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.
[Illustration: AT MISSIONARY 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.
[Illustration: A CHARGE ALL ALONG THE LINE.]
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 these dead shall
not have died in vain; that this na-tion, un-der God, shall have a
new birth of free-dom, and that gov-ern-ment of the peo-ple, by the
peo-ple, for the peo-ple shall not per-ish from the earth.”