Gettysburg Address ... easy question? maybe

[David Lockmiller]

(12-14-2017 10:26 PM)ELCore Wrote:  In Recollected Words, the Fehrenbachers note that Gen. Sickle's recall of Lincoln's words (supposedly on July 5, 1863) was published in a newspaper on February 12, 1911 — almost 46 years after the fact. And that one James Rusling of Gen. Sickles staff published a very different account of Lincoln's words, in 1895. That is, there is more than a little doubt about what Lincoln may or may not have said to Sickles about Gettysburg.

James Rusling is also cited by Professor Burlingame as the source of a famous Lincoln quote about his appreciation for General Grant ("Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Vol. II, page 628):

"In July 1863, he had told General Sickles that he appreciated Grant's uncomplaining nature: 'He doesn't worry and bother me. He isn't shrieking for reinforcements all the time. He takes what troops we can safely give him . . . and does the best he can with what he has got, and doesn't grumble and scold all while.'" (James F. Rusling, "Men and Things I Saw in Civil War Days" (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1899), 16.)