Gabor Boritt: Lincoln's Hanover speech helped shape his legend
The crowd gathered and waited for the tall, bearded figure to appear.
Town dignitaries clustered near the platform, anxious to hear what President Abraham Lincoln might have to say that November day in 1863.
A cheer went up for the president as he prepared to speak.
"I suppose you have all seen me and according to my past experience, you have not seen as much as you expected to see," Lincoln began.
The joke about his personal appearance was vintage Lincoln. But it didn't, of course, begin the 16th president's fabled Gettysburg Address.
This was Lincoln's less-known Hanover address, a speech that never might have taken place were it not for the behind-the-scenes machinations of a prominent Hanoverian.
But while Lincoln's remarks at the Hanover train station on his way to Gettysburg are largely forgotten, they helped shape the enduring legend of Lincoln's trip to Gettysburg, according to Gettysburg College Professor Gabor Boritt.
Borritt's new book, "The Gettysburg Gospel: the Lincoln Speech that Nobody Knows," describes Lincoln's Hanover appearance in detail. He admits there's no guarantee he reproduced the day accurately, but if he came close, Lincoln may have done well to stay inside.
Boritt writes that Lincoln grumbled about the visit. A story filtered through the decades claims Lincoln complained about his scheduled speech at Gettysburg. Boritt speculates the president grumbled about Hanover, and fuzzy memories attached the complaint to the upcoming stop in Gettysburg
After his opening joke, Lincoln engaged the crowd in banter he probably regretted.
He asked the crowd if "the rebels" had come to Hanover. At least one voice responded "yes."
"Well, did you fight them any?" Lincoln asked.
"Lincoln was still joking, but people fell silent," Boritt wrote. He added "fighting was no jocular matter for folk who had worried about their houses being burnt."
An awkward silence persisted until young women presented flowers to the president. Then a father held up his son while the boy gave Lincoln an apple from his own yard before the train chugged out of the station.
The town had made its contribution to the Union cause. The day before the Battle of Gettysburg, combat in Hanover killed 19 Union cavalry.
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Town dignitaries clustered near the platform, anxious to hear what President Abraham Lincoln might have to say that November day in 1863.
A cheer went up for the president as he prepared to speak.
"I suppose you have all seen me and according to my past experience, you have not seen as much as you expected to see," Lincoln began.
The joke about his personal appearance was vintage Lincoln. But it didn't, of course, begin the 16th president's fabled Gettysburg Address.
This was Lincoln's less-known Hanover address, a speech that never might have taken place were it not for the behind-the-scenes machinations of a prominent Hanoverian.
But while Lincoln's remarks at the Hanover train station on his way to Gettysburg are largely forgotten, they helped shape the enduring legend of Lincoln's trip to Gettysburg, according to Gettysburg College Professor Gabor Boritt.
Borritt's new book, "The Gettysburg Gospel: the Lincoln Speech that Nobody Knows," describes Lincoln's Hanover appearance in detail. He admits there's no guarantee he reproduced the day accurately, but if he came close, Lincoln may have done well to stay inside.
Boritt writes that Lincoln grumbled about the visit. A story filtered through the decades claims Lincoln complained about his scheduled speech at Gettysburg. Boritt speculates the president grumbled about Hanover, and fuzzy memories attached the complaint to the upcoming stop in Gettysburg
After his opening joke, Lincoln engaged the crowd in banter he probably regretted.
He asked the crowd if "the rebels" had come to Hanover. At least one voice responded "yes."
"Well, did you fight them any?" Lincoln asked.
"Lincoln was still joking, but people fell silent," Boritt wrote. He added "fighting was no jocular matter for folk who had worried about their houses being burnt."
An awkward silence persisted until young women presented flowers to the president. Then a father held up his son while the boy gave Lincoln an apple from his own yard before the train chugged out of the station.
The town had made its contribution to the Union cause. The day before the Battle of Gettysburg, combat in Hanover killed 19 Union cavalry.