day, July 4th, 1863, came the surrender of Vicksburg, the
stronghold of the great West. Chastened joy began to cover his gaunt and
pallid features, and the light of hope shone again in his deep, gray
eyes.

Calling on General Sickles, in a Washington hospital--for the general
had lost a leg on the second day of the battle of Gettysburg--the
President was asked why he believed that victory would be given the
Federal forces at Gettysburg.

"I will tell you how it was. In the pinch of your campaign up there,
when everybody seemed panic-stricken, and nobody could tell what was
going to happen, I went to my room one day and locked the door, and got
down on my knees before Almighty God, and prayed to him mightily for
victory at Gettysburg. I told Him this was His war, and our cause His
cause, but that we couldn't stand another Fredericksburg or
Chancellorsville. And I then and there made a solemn vow to Almighty God
that if He would stand by our boys at Gettysburg, I would stand by Him.
And He _did_, and I _will_!"

The President's call on General Sickles was on the Sunday after the
three-days' battle of Gettysburg, before the arrival of the gunboat at
Cairo, Illinois, with the glad tidings from Vicksburg, which added new
luster to the patriotic joy of Independence Day. The telegraph wires had
been so generally cut on all sides of Vicksburg that the news was sent
to Cairo and telegraphed to Washington. In proof that his faith even
included the Mississippi blockade he went on:

"Besides, I have been praying over Vicksburg also, and believe our
Heavenly Father is going to give us victory there, too, because we need
it, in order to bisect the Confederacy, and let 'the Father of Waters
flow unvexed to the sea.'"

THE ADDRESS

Not long after the conflict at Gettysburg a movement was on foot to
devote a large part of that battle-ground to a national cemetery.

The Hon. Edward Everett, prominent in national and educational affairs,
and the greatest living orator, was invited to deliver the grand
oration. The President was asked, if he could, to come and make a few
dedicatory remarks, but Mr. Everett was to be the chief speaker of the
occasion.

The Sunday before the 19th of November, 1863, the date of the
dedication, the President went with his friend Noah Brooks to Gardner's
gallery, in Washington, where he had promised to sit for his photograph.
While there he showed Mr. Brooks a proof of Everett's oration which had