One hundred fifty-nine years ago today, one of the most famous of all American battles began at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The confederate South fought for the right to secede, to exit from the United States in order to retain its slavery-based way of life. The North fought to retain the country's union. Massive casualties on both sides resulted.
President Abraham Lincoln was determined to preserve the country as a whole, and to end slavery in America. He was also horrified at the human cost and wanted to end the war as soon as possible.
photo
Victory for the Union (North) ensued. A few days later the president told a general that his anxiety about the battle had turned to peace after he prayed about it:
"In the pinch of your campaign up there, when everybody seemed panic-stricken, and nobody could tell what was going to happen, oppressed by the gravity of our affairs, I went to my room one day, and I locked the door, and got down on my knees before Almighty God, and prayed to Him mightily for victory at Gettysburg.
"I told Him that this was His war, and our cause His cause, but we couldn't stand another Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville . . .
"And after that (I don't know how it was, and I can't explain it), soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that God Almighty had taken the whole business into his own hands . . ."
from American Minute
No comments:
Post a Comment