ion troops from know-ing what went on on the west-ern side. Lee’s ar-my was the best of all the foe. Af-ter cross-ing the Po-to-mac the two ar-mies looked for each oth-er. Lee, fac-ing east, was com-ing from the west of the town of Get-tys-burg, and Meade was tak-ing his post on Cem-e-ter-y Ridge, at the south. It was not thought that a bat-tle, by all, would then be-gin, but “Meade’s Cav-al-ry,” led by Bu-ford, came up-on Lee’s front guard on Ju-ly 1, 1863, and they fought. The Un-ion men were forced back and had loss-es. Night then came on, and by that time both sides, each with a-bout 80,000 men, were in the moon-light up-on the ground. The troops were in good trim and of high cour-age. On the next day the foe car-ried works at both ends of the Un-ion line. The third day the Un-ion ar-my got back the lost ground on its right. The foe then made a fierce charge and broke through the cen-tre of the Un-ion ar-my, but were at last put down and sent back. The end of the charge was the end of the bat-tle and point-ed to the end of the war. In this fight Lee lost 36,000 men. With those he lost the first time he made a thrust at the North, and these, 90,000 of some of the best troops in the world laid down their lives for the cause they held dear.
Meade, at this time, lost 23,000 men. The Un-ion was saved. Meade let Lee go slow-ly a-cross the Po-to-mac. One more move was made by Lee two or three months lat-er in a quick dash o’er the Rap-i-dan, with the thought that he might get a-round Meade’s right flank. But Meade was too bright to be thus caught. Then he tried the same game on Lee but with no gain, and so the “Cam-paign of 1863,” in the East, came to an end.
The great news that the Un-ion troops had won at Get-tys-burg, and that the Un-ion for-ces had al-so won in the West, and that the whole Mis-sis-sip-pi Riv-er was in the hands of the boys in blue, flashed o’er the wires with-in a few days of each oth-er.
Pres-i-dent Lin-coln’s heart was made glad. The sad look left his face. When some one in a high post at Wash-ing-ton asked him if he had not felt “great anx-i-e-ty” a-bout the fate of the Un-ion cause at Get-tys-burg, he said he “Thought it would all come out right.” Then came the ques-tion, “Why?” At first Lin-coln did not speak, then he said:
“Be-fore the bat-tle I went a-lone to my room in the White House and prayed to Al-migh-ty God to give us the vic-to-ry. I said to Him that this was His war, and that if He would stand by the na-tion now, I would stand by Him the rest of my life. He gave us the vic-to-ry, and I pro-pose to keep my pledge. I rose from my knees with a feel-ing of deep and se-rene con-fi-dence and had no doubt of the re-sult from that hour.”
Get-tys-burg, Vicks-burg, and Port Hud-son made a turn-ing point in his-to-ry.
CHATTANOOGA, CHICKAMAUGA, LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. LINCOLN’S GETTYSBURG SPEECH.
In the West the war was now in two parts. The Un-ion troops had won their first point, which was to hold the Mis-sis-sip-pi Riv-er. But there had to be a long, fierce fight ere they could gain cen-tral Ten-nes-see and north Geor-gi-a. The foe led by Bragg, and the Un-ion troops by Ro-se-crans fought their best but it was not till the warm months, and the fall of 1863 that Ro-se-crans, at last, made Bragg fall back, bit by bit, un-til Chat-ta-noo-ga was in the hands of the Un-ion for-ces. Then more of the foe went to help Bragg, and the great fight of Chick-a-mau-ga came on Sept. 19 and 20, 1863.
The first day the Un-ion ar-my won; but the next day the right half of Ro-se-crans’ ar-my was bro-ken and fled to Chat-ta-noo-ga. George H. Thom-as, a brave man and a hard fight-er, by great skill held the left wing a-gainst charge af-ter charge that the foe made up-on it, and gave Ro-se-crans time to take such steps as would make safe the Un-ion men who had fled to Chat-ta-noo-ga.
Grant then had all the troops west of the moun-tains in his charge. He gave Ro-se-crans’ place to Thom-as, who was called “The Rock of Chick-a-mau-ga.” Grant him-self, with Thom-as next, then took com-mand of the be-sieged for-ces at Chat-ta-noo-ga.
Some of Bragg’s men had been sent off to make a strike at Burn-side in East Ten-nes-see, so Grant saw that he had a good chance to make a move on the rear of Bragg’s ar-my.
The line of the foe was twelve miles long, ’twixt Mis-sion-a-ry Ridge on the east and Look-out Moun-tain on the south. The last is a height which makes a sharp rise of 2,000 feet.
Grant’s plan was to have his troops climb the two heights and storm the works that had been built on them. If he could take them, he would then com-mand the val-ley in which Bragg’s troops lay, and could force him to give up the siege. He gave Hoo-ker the task of mak-ing a strike at Look-out Moun-tain and Sher-man had his work to do at the Ridge.
There was a dense mist on the morn-ing of Nov. 23. Sher-man went to work and got up-on the north end of the Ridge, while Hoo-ker did his part on Look-out Moun-tain. Hoo-ker’s troops fought their way right up to the top and when there flung to the breeze the stars and stripes.
Grant stood on Or-chard Knob and gave the or-der for 20,000 men to take a line of earth works which lay at the base of the Ridge. This they did and Grant then saw that the time was ripe for a great move. He gave the word for a charge to be made a-long the whole line of bat-tle.
The day drew near its close. The shad-ow of Look-out Moun-tain fell far a-cross the plain. The last rays of the sun, ere it sank from sight, shone bright on the arms of the troops as on they came.
Fierce was the fire which struck them, but on they went up the steep height, climb, climb as best they could, with the flags wav-ing be-yond them.
When the sun went down, with it went the hopes of the foe, for they fled and their own guns were turned up-on them.
Af-ter the bat-tle of Chat-ta-noo-ga, East Ten-nes-see was in the hands of Un-ion troops. The troops of the South that had held the field there, re-tired to guard Geor-gi-a, Al-a-bam-a, and North and South Car-o-li-na.
The State of Penn-syl-va-ni-a bought a part of the Get-tys-burg bat-tle-field for a place of bur-i-al for the Un-ion sol-diers who there had fought their last fight. On Nov. 19, 1863, that rest-ing place for the dead was to be “con-se-cra-ted.” Ed-ward Ev-e-rett, of Mas-sa-chu-setts, was to give the o-ra-tion, or chief speech of the day.
Some one told Pres-i-dent Lin-coln, that he, too, might be asked to speak. He said he would “put some stray thoughts to-geth-er,” and so, while in the cars on his way from the White House to the bat-tle-field, he took a pen-cil from his pock-et, and on bits of pa-per wrote the best speech of his life and one of the great-est speech-es of the world.
Each word was of use. There were 267 words in all and they came straight from Lin-coln’s heart. Here they are:
“Four score and sev-en years a-go our fa-thers brought forth on this con-ti-nent a new na-tion, con-ceived in lib-er-ty, and ded-i-ca-ted to the prop-o-si-tion that all men are cre-a-ted e-qual. Now we are en-gaged in a great civ-il war, test-ing wheth-er that na-tion or an-y na-tion so con-ceived and so ded-i-ca-ted can long en-dure. We are met on a great bat-tle-field of that war. We have come to ded-i-cate a por-tion of that field as a fin-al rest-ing place for those who here gave their lives that that na-tion might live. It is al-to-geth-er fit-ting and pro-per that we should do this. But, in a lar-ger sense, we can-not ded-i-cate—we can-not con-se-crate—we can-not hal-low this ground. The brave men, liv-ing and dead, who strug-gled here, have con-se-cra-ted it far a-bove our poor pow-er to add or de-tract.
“The world will lit-tle note, nor long re-mem-ber, what we say here; but it can nev-er for-get what they did here. It is for us, the liv-ing, rath-er to be ded-i-ca-ted here to the great task re-main-ing be-fore us—that, from these hon-ored dead, we take in-creased de-vo-tion to that cause for which they gave the last full meas-ure of de-vo-tion; that we here high-ly re-solve that
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