Extra Credit Questions

[STS Lincolnite]

(03-26-2015 05:12 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  

(03-26-2015 04:57 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Could it be from Gettysburg?

Kudos, Roger - this is the Soldiers' National Monument, which markes the spot where A. Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address.

Actually, the Soldier's National Monument does not mark the spot of the platform where Lincoln delivered his address. That was erroneously reported by someone long ago and it has been perpetuated for many years in many forms of media. Adding to the confusion is the Kentucky Memorial erected in 1975 which states: "Kentucky honors her son, Abraham Lincoln, who delivered his immortal address at the site now marked by the soldiers' monument."

A correspondent for the Cincinnati Daily Commercial reporting in November 1863 described the dividing lines between the state grave plots as follows: "the radii of a common center, where a flag pole is now raised, but where it is proposed to erect a national monument". As can be seen with a visit today, the Soldier's and Sailors Monument is in fact placed at the common center of radii of the state graves as per the plan reported by this correspondent in 1863.

This account has been critical to getting a more accurate assessment of the true location of the platform. Several photographs and drawings of the event show the mentioned flagpole along with the Evergreen Cemetery gatehouse and a couple of other landmarks. Using these landmarks compared with the visible speaker's platform and Everett's "relief tent", modern photo analysis (in 1980s and 1990s) has placed the probable location of the speaker's platform in Evergreen Cemetery just beyond the fence that currently marks the division with the National Cemetery (the fence was not present in 1863). The Evergreen Cemetery location also fits better with contemporary eyewitness accounts that describe the location having a spectacular and commanding view of that area of the battlefield. The NPS has in fact erected a historical marker not far from the Soldier's and Sailor's Monument that agrees with the assessment that the platform was most likely located just inside Evergreen Cemetery. I know there is at least one group currently using 21st century technology in an attempt to even better define the area of the probable location of the speaker's platform.

As you might have guessed, I have done some preliminary study on this subject. In November, I am giving a talk on the "few appropriate remarks" that Lincoln so eloquently delivered at Gettysburg in 1863.