Ohio History Journal

FRANK L. KLEMENT

 

Ohio and the Dedication of the

Soldiers' Cemetery at Gettysburg

 

 

 

Ohioans had more than a passing interest in the dedication of the Soldiers' Ceme-

tery at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863. A decisive three-day battle, fought in

the surrounding countryside on July 1-3, 1863, had claimed the lives of many of

the state's soldiers, some of whom were hurriedly buried in shallow graves or

merely covered with spadefuls of dirt where they had fallen. No other governor,

not even Pennsylvania's Andrew Curtin, did as much as Ohio's David Tod to

encourage officials and citizens of his state to journey to Gettysburg to witness

the dedication ceremonies. No other state had an ex-governor, a governor, and a

governor-elect present on the central platform during the program. In fact, Ohio

had more citizens seated on the platform than any other state. No other state,

not even Pennsylvania, had as many newspapermen in attendance, one of whom

wrote far and away the most detailed eyewitness account of the day's proceedings.

One of the three major generals who marched in the procession and had a seat

of honor on the platform was an Ohioan. Furthermore, the man who gave the

second formal oration of the day, drawing more applause and presenting a more

appropriate message than the first speaker, Edward Everett, claimed Ohio as his

home.

The story behind the dedication of the Soldiers' Cemetery goes back to late

June 1863 when General Lee's forces, with morale high and with Confederate

flags and regimental banners waving in the summer breeze, crossed the Potomac

and moved up into Pennsylvania. Since Ohio adjoins Pennsylvania, Lee's invasion

of that state gave rise to much speculation and many rumors. Ohioans read the

telegraphic accounts of the invasion and fighting at Gettysburg with interest and

apprehension during the first week of July 1863. Pro-Lincoln groups feared that a

notable Confederate victory might adversely affect the fall gubernatorial contest

in which the Unionist party candidate, John Brough, opposed Clement L. Vallan-

digham, the Peace Democratic nominee then in exile in Canada. Furthermore,

many Ohio soldiers belonged to the Army of the Potomac and each military

encounter generated anxiety back home.

After the battle was over and Robert E. Lee led his defeated army back across

the Potomac, Ohioans pieced together the events of the bloody three days. They

learned that their soldiers had performed heroically in various parts of the vast

battlefield. Five infantry regiments and two of the four artillery batteries suffered

heavily during the first day's action when the Confederates overpowered the

Eleventh Corps on the plain north of Gettysburg. Three regiments and three

Mr. Klement is professor of history at Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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batteries, reinforced by six other Ohio units played a decisive part in the fierce hand-to-hand fighting for Culp's Hill late on the second day, completely destroying the famous Louisiana "Tigers" in General Harry Hays's brigade. On the third day Ohio soldiers and batteries defended the Union flanks from positions on Cemetery Hill and on Little Round Top during Pickett's gallant but futile assault against the center of General Meade's defenses built along Cemetery Ridge. Ohio units numbering 4327 men counted their losses: 171 killed, 754 wounded, and 346 missing, totaling 1271 casualties, or nearly one in three engaged.1 Many Ohioans, informed of the death of a son, brother, or husband, journeyed to Gettysburg to claim the bodies and brought them home to be buried in local cemeteries.2 Others only knew that their loved ones were among the missing or 1. The following Ohio organizations, totaling 4327 men, took part in the three-day Battle of Gettysburg: Companies A and C of the First Ohio Cavalry; ten companies of the Sixth Ohio Cavalry; Batteries H, I, K, and L of the First Ohio Light Artillery; and the Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, Twenty-Fifth, Twenty-Ninth, Fifty-Fifth, Sixty-First, Sixty-Sixth, Seventy-Third, Seventy-Fifth, Eighty- Second, and One Hundred Seventh Infantry regiments. Only three states, New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, had more troops at Gettysburg than Ohio. The total number of Federal troops engaged was 88,289, with 23,049 casualties--a ratio considerably lower than Ohio's. Report of the Gettysburg Memorial Commission (Columbus, 1887), 63-68; Mark Mayo Boatner, III, Civil War Dictionary (New York, 1959), 339.

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Gettysburg Soldiers' Cemetery                                                    79

 

were not even informed that they were lying somewhere on the baneful battlefield.

Some of the dead soldiers were buried hurriedly or carelessly and, in some cases,

only shovelfuls of earth were tossed over the lifeless bodies by weary survivors.

Heavy rains washed off some of the soil which had covered the dead, exposing

portions of arms or legs, and a sickening stench hovered over the areas where the

first day's fighting had been heaviest.

While Ohio residents were reclaiming their dead and mourning the loss of

loved ones, David Wills, a community leader in Gettysburg, took the initiative

in urging the governor of Pennsylvania to purchase a portion of the battlefield,

"the ground on which the centre of our line of battle rested July 2 and 3rd," for

a cemetery and to rebury the patriotic soldiers who had fallen there. He stated

that hogs were desecrating some of the graves and that "propriety and humanity"

dictated that Pennsylvania should "take measures" to remedy the situation. Wills

added that he was sure "other States which had lost sons at Gettysburg" would

be willing to share the expenses in establishing a national cooperative cemetery

to be administered by "the States interested."3

Governor Andrew G. Curtin, in turn, authorized Wills to buy whatever acreage

he deemed necessary and to pursue the idea of a cooperative cemetery further,

giving assurance of his own endorsement as well as that of the Pennsylvania

legislature. Wills then sent a telegram on August 1, 1863, to each of the seventeen

governors whose states had furnished the various Union forces which had fought

with those from Pennsylvania on the battlefield of Gettysburg. His three-sentence

telegram to Governor David Tod read:

 

By authority of Gov. Curtin, I am buying ground on or near Cemetery Hill, in trust for

a cemetery for the burial of the soldiers who fell here in defense of the Union.

Will Ohio co-operate in the project for the removal of her dead from the field? Signify

your assent to Gov. Curtin or myself, and details will be arranged afterwards.⁴

Governor Tod did not reply to Wills's telegram and follow-up letters on the

question of Ohio's participation in the cemetery venture until August 23. He

wanted to consult with members of his party's hierarchy:

Your letter of the 12th instant, giving plans, &c., for the place of rest of the gallant dead

who fell in the battle of Gettysburg, is before me.

Heartily approving, as I do, of the project, I can only now promise that I will commend

the same to the coming General Assembly.⁵

After state representatives from Wisconsin and Connecticut had assured David

Wills that his project was a worthy one, he purchased twelve acres atop Cemetery

Hill, secured the assistance of a landscape gardener to design the burial grounds,

 

 

2. Daniel Brown to Tod, October 28, 1863, David Tod Papers, Ohio Historical Society. The letter

is printed in full in the Ohio State Journal, November 2, 1863.

3. David Wills to Gov. Andrew Curtin, July 24, 1863, in "Curtin Letterbooks," Executive Corre-

spondence, 1861-1865, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg; "Report of David Wills," Revised

Report made to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, Relative to the Soldiers' National Cemetery, at Gettys-

burg . . . (Harrisburg, 1867), 5-6. David Willis was a lawyer, superintendent of schools, and the town's

leading Republican at age 32.

4. Telegram, David Wills to David Tod, August 1, 1863. Documents Accompanying the Governor's

Message of January, 1864 (Columbus, 1864), 158.

5. Tod to Wills, August 23, 1863, ibid., 160.

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80                                                                   OHIO HISTORY

 

and composed some guidelines for the cooperative cemetery, including them in a

circular letter he sent to each governor. Wills's carefully drafted circular letter on

August 12 stated that he had purchased "about twelve acres" of the battlefield

"to be devoted in perpetuity" for a soldiers' cemetery, that the dead would be

buried in sections assigned to each state, that "the grounds to be tastefully laid

out, and adorned with trees and shrubbery," and that the "whole expense," not

to exceed $35,000, would be apportioned among the cooperating states--each

"to be assessed according to its population, as indicated by its number of repre-

sentatives in Congress." The letter closed with the request that each governor

appoint "an agent" who would assist in the carrying out of the reburial project.

Wills also sent a short personal note to Governor Tod along with the printed

circular letter. He said, if Ohio desired "a conveyance, in fee simple," for her

share of the "burial ground in this cemetery," Pennsylvania would make a deed

for it--otherwise she "will hold the title in trust for the purposes designated in

the circular." "It is desirable," Wills noted, "to have as little delay as possible

in getting your reply, as the bodies of our soldiers are, in many cases, so much

exposed as to require prompt attention, and the ground should be speedily arranged

for their reception."⁶

The Ohio governor, however, was dilatory in naming the state's agent expected

to go to Gettysburg to work with Wills and other agents on the cemetery project.

Waiting until October 25, Tod finally named Daniel W. Brown, a Republican

judge who had once served as warden of the State Penitentiary, as the Ohio agent

and instructed him to remain in Gettysburg as his representative until November

19, the day of the dedication ceremonies.⁷

Wills, meanwhile, had taken other steps to carry out the project. He purchased

several adjoining plots of ground to bring the cemetery area to seventeen acres.

He worked with William Saunders, who was a landscape gardener in the Depart-

ment of Agriculture and was from Germantown, Pennsylvania, "to lay out the

ground in State lots, apportioned in size according to the number of marked graves

each state had on this battle field." He also invited bids for "disinterring, removing

and burying in the National Cemetery, all the Union dead on the battle field."

Thirty-four bids were received, ranging from the low of $1.59 to $8.00 per body;

the contract was awarded to Frederick W. Biesecker, the lowest bidder. Wills, in

turn, hired Samuel Weaver to superintend the exhuming of the bodies of Union

soldiers. His duties included identifying the bodies in all the graves opened by

Biesecker's crew and keeping careful record of all items found therein, and then

seeing that the bodies were carefully placed in a coffin and reburied. In cases

where Confederate bodies were uncovered, they were reburied where they were

found.⁸

6. Circular letter, signed by David Wills as agent for Governor Andrew Curtin, dated August 12,

1863, ibid., 158-159; Willis to Tod, August 12, 1863, ibid.

7. Tod to Brown, October 25, 1863, ibid., 160.

8. In all Wills purchased five different lots: two at $225 per acre, one at $200, one for $150, and

one for $135. The five lots, totaling seventeen acres, cost $2,475.87. "Report of David Wills," 5-9.

Samuel Weaver reported that he made a list of all items found with the bodies, putting them in

a vault before reinterring the bodies. In his "List of Articles," Weaver recorded the following on four

of the thirteen Ohio soldiers examined: "Lewis Davis, Company D, 75th Ohio Infantry Regiment,

Testament and letters; Asa O. Davis, Company G, 4th Regiment, gun wrench, comb and ring; Thomas

Doman, Company K, 25th Regiment, $4 and gold locket; and Serg. John Pierce, Company C, 25th

Regiment, pipe." "Report of Samuel Weaver," Revised Report made to the Legislature of Pennsylvania,

Relative to the Soldiers' National Cemetery, at Gettysburg . . . (Harrisburg, 1867), 161-164, 148.

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Gettysburg Soldiers' Cemetery                                                81

By mid-August Wills again wrote to Governor Curtin, outlining the progress

being made and suggesting that the grounds be "consecrated by appropriate cere-

monies." The Pennsylvania governor agreed with Wills's suggestion. "The proper

consecration of the grounds must claim our early attention," Curtin replied, "and,

as soon as we can do so, our fellow-purchasers should be invited to join with us

in the performance of suitable ceremonies on the occasion." He then instructed

Wills to set the date for the event and to plan the day's program.

Wills first set October 22 as the day for the dedication of the burial grounds

as "sacred soil," and wrote to all the governors asking them to attend the cere-

monies and help consecrate the grounds. He also invited the Honorable Edward

Everett, the scholar-statesman who recently had changed from condoning seces-

sion to all-out support of the Union cause, to be the orator for the occasion.

Everett accepted the honor but begged for a later date-his commitments would

prevent him from being ready before November 19. Since Wills had his heart

set on getting Everett, he had to change the dedication date from October 22 to

November 19.

The change in dates necessitated another round of letters to the governors,

Wills's letter to Tod being dated October 13. The Ohio governor, dilatory once

more, delaying his answer for twelve days, promised that he and "a large number

of our State officials" would be in Gettysburg for the dedication ceremonies. He

also informed Wills that Daniel W. Brown had been named as the state agent

"to look especially after the removal of the dead of our State . . . . He is a worthy

gentleman, and I beg you to receive and treat him kindly."⁹

Tod's agent, with a letter of introduction and a draft for $100 in his pocket,

left for Gettysburg on October 26. After a three-hour delay in Harrisburg and

four at Hanover Junction, agent Brown arrived in Gettysburg. He walked directly

to Wills's house, but the busy promoter had gone to a flag raising on Round Top,

about three miles south of the small town. Brown decided to walk over to witness

the ceremonies. When he introduced himself to Wills, he received "a kind recep-

tion" and was then conducted on a tour of Cemetery Ridge before returning to

Gettysburg. In the evening Wills held an informal reception for Brown and three

other state agents, briefing them on action already taken and explaining plans for

the cemetery and its dedication. All of those already buried in the new cemetery

were the unknowns killed north and west of town in the first day's fighting. These

were not identifiable because they had lain out in the hot sun until the rebels

retreated, so they could not be recognized and their shallow graves were unmarked.10

The next morning agent Brown accompanied David Wills on a tour of the

fields where the rival armies had clashed in the first day's fighting. They visited

the spot where Major General John F. Reynolds, General Meade's most trusted

subordinate, had fallen and other points of interest, presumably the battle-scarred

woods around McPherson's Ridge, the railroad cut, and the Middleton Road north

of town where several Ohio regiments had suffered heavy losses. They also visited

the new cemetery grounds to witness "the work going on there." In the afternoon

9. Wills to Curtin, August 17, 1863; Curtin to Wills, August 31, 1863; Wills to Edward Everett,

September 23, 1863; Everett to Wills, September 26, 1863, ibid, 181-184; Wills's letter to Tod, Septem-

ber 15, 1863, is noted in the letter of Tod to Wills, September 18, 1863; Tod to Wills, October 25,

1863, Documents Accompanying the Governor's Message, 160, 161.

10. Tod to Daniel Brown, October 25, 1863, ibid., 160; Brown to Tod, October 28, 1863, David

Tod Papers. The other three agents were John F. Seymour (brother of Governor Horatio Seymour) of

New York, Colonel W. George Geary of Vermont, and Levi Scobey of New Jersey.

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82                                                                       OHIO HISTORY

 

Brown went to the "Hospital" to attend the funeral services for Enoch M. Detty,

Company G, Seventy-Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment--the first known

Union soldier reburied in the new cemetery. The funeral was conducted with mili-

tary honors, and the ceremonies, symbolism, and scenery deeply impressed the

Ohio agent. In reporting to his governor, Brown described the cemetery site as

"one of the most beautiful as well as most appropriate places that could have

been selected."11

Governor David Tod, meanwhile, composed a circular letter inviting "the officers

of the State," which in terms of the invitation included state officials, members

and members-elect of the state legislature, several newspaper editors, and a handful

of military officials, to join him in witnessing the dedication of the Soldiers' Ceme-

tery in Gettysburg on November 19. He wrote that the state would pick up the

tab for the excursion to Gettysburg. "Upon being advised of your willingness and

ability to participate in the ceremonies," the closing sentence of the letter read,

"I will send you transportation at the expense of the State."12

The favorable response to Tod's invitation was overwhelming. About one hun-

dred thirty wrote letters of acceptance, even though not that many actually attended.

The list included such notables as Governor-elect John Brough, Colonel Edward

A. Parrott, State Treasurer G. Volney Dorsey, and many others. It also included

a surprising number of state legislators--nearly all Republicans.13

Two groups sent regrets. The first included those Ohio notables, like Major

General William S. Rosecrans and United States Senator John Sherman who had

already accepted an invitation to attend the opening of the Cleveland-Meadville

(Pennsylvania) branch of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. This rival

event of November 18 featured a free ride from Cleveland to Meadville, "a

splendid lunch" there, the return trip to Cleveland, "a magnificent supper" at the

Angier House, and an evening of entertainment and oratory.14

The second set of regrets came from Democrats, some of whom tried to make

political capital out of Governor Tod's promise to provide free transportation to

Gettysburg. George L. Converse, Democratic spokesman in the lower house of

the state legislature the previous session, wrote a scurrilous letter declining Tod's

invitation and circulated it in his party's newspapers. Converse said he did not

want to accept any favor from a bitter political opponent who had been guilty of

spreading "falsehoods and misrepresentations of me personally" during the recent

11. Ibid.

12. Circular letter, dated October 25, 1863, signed by Governor Tod, Documents Accompanying

the Governor's Message, 160.

13. "Names of Persons Accepting Governor's Invitation to Visit Gettysburg," dated November 19,

1863, in David Tod Papers. The list also included such notables as S. G. Harbaugh (Librarian, State

Library), Hon. Levi Sargent (Board of Public Works), Earl Bill (U. S. Marshal), Oviath Cole (State

Auditor), John H. Klippart (Corresponding Secretary, State Board of Agriculture), and David Taylor

(Treasurer, State Board of Agriculture). Ex-Governor William Dennison attended the ceremonies, but

apparently not at state expense. Most of the newspapermen who accepted the free ride were Republi-

cans. They included Martin D. Potter, Cincinnati Commercial; L. A. Hine, Cincinnati Gazette; W. B.

Thrall, Columbus Express; Isaac Jackson Allen, Ohio State Journal (Columbus); John G. Shryock,

Zanesville Courier; William D. Bickham, Dayton Journal; and George A. Benedict, Cleveland Herald.

However, John S. Stephenson, editor of the Democratic Cleveland Plain Dealer, also accepted.

14. Cleveland Herald, November 19, 1863; Columbus Daily Express, November 20, 1863; T. W.

Kennard to Tod, November 5, 1863, David Tod Papers. Tod's promise to attend the Gettysburg Cere-

monies meant he had to forego the "Cleveland Celebration." Congressman-elect James A. Garfield,

however, apparently did not attend either event. His correspondence of the period indicates that he

as detained at home "for the saddest of reasons"--the illness and death of his four-year-old daughter.

Corydon E. Fuller, Reminiscences of James A. Garfield (Cincinnati, 1887), 344.

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Gettysburg Soldiers' Cemetery                                              83

 

hotly contested Brough-Vallandigham campaign. He also did not want to be "a

party to the fraud and larceny of taking money from the Public Treasury to pay"

for his trip to Gettysburg. The incensed Democratic critic asked a series of pointed

and insulting questions:

Will you allow me to inquire of your Excellency why it is that this "transportation at the

expense of the State" is furnished to men who are generally able to pay their own expenses?

Would it not be more prudent as well as more patriotic to furnish it to the poor widows

and orphans, and childless mothers who have been made such by the great battle in July,

that they might visit at the expense of the State the graves of their husbands, fathers and

sons, and moisten the dry earth that covers the gallant dead, with the copious tears of

affliction and affection that are now falling in silence and seclusion all over the land.

Converse asked other questions too. Could not the money, spent on an excur-

sion to Gettysburg, be better spent by "purchasing clothing, fuel, and food for the

suffering poor who have been made such by that great battle?" Was it proper for

Tod to "unceremoniously thrust your [his] arm into the state treasury?" or "Was

this a raid upon the treasury for the benefit of the Rail Roads?"15

Nearly every Democratic editor in Ohio published Converse's critique, some

with and some without editorial comment. It appeared first in the Crisis in Colum-

bus on November 4, 1863, along with editor Samuel Medary's comment to the

effect that "it is gratifying to know that there is one man left bold enough to cry

out against a system of the wildest extravagance which ever cursed any people."

The editor of the Hillsboro Weekly Gazette added his own carping criticisms to

those of Converse:

We would like to know where Tod the thief got his authority to issue "transportation" to

the amount of $15,000 to transport "officials" to Gettysburg! He addressed communications

to Democrats offering to pay their expenses if they wo'd condescend to honor the brave

dead at Gettysburg, by being present at the dedication of the Soldiers' Cemetery. Several

refused, we notice, to have any complicity in the high-handed robbery of the Treasury.

That's right. If any Democrat accepted Tod's pilfering "transportation," we are in favor

of reading them out of the party.16

George W. Manypenny of the Democratic-oriented Ohio Statesman (Columbus)

asked questions like Converse's: "The tax-payers will have to foot the bills; but

what care these gentlemen [Tod & Company] for that? Does the State also pay

for the Champaign [sic] and other luxuries that accompanied the 'expedition'?"

James J. Faran of the Cincinnati Enquirer told his readers that Tod was guilty of

violating the state constitution, citing the section which read: 'No money shall be

drawn from the treasury, except in pursuance of a specific appropriation made

by law.' Archibald McGregor of the Stark County Democrat (Canton) published

Converse's letter in the same issue in which he featured an editorial comparing

the "reign" of Lincoln to that of Oliver Cromwell and criticizing both for their

use of force in an effort to gain the "allegiance" of conquered peoples. Some other

Democratic state officials also felt the same as Converse and declined Tod's invi-

tation "to accept a gratuitous passage at the expense of the State."17

 

 

15. George L. Converse to Tod, October 31, 1863, David Tod Papers.

16. Crisis (Columbus), November 4, 1863; Hillsboro Weekly Gazette, November 26, 1863.

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Many Unionists, on the other hand, assured Tod that posterity would express its thanks and rewards for his efforts to honor the fallen soldiers. "If the living do not," wrote one, "the dead will bless you, for your affectionate care of Ohio soldiers." Isaac Jackson Allen of the Ohio State Journal (Columbus) said in his letter of acceptance to Tod's invitation: "Permit me to add that posterity will surely award both praise and blessings to the men, who, with yourself, have been instru- mental in securing this solemn, appropriate, and honorable testimonial of an admiring Nation's gratitude to that 'noble Army of Martyrs' who fell at Gettysburg! --Geo. Convers' [sic] infinitessimal [sic] soul to the contrary notwithstanding!"18 While the partisan controversy over the use of state funds for "Tod's excur- sion" continued, the reburial of the dead from shallow battlefield graves to the semi-circular landscaped cemetery went on at a steady pace. Daniel W. Brown, Tod's agent in Gettysburg, however, expressed his concern about the many Ohio soldiers whose remains were being exhumed and shipped back to Ohio. "Hun- dreds [of bodies]," Brown wrote late in October, "have been removed and friends are here constantly removing." He believed that most of these bodies being shipped back would have been left at Gettysburg to be reburied into the new soldiers' cemetery if only their friends and relatives had known of "the arrangements" being carried out. "The time for removing has about passed by," the solicitous agent added, "and those who may come here for friends who are marked [in marked graves], may find them already deposited in the cemetery, after which it will be very difficult to remove them without disarranging the whole plan."19 Samuel Weaver, the superintendent of the reburial work, sought to remove many bodies before the fall weather gave way to winter's cold, for spades and 17. Daily Ohio Statesman (Columbus), November 20, 1863; Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, November 9, 1863; Stark County Democrat (Canton), November 18, 1863; no editorial comment appeared in the Circleville Democrat, the Ohio Eagle (Lancaster), or the Holmes County Farmer (Millersburg); Hon. J. H. Putnam to Tod, November 4, 1863, Otto Dressel to Tod, November 2, 1863, and Thomas Beer to Tod, November 10, 1863, David Tod Papers. 18. George P. Sentin to Tod, November 10, 1863, Martin Welker to Tod, November 7, 1863, Samuel Galloway to Tod, November 12, 1863, and Isaac Jackson Allen to Tod, November 4, 1863, ibid. 19. Brown to Tod, October 28, 1863, ibid.

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Gettysburg Soldiers' Cemetery                                             85

shovels were ineffective in frozen ground. Most of the battlefield graves were

singles, but occasionally Weaver's men found the dead buried in trenches or shal-

low ditches, in which the decaying corpses laid side by side--in several instances

the numbers in a single trench "amounted to sixty or seventy bodies." Weaver

explained why some bodies were in an advanced stage of decomposition: "On

the battle field of the first day, the rebels obtained possession before our men

were buried, and left most of them unburied from Wednesday [July 1] until

Monday [July 6], following when our men buried them. After this length of time

. . . heat, air, and rains causing rapid decomposition of the body, they could not

be identified."²⁰

When it became apparent that many of the state's notables and citizens would

attend the dedication ceremonies at Gettysburg, Governor Tod decided to arrange

for a special Ohio program to be held in the late afternoon so that these gentle-

men could "hear an address from one of their own number." After consulting

with his friends, Tod invited Colonel Charles Anderson to give the oration. Ander-

son was an excellent choice--he was lieutenant governor-elect and had an out-

standing reputation as a public speaker. Both his speeches and pamphlets had

proved him "a good Union man." Since he had supported the Bell-Everett ticket

in 1860, he was regarded as less a partisan than most Unionists-the term used

for Republicans in Ohio during the Civil War. Furthermore, he had won praise

for his bravery at Chickamauga, where he had been wounded. He was the brother

of Major Robert Anderson, whose name had become a household word after the

Fort Sumter attack of April 1861. Colonel Anderson accepted Tod's invitation,

promising to do his best, and immediately set to work writing and memorizing

an appropriate oration.21

Governor Tod, seeking to assure an excellent turnout for the dedication cere-

monies and for the Ohio program, instructed the state's agent in Washington,

D. C., to seek furloughs for Ohio troops in the area so that they might attend the

Gettysburg affair on November 19.22

David Wills, meanwhile, expressed satisfaction with the progress of reburying

soldiers and the transformation of a portion of the battlefield into a cemetery and

with the cooperation he had received from the governors. President Lincoln had

also helped by sending his bodyguard, Ward H. Lamon, to Gettysburg to give

Wills whatever help he needed. In turn, Wills named Lamon the marshal for the

dedication ceremonies. Wills and Lamon, discussing the organization of the pro-

cession and the program of November 19, decided to ask each of the cooperating

states to name "two suitable persons" to help organize the procession and to

supervise the day's affairs.23 They also exchanged views about musical organiza-

tions and names of those who might be invited to give the benediction and

invocation.

Wills, consequently, wrote to several musical organizations, inviting each to

take part. He asked the Reverend Thomas H. Stockton, chaplain of the House of

Representatives, to give the invocation and the Reverend Henry L. Baugher,

20. "Report of Samuel Weaver," 162-163.

21. Tod to Charles Anderson, October 27, 1863, Documents Accompanying the Governor's Message,

161-162; Anderson to Tod, November 5, 1863, David Tod Papers.

22. Tod to Brown, November 6, 1863, Documents Accompanying the Governor's Message, 161.

23. Ward H. Lamon, an old friend from Lincoln's Springfield days and once a law partner, held

a patronage post in Washington, being commissioned United States Marshal for the District of Colum-

bia. See form letter, Ward H. Lamon to Tod, November 5, 1863, David Tod Papers.

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86                                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

president of Gettysburg Seminary, to close the dedication program with a bene-

diction. Wills also invited President Lincoln, Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin, all

Cabinet officials, heads of foreign legations, and members of Congress to attend.

And after Wills received word from Lincoln that he would attend, the promoter

had the foresight to ask the President to "formally set apart these grounds to their

sacred use by a few appropriate remarks."²⁴

As the day to entrain for Gettysburg approached, there was a flurry of activity

in Columbus and Washington. President Lincoln, sensing the importance of the

occasion, "strongly urged" his Cabinet members to attend "the ceremonials" at

Gettysburg. Nevertheless, the two Ohioans in the Cabinet, Edwin M. Stanton,

Secretary of War, and Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, found good

excuses to spend the day in Washington. Both had earlier sent their regrets to

David Wills. Chase, in a letter of November 16, asked to be excused because of

his "imperative public duties." In reference to the fallen soldiers, he said, "It

consoles me to think what tears of mingled grief and triumph will fall upon their

graves, and what benedictions of the country, saved by their heroism, will make

their memories sacred among men." The President, however, continued to twist

Chase's arm. "I expected to see you [Chase] here at [the] Cabinet meeting," Lincoln

wrote in his note of November 17, "and to say something about going to Gettys-

burg. There will be a train to take and return us,"²⁵ but Chase still ignored the

President's request. Perhaps the fact that Secretaries William H. Seward, John P.

Usher, and Montgomery Blair had decided to go was enough of an excuse for

Chase to stay home--all were members of the rival faction within the Cabinet.

So another of Ohio's most illustrious sons was not present at the ceremonies of

November 19.

And still another, Stanton, offered the same excuses as Chase. He said that the

duties of his office were too pressing to admit his absence from Washington, but

he did make the transportation arrangements for the President. Stanton first

arranged for a special train to leave Washington early on the morning of the

dedication, arriving just in time for the ceremonies, and then for the train to

return the same evening. Lincoln did not like this plan. A slight accident or delay

would cause him to miss the program--it seemed "a mere breathless running of

the gauntlet."²⁶ The Secretary of War then scheduled the President's party to leave

Washington at noon on November 18, arriving at Gettysburg the evening before

the ceremonies.

While Lincoln was still urging members of his Cabinet to accompany him to

Gettysburg, Governor Tod's large entourage boarded the cars of the "Steubenville

Short Line" (the Pittsburgh, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad) on the morning

of November 16 and waved good-bye as they headed for their destination via

Steubenville, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Hanover Junction. An accident about

two miles east of Coshocton, the result of a collision of two freight trains, delayed

Tod's train for seven hours. The impatient travelers spent the long hours playing

euchre or spinning yarns. After clean-up crews removed the debris from the tracks

24. Wills to Lincoln, November 2, 1863, Robert Todd Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress.

25. Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy under Lincoln and Johnson, intro-

duction by John T. Morse, Jr. (Boston, 1911), I, 480; Chase to Wills, November 16, 1863, in Cincin-

nati Commercial, November 23, 1863; Lincoln to Chase, November 17, 1863, Salmon P. Chase Papers,

Grosvenor Library, Buffalo, New York.

26. Lincoln to Stanton [November 17, 1863], in Roy P. Basler, ed., Collected Works of Abraham

Lincoln (New Brunswick, N. J., 1953), VII, 16.

• 11
 

Gettysburg Soldiers' Cemetery                                             87

 

and effected repairs, Tod's train resumed its journey toward Steubenville, arriving

there an hour and a half past midnight.²⁷

The train left Steubenville for Pittsburg at six-thirty the next morning (Novem-

ber 17). When the Ohio delegation arrived, they found that Pennsylvania's Gov-

ernor Curtin had placed "a beautiful and most commodious car" at their dis-

posal. At Harrisburg a large number of Ohioans, including Governor-elect and

Mrs. Brough and Colonel Charles Anderson, joined Tod's party. There Tod met

Governor Andrew Curtin, his host, and boarded "the Governor's Special." Tod

also met two other governors on this train, Oliver P. Morton of Indiana and

Horatio Seymour of New York.

Bad luck seemed to dog Tod's delegation. About fifteen miles out of Harris-

burg the locomotive "gave out" and the travelers lost three more hours, much to

the embarrassment of Governor Curtin. The delay threw the train way off schedule

and the overly cautious engineers proceeded at what seemed like a snail's pace,

more anxious to get the passengers safely rather than speedily to Gettysburg. It

was nearly midnight when the creaky steam engine brought its train of special

cars into the station.²⁸

Agent Brown met the special train and escorted the dignitaries in the Ohio

delegation to hotels or houses where he had reserved rooms. He had arranged

for "suitable accommodations, although the town was crowded to excess by the

throng of visitors seeking rooms and shelter." All Ohioans were not as fortunate

as the important members of Tod's delegation. William T. Coggeshall of the

Springfield Republic, for example, had to try to sleep "upon boards laid upon

trussels, in the kitchen of a 'hospitable' Gettysberger."²⁹

While directing the Tod party to quarters reserved for them, Brown reported

on the progress of the reburials and on his own activities as the state's agent. The

work of exhuming the bodies of the Union soldiers and reburying them in the new

cemetery had proceeded satisfactorily, being about one-third completed by Novem-

ber 14. Twenty-four of the 1188 interred had been identified as Ohioans and had

been reburied in that section reserved for the state. In addition, some of the 582

who had been buried in the section reserved for the "unknown" had belonged

to Ohio regiments, but no one could hazard a guess as to how many. (The total

number buried between October 27, 1863, and March 18, 1864, was 3564; Ohio's

known dead was 131.) Brown also reported that Ward H. Lamon, chief marshal

for the ceremonies, had held a meeting with the assistant marshals who were

present in the courthouse to give instructions regarding the next day's procession

and plans. Since both of Ohio's assistant marshals, Colonel Gordon Lofland of

Cambridge and Colonel George B. Senter of Cleveland, had been aboard Tod's

train, they had missed Lamon's briefing session, so Brown informed them that

the governors of the states and their staffs had been placed in the front section

of the procession directly behind the speaker of the day and the chaplain, but

that the Ohio delegation's place was at the end--a mile away. Brown also said

that he had arranged for the use of a large Presbyterian church for the special

Ohio program which would follow the cemetery dedication ceremonies.30 Then,

 

27. Springfield Republic, November 20, 1863; Cleveland Herald, November 20, 1863.

28. Cincinnati Commercial, November 23, 1863; Cleveland Herald, November 24, 1863.

29. "The Ohio Delegation at Gettysburg," Documents Accompanying the Governor's Message, 162-

163; Springfield Republic, November 27, 1863.

30. Ibid.; Cincinnati Commercial, November 23, 1863; "Report of David Wills," 8.

• 12
 

88                                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

since it was very late and everyone was tired, members of Tod's large delegation

sought sleep and rest, knowing that November 19 would be a strenuous day.

During the early hours of the morning of the 19th, successive showers of rain

fell, but by eight o'clock the skies had brightened and the sun shone in all its

autumnal splendor. The assistant marshals, under Lamon's supervision, made the

rounds, instructing the states' delegations as to their places in the procession,

scheduled to leave downtown Gettysburg at ten o'clock. Colonels Lofland and

Senter, the assistant marshals representing Ohio, were decked out in "sashes of

white and straw-colored ribbon, caught at the shoulders by mourning rosettes,

Union rosettes upon their breasts, and saddle-cloths of white cambric, bordered

with black."31

The presence of so many strangers and the steady arrival of sightseers made

the task of the assistant marshals more difficult and delayed the departure of the

procession for the new cemetery more than an hour. Many of these persons, coming

on foot, horseback, carriage and train, were fathers, mothers, brothers, or wives

of the dead who had come from distant parts to weep over the remains of their

fallen kindred and to witness the dedication of a portion of the battlefield as holy

ground.32

While Colonels Lofland and Senter tried to round up Ohioans and direct them

toward the street corner designated as the state's place in the procession, thousands

of visitors wandered around various portions of the huge battlefield. Several mem-

bers of the Ohio press corps, including Martin D. Potter of the Cincinnati Com-

mercial and Isaac Jackson Allen of the Ohio State Journal, joined some of the

pilgrims on the country road leading to Cemetery Hill, half a mile south of Gettys-

burg, where the ceremony was to be held. When Potter reached the top of the

hill, he noticed that the new cemetery (located adjacent to the old) was "laid out

in a semi-circular form, each State being allotted ground in proportion to its

dead . . . . The lines dividing these allotments are the radii of a common center,

where a flag-pole is now raised, but where it is proposed to erect a national monu-

ment. The trenches follow the form of the circle, and the head of each is walled

up in a substantial manner [to hold the headstones to be erected later]. The bodies,

enclosed in neat coffins, are laid side by side, where it is possible; the fallen of

each regiment by themselves, the heads toward the center. Boards bearing the

name, regiment, and company are put up temporarily."³³

Newspaperman Isaac Jackson Allen, from his position atop Cemetery Hill,

observed the panoramic view of the countryside and was deeply stirred. "From

this point," he wrote with feeling, "the landscape is beautiful . . . . and as the

undulating valley, rich with fertile fields and dotted with glistening white farm-

houses, goes rolling on and on towards the distant mountains, that stand like a

giant framework to this lovely picture of peacefulness, and quietude, we could

scarce comprehend that all this had so recently been the theater where was enacted

one of the great tragedies of war."³⁴

31. Washington Daily Morning Chronicle, November 21, 1863; Cincinnati Commercial, November

21, 1863.

32. Ibid., November 23, 1863.

33. Ibid. Some have mistakenly attributed the Gettysburg dispatches in the Commercial to Murat

Halstead rather than Martin D. Potter. Halstead was with General Meade's army in November of

1863. Halstead earlier, when the war was going badly, had called Lincoln a blockhead and Grant a

drunkard. The proprietor of the Commercial used good judgment in sending Potter rather than Hal-

stead to Gettysburg. Ohio State Journal, November 23, 1863.

34. Ibid.

• 13
 

Gettysburg Soldiers' Cemetery                                               89

 

As the sentimental scribe looked northward, he saw the town of Gettysburg,

a beehive of activity, encompassed in the morning's sunlight. Northward also lay

the rolling countryside where many Ohio soldiers had given their lives in the first

day's fighting on July 1. West of Gettysburg he could see the outline of McPherson's

Ridge near which Major General John F. Reynolds had fallen, victim of a well-

aimed sharpshooter's bullet. When Allen turned his eyes south, he saw the Union

line's earthworks before which Pickett's Confederate division had made its fateful

assault in the face of murderous musket and artillery fire on the third day's fight-

ing. Allen noticed that Cemetery Ridge, even yet, was "grim and ghastly with the

mute memorials of strife and carnage." He saw the "soiled fragments of uniforms,

in which heroes had fought and died, remnants of haversacks and cartridge-boxes,

and other mementoes of that terrible conflict, still lay strewn about . . . still lower

down the hill side, is seen a mound of earth covering the decaying remains of the

artillery horses which were slain by the side of the masters whom they served

on that dreadful field."³⁵

Newspaperman Allen then took a leisurely walk to Culp's Hill where nine

Ohio regiments and two batteries had fought heroically to repulse Confederate

attempts to capture that stronghold on the second day of fighting. While musing

on "the tragic scenes" which had transpired there, he was joined by a soldier

who had stood behind those rude breastworks and battled bravely in defending

the hill against the persistent rebel attacks. He pointed out the places "where

heroes fought and fell," and the trees "scarred and marred with ball and shell."³⁶

After a brief visit to the small farmhouse which had been General Meade's

headquarters, Allen hurried back to the platform which had been erected near

the new cemetery especially for the dedication ceremonies. The sound of martial

music greeted the ear, and when he looked northward he could see the long pro-

cession moving along the road toward the point he occupied. The military escort

consisting of one regiment of infantry, one squadron of cavalry, and two batteries

of artillery moved toward the platform to the blaring music of the Marine Band,

which held second spot in the long procession. Allen noticed that "President

Lincoln had joined in the procession on horseback . . . and is the observed of all

the observers."³⁷ Riding with the military escort was General Robert C. Schenck.

The Ohio officer had fought valiantly at Second Bull Run until he was wounded

and sent to the rear to have his injury bandaged. Even more important, perhaps,

he had bested Clement L. Vallandigham, a pro-peace crusader and critic of the

Lincoln administration, in a hotly contested congressional election the previous

fall. The general and his staff had boarded the President's special train in Balti-

more, and, after his arrival in Gettysburg, Ward H. Lamon gave him a prominent

place in the procession. Another Ohio newspaperman, witnessing Schenck and

his steed, characterized the congressman-elect as "the finest looking officer of

them all."³⁸

Next came the "marshal's division" commanded by Lamon. This group included

President Lincoln, three members of his Cabinet, and two of his personal secre-

35. Ibid.

36. Ibid.

37. Ibid

38. Columbus Express, November 21, 1863. Democrats had a different view of Schenck. The

Stark County Democrat, October 28, 1863, stated: "Schenck, the tyrant of Baltimore, will leave the

army and take his seat in Congress at the approaching session. A good 'riddance' for the army, but

what an infliction on Congress and the decent men in it."

• 14
 

taries. On reaching the grounds, the President, dressed in black and wearing a crepe band around his stovepipe hat, dismounted, and marshal Lamon escorted him and his party to the platform. Dozens of persons, including ex-Governor William Dennison of Ohio, exchanged greetings or comments with Lincoln. While the President visited briefly with the many distinguished guests as he made slow headway toward his chair, the remainder of the long drawn-out procession moved toward the hilltop. When some members in the Ohio delegation, commanded by Colonel Lofland and last in the procession, realized that they would have little chance to see and hear the speakers, they "broke ranks and charged indiscriminately upon the crowd in front of the stand," creating consternation and confusion. A few secured good places near the platform, but the majority were so far from the speakers that they could see or hear little--"and soon wandered off to ramble over the battlefield."39 It required almost two hours to arrange the multitude around the platform. Both Governor Tod, "gruff" and disgruntled, and Governor-elect Brough, of "massive frame" and self-confident demeanor, took seats in the second row of chairs on the huge platform--right behind the place reserved for the President. Members of Ohio's press corps, designated by Tod as members of his staff, "pro tempore," had places on the stage, but mostly in the back rows. General Schenck and ex-Governor Dennison had seats on the north end and were not seated with Tod and Brough. Ohio had more honored guests than any other state, so the state's representatives had an excellent chance to hear every speaker.40 It was about 11:30 A.M. before the President, accompanied by Secretaries Seward, Blair, and Usher, was able to ascend the steps leading to the platform 39. The Cabinet members were Seward, Usher, and Blair. Lincoln's two personal secretaries, flanking him, were John Hay and John Nicolay. William T. Coggeshall, editor of the Springfield Republic, had a seat on the platform even though his name was not on the list of those "Accepting Governor's Invitation." Springfield Republic, November 30, 1863. 40. Cincinnati Commercial, November 21, 1863; John Russell Young, Men and Memories: Personal Reminiscences (New York, 1901), 59. Potter of the Commercial, after looking around him, concluded that the platform held a greater number of distinguished men than ever before assembled on one platform in the country. Eight governors, including Horatio Seymour and Tod, occupied seats in the first two rows.

• 15
 

Gettysburg Soldiers' Cemetery                                                 91

 

and make his way toward his chair, in the front row and near the center of the

stage. Tod and Brough, who had already been escorted to their seats by marshals

Earl Bill and George Senter, stood up, obeying protocol. When Lincoln came

near, Tod, in hearty manner, said, "Mr. President, I want you to shake hands

with me." Lincoln cordially acquiesced. Then Tod introduced Governor Brough

to the President, who said, "Why, I have just seen Governor Dennison of Ohio-

how many more Governors has Ohio?" "She has only one more, sir," replied

Brough, "and he's across the water."⁴¹

President Lincoln, in turn, introduced Tod and Brough to Seward. Tod told

Seward that he had called on him earlier in the morning but did not find him.

Seward replied that he and the President had visited the battleground west of

Gettysburg early in the morning. "Well, Governor," Seward added, "you seem

to have been to the State Department and to the Interior, I will now go with you

to the Post Office Department." Whereupon Seward turned to Montgomery Blair

and "introduced Governors Brough and Tod to him."⁴²

After all those on the platform were seated, Birgfield's Band opened the formal

program with a grand funeral march.⁴³ Next, Rev. Thomas H. Stockton, chaplain

of the House of Representatives, gave the invocation--"a prayer which thought it

was an oration," by one account. The Marine Band then played a number, during

which the dignitaries alternately listened and visited.⁴⁴

As the melodies of martial music drifted over the nearby hills, the Honorable

Edward Everett arose to deliver his scholarly oration, replete with copious his-

torical allusions. As he spoke into the second hour, many in the audience grew

restless and "bits of the crowd" broke off to wander over the battlefield.⁴⁵ Those

seated on the platform stared off into space or studied the expressions of the other

guests who were waiting for the rambling, two-hour address to end. Martin D.

Potter of the Cincinnati Commercial registered his observations for posterity. He

saw the President, with his "thoughtful, kindly, care-worn face," listening intently.

He observed Seward, with "a wiry face" and "bushy, beetling eyebrows," sitting

with arms tightly folded and his hat "drawn down over his eyes." He noted the

"absolutely colorless" face of Rev. Stockton with his "lips as white as the wasted

cheek, and the flowing hair, and tuft of whiskers under the chin, as snowy white

as wool." Potter also looked at Tod and Brough, fidgeting on their uncomfortable

chairs. He characterized the former as "good-humored, florid, and plump" and

the latter as "the Aldermanic Governor-elect of Ohio."

When Everett, exhausted ("the two-hour oration telling on him"), finished,

applause was slight, "the audience being solemnized too much by the associations

and influence of the spot to be more demonstrative." Also, quite possibly, the

 

41. The conversation was reported in the Washington Morning Chronicle, November 21, 1863.

Could the reference have been to Thomas Corwin, onetime governor, then minister to Mexico?

U. S. Marshal Earl Bill apparently had been added to the marshal corps when he arrived in

Gettysburg.

42. Ibid. Seward was Secretary of State, Usher, Secretary of the Interior, and Blair, Postmaster-

General.

43. Cincinnati Commercial, November 21, 1863. The band, from Philadelphia, was sponsored by

the Union League. Its inclusion in the program was a concession to John W. Forney, ex-Philadelphian

and editor of the Washington Chronicle.

44. John Hay, diary entry of November 20, 1863, in Tyler Dennett, ed., Lincoln and the Civil War

in the Letters and Diaries of John Hay (New York, 1938), 119-120. Coggeshall of the Springfield

Republic, November 30, 1863, characterized the opening prayer as "eloquent."

45. Young, Men and Memories, 71.

• 16
 

92                                                                OHIO HISTORY

abstract character of the speech was inappropriate for the audience assembled.

President Lincoln and Secretary of State Seward offered Everett their hands in

congratulations. The crowd shuffled about restlessly; then twelve men of the Union

Musical Association of Maryland sang a hymn written especially for the occasion

by Benjamin B. French. This was an exceptional number, emotional and well

rendered--it spoke of "holy ground," "Freedom's holy cause," and "mourn our

glorious dead."⁴⁶

As applause diminished, Ward H. Lamon introduced Lincoln. The President

arose, took a "thin slip of paper" out of his pocket, and proceeded to the front

of the stage. There was a rustle of expectation and a visible attempt of many to

get nearer the stand. Those on the outer fringes, including some Ohioans, pushed

to get nearer the President, trying "to make two corporeal substances occupy

the same space at the same time."⁴⁷

After first adjusting his glasses, but then discarding them and the paper because

he seemed unable to focus his eyes in the bright sunlight, the President delivered

his address unaided by notes. Though short, the Washington Chronicle said

it "glittered with gems, evincing the gentleness and goodness of heart peculiar

to him, and will receive the attention and command the admiration of all the

tens of thousands who will read it." Isaac Jackson Allen of the Ohio State Journal

noted that Lincoln was interrupted by applause five times. He also noticed that

when the President uttered the words, "The world will little note, nor long remem-

ber what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here," a stalwart

officer, wearing a captain's insignia and with one empty sleeve, buried his face

in his handkerchief and "sobbed aloud while his manly frame shook with no

unmanly emotion." After "a stern struggle to master his emotions, he lifted his

still streaming eyes to heaven and in low and solemn tones exclaimed, 'God

Almighty bless Abraham Lincoln.'" Allen thought it was evident that Lincoln's

appropriate remarks "had touched the responsive cords [of] feeling, that Everett's

finished oratory had failed to reach."

When the President finished his short address, the audience gave him a "long

applause," followed with three cheers for Lincoln and three more for the

governors.48

Next came a dirge, followed by the benediction pronounced by the Reverend

Henry L. Baugher, president of the Lutheran seminary located on the outskirts

of Gettysburg. Marshal Ward H. Lamon then arose, stepped to the front of the

platform, and announced that the Honorable Charles Anderson, Lieutenant Gov-

ernor-elect of Ohio, would deliver an address at the Presbyterian church in Gettys-

burg at five o'clock. Lamon, speaking for Governor Tod, invited the President and

members of his Cabinet, and all others, to attend the "Ohio program." He then

proclaimed the assemblage dismissed.⁴⁹

46. Cincinnati Commercial, November 23, 1863. The Union Musical Association of Maryland was

listed in some reports as the Baltimore Glee Club.

47. A myriad of myths about Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" have developed. All interested in

the ceremonies should read Louis A. Warren, Lincoln's Gettysburg Declaration: "A New Birth of

Freedom" (Fort Wayne, 1964) and Long Remembered: Facsimiles of the Five Versions of the Gettysburg

Address in the Handwriting of Abraham Lincoln, with Notes and Comments on the Preparation of the

Address by David C. Mearns and Lloyd A. Dunlap (Library of Congress, Washington, 1963). See also

John Y. Simon, ed., "Reminiscences of Isaac Jackson Allen," Ohio History, LXXIII (Autumn 1964),

225-226.

48. Ibid.; Washington Morning Chronicle, November 21, 1863; Ohio State Journal, November 23,

1863.

• 17
 

Gettysburg Soldiers' Cemetery                                                   93

 

While the marshals reformed the procession, a battery of the Fifth New York

Artillery fired a salvo of eight rounds. William T. Coggeshall of the Springfield

Republic watched the reforming of the procession. He thought the President "a

timorous, but respectable horseman," and that Seward seemed "much more at

home with a pen in his hand than with a bridle rein."⁵⁰

After the procession reached Gettysburg and dispersed, most of the notables,

including Dennison, Tod, and Brough, assembled at David Wills's home for a

three o'clock dinner, followed by an hour-long reception. During the reception

President Lincoln took his place in the hall opening on York Street and greeted

guests as they entered. While the reception was in progress, a side show took place

before the residence where Horatio Seymour of New York was staying. The Fifth

New York Artillery Regiment marched in review as Governor Seymour and Major

General Schenck stood on the front porch. Seymour presented the unit with the

new silk regimental banner, a gift of the merchants of New York City. He also

made a three-minute speech advocating a vigorous prosecution of the war and

asking the artillerymen to bring added honors to the banner. He then called upon

General Schenck for a few words. The eminent Ohioan spoke briefly and eloquently,

thanking the regiment for past heroics and challenging the proud soldiers to win

further honor and glory for themselves and their state.⁵¹

Shortly before five o'clock a large crowd assembled at the Presbyterian church

to hear Colonel Anderson's oration. Ex-Governor Dennison presided over the meet-

ing while Isaac Jackson Allen served as secretary. Dennison, as prearranged, called

on Tod to say a few words. Aware that Ohio Democrats had abused him for dip-

ping into state funds to subsidize the "junket" to Gettysburg, Tod defended his

actions in cooperating with the sponsors of the new cemetery. He was happy to

know that "one and all" in the Ohio delegation approved of his decisions relating

to the state's participation in the day's proceedings. The respect paid to "the honored

dead would be gratefully remembered by their kindred," giving cheer to the grief-

stricken mothers and friends of "those who had fallen here." These bereaved would

be heartened to know that "the virtuous and the good of their immediate neigh-

borhood" fully appreciated the cause for which they had died.⁵²

Dennison then invited General Schenck to give a short impromptu, speech,

but he declined the honor in a few brief words. Just then John Burns, "a grave

and venerable old man of seventy, clad in the common costume of a country

farmer" in the company of President Lincoln, Secretary Seward, and Secretary

Usher, entered the hall. Burns was there as the President's "honored guest," and

the audience seemed more interested in him than in the three important public

figures.53

 

49. Washington Morning Chronicle, November 21, 1863.

50. Springfield Republic, November 30, 1863.

51. Cincinnati Commercial, November 23, 1863; Columbus Express, November 21, 1863.

52. Cincinnati Commercial, November 23, 1863.

53. During the afternoon reception at the Wills's house, Lincoln had expressed a desire to meet

John Bums, the seventy-year old local constable-cobbler, veteran of the War of 1812, who, when hear-

ing that the rebels were outside of Gettysburg, grabbed his musket and first joined the One Hundred

and Fiftieth Pennsylvania volunteers and later fought with the Iron Brigade, trying futilely to hold the

line against the overwhelming attack of the Confederate forces west of Gettysburg the first day of

battle. David Wills hunted up the gray-haired fellow and introduced him to Lincoln, and the Presi-

dent then took him over to the Presbyterian church to hear Anderson's oration. Bret Harte's ballad,

"John Burns of Gettysburg," helps perpetuate some of the myths about Burns. Ohio State Journal.

November 23, 1863; Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (New York, 1884), 276.

• 18
 

94                                                               OHIO HISTORY

 

After order was restored, Dennison introduced Colonel Anderson as not only

a well-known orator but also "as a soldier who at the head of his regiment, in the

Battle of Stone [Stones] River, had shed his blood in the cause of his country."54

The speaker began by acknowledging the role of Ohio troops in the battles of Get-

tysburg, and, as Lincoln had earlier done, paid tribute to the gallant soldiers

who had died for "the cause." He characterized the Confederate invaders turned

back at Gettysburg as "the army of treason and despotism." "That host of rebels,"

Anderson asserted, "deluded and sent hither by conspirators and traitors, was

vanquished, and fled cowering in dismay from this land of Penn and Franklin,

of Peace and Freedom, across the Potomac, into the domain of Calhoun and Davis,

of oligarchic rule and despotic oppressions." A rebel victory would have turned

back civilization and set back the ideals of freedom and democracy. Then, turn-

ing his face upward, he spoke as if he heard the voices of the dead Union soldiers,

their mute lips conveying the message:

 

We have died that you might live. We have toiled and fought--have been wounded and

suffered in keenest agonies, even unto death, that you might live--in quietude, prosperity,

and in freedom. Oh! let not such suffering and death be endured in vain! Oh! let not such

lives and privileges be enjoyed in ungrateful apathy toward their benefactors! Remember

us in our fresh and bloody graves, as you are standing upon them. And let your posterity

learn the value in the issues of that battle-field, and the cost of the sacrifice beneath its

sod.55

Along with other topics Anderson discussed the factors and forces which had

brought a new nation into being and lauded the ideals of this nation, "God's best

hope on earth." Dwelling upon the consequences of disunion, he scolded the Peace

Democrats, couching his criticism in rhetoric and metaphors. He borrowed from

the abolitionists when denouncing slavery as an evil and the slave-catchers as

devils incarnate. After defending Lincoln's emancipation policy, Anderson tried to

convince northern workingmen that the freed blacks would not compete with

them for jobs nor create social problems in the northern cities because "climate,

custom, and society with their likes and equals will conspire to withhold the absent

and withdraw from us those who are now here."

Anderson closed his discourse with an oratorical flourish. Yes, he wanted these

honored dead remembered for all time. They, like the founding fathers of the

nation, had striven to enthrone and enshrine American liberty. These soldiers had

not died in vain; they were martyers to a cause and their blood sanctified the

country's ideals. The orator took his seat amidst resounding applause. The Ohio

State Journal reported that "Both the President and Mr. Seward expressed great

satisfaction with Col. Anderson's effort, and complimented the Ohio delegation

upon the spirit and energy displayed by the earnest manner in which they had

joined in the work of securing and dedicating the National Cemetery." The speaker

gloried in the compliments and praise heaped upon him. Actually, he had made

a more effective speech in forty minutes than Edward Everett had in two hours.

After Anderson's speech, Isaac Jackson Allen introduced three resolutions:

Resolved, That the thanks of the Ohio delegation be tendered to the citizens of Gettysburg

for the generous hospitality extended to us on the occasion of our present visit.

54. Cincinnati Commercial, November 23, 1863.

55. The speech was given in full in ibid.; see also Earl W. Wiley, "Colonel Charles Anderson's

Gettysburg Address," Lincoln Herald, LIV (Fall 1952), 14-21.

• 19
 

Gettysburg Soldiers' Cemetery                                                   95

Resolved, That the thanks of the delegation be tendered to Col. Anderson for his able and

eloquent Address, and that he be requested to publish the same.

Resolved, That the thanks of the delegation be extended to the officers of the Presbyterian

Church for the favor conferred by the use of their church building on this occasion.56

After the Ohio program ended, many of the visitors headed for the railroad

station to await their respective trains. The President's train, with Colonel Anderson,

Governor-elect Brough, and General Schenck aboard, left for Hanover Junction at

eight o'clock. The "Governors' Special," carrying Tod and most of the members

of the Ohio delegation, moved off an hour later. At the Junction, while awaiting

the arrival of the east and westbound trains, the passengers spent time in "easy

conversation" as the governors and members of the Ohio delegation gathered around

Mr. Lincoln. Writing later, Allen of the Ohio State Journal said he had a seat very

near and could see that the President "was suffering from a grievous headache.

from sitting with his head bared in the hot sun during the exercises of the day.

Resting his elbow on the arm of his chair, he leaned his head on his hand, listened

and smiled at the quaint sayings of those around him, but joined sparingly in

their conversation."57)

The President's train came to the Junction about midnight, bringing the story-

telling session to an end. Brough, Anderson, and Schenck climbed aboard the

Washington-bound train--Brough for meetings with the President and Secretary

of War Edwin M. Stanton next day, and Schenck to return to Baltimore and the

command of the Middle Department. Tod and members of the Ohio delegation

had to wait for their train until eight o'clock the next morning, taking part in

some "tall cussing" during the interim. "The amount of blasphemy manufactured

at the little hotel [in Hanover Junction] was considerable," wrote an interested

observer, "and contrasted very harshly with the solemn events of the day" "A

good deal of indignation is manifested by people at the poor railroad accommoda-

tions," wrote Martin D. Potter of the Cincinnati Commercial, "and the Northern

Central is in worse repute than ever."58

Every Ohioan, however, did not leave Gettysburg on the evening of the nine-

teenth. Several reporters, some soldiers on furlough, and parents or brothers of the

reburied dead, stayed over to tour the battlefield and dream of other days. Editor

John S. Stephenson of the Cleveland Plain Dealer--he was one of the few Demo-

cratic (with Unionist tendencies) editors who had made the pilgrimage to Gettys-

burg at the state's expense--spent two days visiting the various areas where war

god Mars had reaped the heaviest harvest. On the twentieth he and two Cleve-

land soldiers, recuperating from wounds received during the battle, as guides,

and the many sightseers visited those sectors where the Ohio regiments had fought

so well. Stephenson collected some relics or mementoes: a bloody handkerchief,

 

 

56. Cincinnati Commercial, November 23, 1863; Ohio State Journal, November 23, 1863; "The

Ohio Delegation at Gettysburg," 162. Anderson borrowed heavily from a speech which he had delivered

in Xenia on May 2, 1863, and which had subsequently been published as a propaganda document and

broadcast over Ohio during the bitter Brough-Vallandigham gubernatorial campaign. Anyone interested

in Civil War dissent in general or Vallandigham, see Frank L. Klement, The Limits of Dissent: Clement

L. Vallandigham and the Civil War (Lexington, 1970).

57. Cincinnati Commercial, November 23, 1863; Simon, "Reminiscences of Isaac Jackson Allen," 226.

58. Harrisburg Weekly Press and Union, November 21, 1863; Cincinnati Commercial, November

21, 1863. In the official report, the delay was described as "a little railroad detention." "The Ohio

Delegation at Gettysburg," 163.

• 20
 

a soldier's cap pierced by a ball, a handful of round and conical bullets, and a skull bleached by the sun.59 "A great many citizens of Gettysburg," also noted Potter of the Cincinnati Commercial, "are in the relic business, and sold immense numbers of shot and unexploded shell, during the day, at stiff prices." Editor Stephenson, a man of con- siderable foresight, predicted that the battlefield would become "an American mecca," to which "thousands of sorrowing parents and others" would make "annual pilgrimages, to visit the last resting places of the loved ones." More than that, future generations would visit the grounds in great numbers, out of curiosity and respect, paying tribute to the brave "who gave their lives that the nation might live."60 The story of the dedication ceremonies did not end with Lincoln's return to Washington and Tod's to Columbus. Most Unionist newspapers published Lincoln's brief address and Everett's long oration in full. The editors of these papers, still concerned about the Converse letter, went out of their way to praise Tod for his role in honoring Ohio's and the nation's dead. W. H. Foster of the Columbus Express, for example, saw the furthering of the democratic ideal in the Gettys- burg ceremonies which witnessed the gathering of the great and the lowly, the 59. Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 23, 1863. 60. Cincinnati Commercial, November 21, 1863; Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 23, 1863.

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Gettysburg Soldiers' Cemetery                                                 97

 

chief of state and yeomen farmers, famous generals and unknown privates, resi-

dents of the nearby towns and the "scholars, poets and artists of New England."

"It was good to be there," he added, "and to be rebaptised in the spirit of patrio-

tism, and devotion to human liberty."⁶¹

Most Democratic newspapers, on the other hand, either played down the events

of November 19 and did not publish the text of the speeches, or openly criticized

the speeches and belittled the Republicans' efforts. The Crisis (Columbus) and the

Circleville Democrat, for example, published in full the speech which Clement L.

Vallandigham, in Windsor (Canada West) as an exile, gave to a visiting delegation

of students from the University of Michigan. The Crisis, in a discussion of the

general topic of states' rights, criticized Lincoln's Gettysburg speech in regard

to his division of power: 'of the people, by the people, and for the people,' but

said no more about the ceremony; and the Circleville Democrat described the

ceremony in only one paragraph.⁶² James A. Estill of the Holmes County Farmer

(Millersburg) regretted the "bitter partizanship" which "was evinced by the aboli-

tionists," especially before and after the dedication ceremonies. "The abolition

leaders," Estill added, "acted more like wild enthusiasts in attendance at an ex-

cited political meeting than like men paying the last tribute of respect to those

who have left the scenes of life forever."63

William H. Munnell of the Hillsboro Gazette viewed the Gettysburg gathering

as a strictly partisan session "to make Abolition nominations for the next Presidency"

and "to harmonize if possible certain unruly elements that threaten the dissolution

of the party." He believed that "these nominations," secretly agreed upon, would

be publicly ratified later "to keep up a show." He ended his critical comments

upon a bitter note:

 

It is thus the memories of the dead are mocked by these Jacobin Infernals. What care they

about the dead? They have made too many dead to honor them. Their business is to butcher

men, not mourn over dead men. Show us the honor of robbing the State of Ohio of $15,000

to transport a pack of politicians to Gettysburg, who were amply able to pay their own

expenses, if perchance honor of the dead prompted them in that direction. How many of

the [Union] Leaguers would have been present, if they had to pay expenses out of their

own pockets? Who is it that cannot afford to honor the dead and ride over the country, if

their expenses are paid? We wonder how much champaign [sic] and bad whiskey was drank

[sic]? Why was not this money expended in transporting the widows, mothers, and fathers,

of the lamented dead, who were not able to pay their own expenses to Gettysburg?⁶⁴

James J. Faran of the Cincinnati Enquirer did not have much to say about

the Ohioans at Gettysburg, but used considerable newspaper space to criticize the

speaker, Edward Everett, who was once a constitutionalist and a conservative but

had become a radical and a Republican. Portions of speeches he had made in 1859,

1860, and 1861 were quoted in which the orator had stated his opposition to war

 

61. Columbus Express, November 23, 1863.

62. Crisis, November 25, 1863; Circleville Democrat, November 27, 1863. No Ohio Democratic

editor guessed as badly as the partisan one who edited a Pennsylvania weekly--the Harrisburg Weekly

Patriot and Union, November 26, 1863--"We pass over the silly remarks of the President. For the

credit of the Nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them, or that they

shall be no more repeated or thought of."

63. Holmes County Farmer (Millersburg), November 26, 1863. Editor Estill attended the Gettysburg

ceremonies, but not as a guest of Tod or the state of Ohio.

64. Hillsboro Weekly Gazette, November 26, 1863.

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98                                                                OHIO HISTORY

as a means to national unity: "To expect to hold fifteen States in the Union by

force is preposterous. . . . If our sister States must leave us, in the name of Heaven

let them go in peace." Contrasted to this position, portions of the Gettysburg

speech were quoted in which Everett criticized the principle of states' rights.

". . . 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."

Faran thought the reader could draw his own conclusions about the integrity of the

speaker who would hold such contradictory views within such a short span of time.⁶⁵

Governor David Tod, on the other hand, expressed himself "particularly grati-

fied" with the work of agent Daniel W. Brown in "the work of consigning the re-

mains of our gallant dead to this their final and honored resting place." About

three weeks after the dedication the governors received a request from David

Wills to name two commissioners to meet at the Jones House in Harrisburg to

devise "a plan for the protection and preservation of the grounds near Gettysburg"

--to provide for expenses already incurred, to complete the work already begun,

and to make provisions for the proper adornment and care of the grounds. Gov-

ernor Tod again looked to Daniel W. Brown and Colonel Lofland for assistance

and appointed them to be the state's commissioners, instructing them to attend

all necessary meetings.⁶⁶ The two met with representatives of nine of the eighteen

states on December 17, taking prominent roles in the deliberations. On a motion

of Colonel Lofland, David Wills was elected chairman, an honor he had richly

earned. The commissioners adopted five resolutions, all concerned with the estab-

lishment of a corporation for the completion and operation of the cooperative

"Soldiers' National Cemetery."

On the motion of Mr. Levi Scobey of New Jersey a five-member committee

was set up by the chairman "with a view to procure designs of a monument to

be erected in the Cemetery." Wills named Brown to this special committee. Before

adjourning the commissioners voted their thanks to Mr. William Saunders "for

the designs and drawings furnished gratuitously for the SOLDIERS' NATIONAL

CEMETERY." Then Brown offered the following resolution:

 

Resolved, That MR. WILLIAM SAUNDERS be authorized to furnish forty photographs of the

plan of the SOLDIERS' NATIONAL CEMETERY, for the use of the States having soldiers buried

there.⁶⁷

Ohio's share of the estimated $63,500 "expenses of finishing the cemetery" came

to $7834.46. Brown, as a member of the battlefield monument committee, helped

to select the design of the national memorial, eventually erected. It was to be a

superstructure sixty feet high, consisting of a massive pedestal twenty-five feet

square at the base and crowned with a colossal statue representing the Genius of

Liberty. Later the individual states erected monuments at appropriate places on

the battlefield. Ohio's were dedicated on September 14, 1887, and all the units

engaged in the three-day battle were honored.⁶⁸

After the bleak winter passed and the frozen ground thawed again, Samuel

Weaver and his crew returned to their grisly work, scouring every foot of the bat-

 

65. Cincinnati Enquirer, November 28, 1863.

66. Ohio State Journal, November 23, 1863; letter of instruction, Tod to Brown and Lofland,

December 12, 1863. Documents Accompanying the Governor's Message, 163-164.

67. Ibid. The ceremony for the laying of the cornerstone for the national monument was held July

4, 1865.

• 23
 

tlefield and exhuming and reburying the Union dead. They completed their work on March 18, 1864, and Weaver reported that 3354 Union soldiers had been re- buried (979 were unknown) and that 158 Massachusetts bodies had been reburied by a private contractor from Boston. Ohio had 131 soldiers occupying graves in the state's section of the half-circle cemetery.69 68. "Soldiers' National Cemetery, Harrisburg, December 17, 1863," in Revised Report made to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, Relative to the Soldiers' National Cemetery, at Gettysburg . . . (Harrisburg, 1876), 17-20. The commissioners decided to divide the $63,500 by 154, the number of congressmen representing "the interested states" in Congress. This amounted to $413.34 per congressman. Since Ohio had nineteen members in the House of Representatives, the state's quota amounted to $7834.47. Governor Tod had generously suggested that a total of $100,000 for the project would not be too much. In later years Ohio appropriated $40,000 additional for monuments honoring the state's units and generals linked to the Battle of Gettysburg. Ohio erected twenty of the more than one hundred memor- ials which adorn the field. 69. "Report of Samuel Weaver," 161. Weaver's report states that the total reburied was 3512 bodies; Wills's figure is 3564.

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100                                                                   OHIO HISTORY

 

Democratic threats to censure Tod for spending state funds for the "junket" to

Gettysburg came to naught. No such motion or resolution was even introduced into

the legislature. Democrats held a minority of the seats in both houses and the

many Unionist legislators who made the trip at state expense considered the money

well spent. A handful of die-hard Democrats, however, obtained a modicum of

revenge by voting against resolutions introduced by Republicans in both houses

of the state legislature complimenting and thanking the out-going governor for

his "able, self-sacrificing and devoted manner in which he has discharged all the

duties of Chief Magistrate of this State," including "the enduring memorials to

the dead of the rank and file in the cemeteries of Spring Grove and of Gettysburg."⁷⁰

The failure of dissident Democrats to introduce censure resolutions was, in effect,

an admission that the public supported the state's participation in the dedication

of the Soldiers' Cemetery at Gettysburg. Ohio did play an important role in that

historic event, thanks largely to Tod's initiative and energy. The governor's fore-

sight enabled him to realize the meaning of the second stanza of the ode which

he had heard at the November 19 ceremonies:

Here let them rest,

And summer's heat and winter's cold

Shall glow and freeze above this mould--

A thousandyears shallpass away--

A nation still shall mourn this clay,

Which now is blest.71

 

70. Ohio General Assembly, Senate Journal, 1864, p. 26; Ohio General Assembly, House Journal,

1864, pp. 37-38. The resolution carried by a vote of 69 to 11 in the lower house and a vote of 30 to 3

in the senate. George L. Converse, Thomas J. Kenny, and Meredith R. Willett cast the three dissenting

votes in the senate. The Spring Grove Cemetery was established through Tod's initiative as a state

project.

71. The ode, or hymn, of five stanzas composed by Benjamin B. French was published in the Cin-

cinnati Commercial, November 23, 1863.

• 25