Arts, Crafts, Music, & Events of Breckinridge County Issue 13, June 2016 | Page 40

On Memorial Day’s Eve
by Mark Keller
Tomorrow, there will be many forms of keeping this national
holiday. Maybe you have already had your big hurrah this weekend
and will be traveling tomorrow. I regret I didn’t spend some time
last week in preparation that I might have entered the weekend
having shared some thoughts from my perspective but still, I offer
the following notes from a little book, 28 pages, that my friend,
Frank Anderson gifted me last year. He had spent several days
visiting historical sites in Pa. and found this little pocket-sized tome,
“The Gettysburg Address”, produced by Applewood Books.
The battle of Gettysburg lasted three days, July 1st-3rd. In that
time, 50,000 souls died. The bodies of those men and horses
created such a stench in the summer sun that residents of
Gettysburg became ill. A seventeen-acre burial was done on the
20,000 acre battlefield. It was decided that on September 23rd,
1863, the burial ground would be dedicated. The chief speaker for
the event was to be one, Edward Everett. Everett was a former
secretary of state, U.S. senator, U.S. representative, governor of
Massachusetts and president of Harvard University. He was
considered to be the “greatest orator in the nation”!
President Lincoln was invited to make the “Dedicatory Remarks”.
Everett asked that the date be extended so that he would have
more time to prepare. It was re- scheduled for November 19 of
that Fall.
On the day of the dedication, Everett stood and delivered a
speech of 13,607 words in two hours. Do you know anything of
what he said?
Lincoln stood and delivered a 272 word-speech and sat down at