A Message from the President

I am a Virginian and side with the Army of Northern Virginia because my ancestors fought in it. However, I have the ability, as a historian, to study history from multiple perspectives. From the Union perspective, Lincoln is undeniably a savior of the Republic. I will always respect Lincoln from his perspective of preserving the Union at all costs. He truly lived up to that, he truly gave the last full measure of devotion.

“Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”

-Abraham Lincoln, speech at Cooper Union, New York, February 27, 1860

ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S, “GETTYSBURG ADDRESS”
NOVEMBER 19, 1863
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate-we cannot consecrate-we cannot hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Executive Mansion,
Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.
Dear Madam,
I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.
I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.
Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
A. Lincoln.
Mrs. Bixby.

O Captain! My Captain! By Walt Whitman
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

I personally have a lot of respect for President Lincoln staying the course to preserve the Union, as he promised he would, despite many defeats, and while embracing the extreme level of devotion required in the face of so much carnage.

The Army of Northern Virginia is devastated, both by the war and news of their surrender, but they still love their general, General Lee, and will follow him anywhere and carry out his orders no matter the hazard. They would have fought to the bitter end, to the last man, had General Lee ordered them to do so. As Lee rides away an overcome soldier extended his arms and shouted, “I love you just as well as ever, General Lee!”

Virginia cavalryman Rawleigh Dunaway, wrote in a letter home in February 1865 what most soldiers in the Army of Northern Virginia believe and were committed to in 1865.

“I have thought the matter over calmly & seriously & have made up my mind to follow that great & good man, Robt. E. Lee, wherever he may lead, to success or to ruin if it must be.”

Though I respect Lincoln, my heart is and always will be with the veterans of the Army of Northern Virginia.