Lincoln at Gettysburg: "[The President] got up and stepped to a window. The square was a mass of bodies whooping and singing by torchlight. 'Hurrah for Old Abel' 'God save the Union!' A good many of them had sons, brothers, or husbands who had died here four and a half months before. Now, they had come to mourn and find purpose.".

• Author: Cribb, John
• Position: USA YESTERDAY - Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address

THERE were empty coffins stacked beside the tracks when the train pulled into the station at Gettysburg on the evening of Nov. 18, 1863. A crowd let out a roar as Pres. Abraham Lincoln stepped onto the platform. A band struck up "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." His friend Ward Hill Lamon was there to greet him, acting as bodyguard and chief marshal of ceremonies, a couple of pistols and daggers squirreled away in his coat pockets, no doubt. To his left stood white-haired Edward Everett, the renowned orator, looking in his 69th year like noble Cicero of ancient times. To Lamon's right stood David Wills, local attorney and leading citizen, a man with energy and determination in his eyes.

They walked through the dusk two blocks to Carlisle Street. Gettysburg's town square was packed. People everywhere, cheering and thrusting out hands. Lamon and some soldiers cleared a path. Wills shouted over the noise as they walked, telling the usual facts a host gives a visitor about his town--eight churches, six taverns, three weekly newspapers, two banks, a college, and a seminary. Twenty-four hundred citizens, although many more--perhaps 15,000--had come for the dedication.

"When the fighting started, a good many of us climbed onto our rooftops to glimpse the action," Wills recounted. "When it got close, we went down into our cellars. That's where we were as the Rebels pushed through town and raised their flag over the square." He pointed to buildings scarred by artillery fire. "When it was all over, we came out to scrape the mud and blood off the pavement."

The Wills home, a handsome three-story brick house, stood on the edge of the square. "It's three-quarters of a mile to the cemetery from here," Wills said as they went inside. "We were hoping to have all the graves filled by now, but we're only about a third of the way through. Moving that many bodies is a difficult process, as you can imagine."

Mrs. Wills presided over a dinner party and reception. She was pregnant, and fatigue showed through her smile. After the battle, her house had been used as a hospital, and the provost marshal had made it his headquarters. Her husband had convened dozens of meetings in their parlor to organize the national cemetery that would hold the remains of so many fallen soldiers. This night, she would find places for 38 guests to sleep under her roof.

Outside, the Fifth New York Artillery Band serenaded the town from the square. Word spread that the President had...