Abraham Lincoln in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Many Stops on the President’s Journey to Dedicate Cemetery Remain
© Jim Rada
Dec 4, 2008
At dusk on November 18, a black locomotive squealed to a stop in front of a brick building on Carlisle Street in downtown Gettysburg, Pa. A large bell in the cupola rang announcing the train’s arrival.
Western Maryland Railway Station in Gettysburg
The Italianate villa-style Western Maryland Railway Station had been built four years earlier (a one-story addition would enlarge the station in 1886). It boasted a waiting for men and a segregated room for women and children. The station had served as a hospital during and after the Battle of Gettysburg, which left more than 7,500 soldiers dead, four and a half months earlier. Following the battle, more than 15,000 wounded soldiers and the remains of many others departed this station to take them away from the battlefield.
Now it would welcome the President of the United States. The train was festively decorated, though the occasion for which it had arrived was a solemn one. President Abraham Lincoln, members of his cabinet and foreign ambassadors exited the train. They were taken to the home of David Wills on the downtown Gettysburg Square. In the home, the President put the finishing touches on his remarks.
Soldiers’ National Cemetery
Following the Battle of Gettysburg, the stench of the dead had made the burial of the soldiers a high priority. Wills purchased 17 acres for a cemetery to honor the fallen soldiers and scheduled the dedication. Lincoln hadn’t been Wills’ first choice for a speaker, but it would be an inspired choice.
The next morning at 9:30 a.m., Lincoln, astride a chestnut bay horse, rode in the procession of dignitaries, townspeople, and widows marching out to the cemetery grounds. He rode between Secretary of State William Seward and Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase. The crowd was estimated at 15,000 people including six of the 24 Union governors.
Lincoln Delivers the Gettysburg Address
Lincoln walked to the podium during the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery and spoke the speech he had finalized the night before. At less than 300 words, it took under two minutes to speak.
He began, “Four score and seven years ago…”
History would remember little else of what was said that day, but Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” is still recited by schoolchildren today.
The Lincoln Train Station Today
The train station stopped handling passenger service in 1942 and in more recent years was the home of the Gettysburg Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.
In November 2006, 143 years after Lincoln arrived in Gettysburg at the train station, the town celebrated the renovation and restoration of the station. It now features museum displays about the historic significance of the station and will be open to the public this year.
The train station, David Wills House and Soldiers’ National Cemetery are part of The Journey Through Hallowed Ground, the 175-mile area along the U.S. Route 15 corridor that reaches from Gettysburg, Pa. to Charlottesville, Va.
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