JOHN BURNS OF GETTYSBURG. 345 



tbem, it was noticed that a feeble, graj^-haired man was fol- 

 lowing them, as if disposed to intrude. As Lincoln and Todd 

 entered their pew the old man followed. Todd, noticing this, 

 said, "Old man, this pew is reserved for the President and his 

 party." This remark caused Lincoln to look around. Seeing 

 Burns, whom he knew, the President quickly said, " Why, 

 Todd, this is old John Burns, of Gettysburg. He fought all 

 day for the Union, for wdiich j^ou never fired a shot in your 

 life. Come here, John, and sit down by me." And there, 

 side by side to the close of the lecture, sat the greatest man 

 America has produced and the humble hero of its greatest 

 battle ! 



Why Bret Harte, who is needlessly exaggerative, did not 

 work up the fact of the wounding of Burns, is hard to tell. 

 The poet seemed to have simply seized hold of the main fact 

 and elaborated it regardless of chronology. He says when the 

 fight was over, 



" He shouldered his rifle, unbent his brows, 

 And then went home to his bees and cows." 



As he fought on the first day it was not until two days after 

 that the enemy " Backward pressed, broke at the final charge 

 and ran." In fact, things looked pretty blue for the Union 

 cause for some time after Burns left the field on a stretcher 

 after turning the command over to General Meade. " The 

 clerks the Home Guards mustered in " were mythical, as he 

 himself intimates when he says Burns was "the only man 

 who would'nt back down." 



The field on which John Burns fought is on the left as you 

 near the "Springs Hotel," about a mile and a-half west of the 

 town, and close by the grove where General Reynolds fell. 

 After he was wounded he was carried to his home, which was 

 the first house but one in Gettysburg as you enter by the 

 Chambersburg Pike. He was laid on a lounge in the front 



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