<P> Like most people who came to Gettysburg, the Rathvon family was aware that Lincoln was going to make some remarks . The family went to the town square where the procession was to form to go out to the cemetery that had not been completed yet . At the head of the procession rode Lincoln on a gray horse preceded by a military band that was the first the young boy had ever seen . Rathvon describes Lincoln as so tall and with such long legs that they went almost to the ground; he also mentions the long eloquent speech given by Edward Everett of Massachusetts whom Rathvon accurately described as the "most finished orator of the day". Rathvon then goes on to describe how Lincoln stepped forward and "with a manner serious almost to sadness, gave his brief address". During the delivery, along with some other boys, young Rathvon wiggled his way forward through the crowd until he stood within 15 feet of Mr. Lincoln and looked up into what he described as Lincoln's "serious face". Rathvon recalls candidly that, although he listened "intently to every word the president uttered and heard it clearly", he explains, "boylike, I could not recall any of it afterwards". But he explains that if anyone said anything disparaging about "honest Abe", there would have been a "junior battle of Gettysburg". In the recording Rathvon speaks of Lincoln's speech allegorically "echoing through the hills". </P> <P> The only known and confirmed photograph of Lincoln at Gettysburg, taken by photographer David Bachrach was identified in the Mathew Brady collection of photographic plates in the National Archives and Records Administration in 1952 . While Lincoln's speech was short and may have precluded multiple pictures of him while speaking, he and the other dignitaries sat for hours during the rest of the program . Given the length of Everett's speech and the length of time it took for 19th - century photographers to get "set up" before taking a picture, it is quite plausible that the photographers were ill - prepared for the brevity of Lincoln's remarks . </P> <P> The words "under God" do not appear in the Nicolay and Hay drafts but are included in the three later copies (Everett, Bancroft, and Bliss). Accordingly, some skeptics maintain that Lincoln did not utter the words "under God" at Gettysburg . However, at least three reporters telegraphed the text of Lincoln's speech on the day the Address was given with the words "under God" included . Historian William E. Barton argues that: </P> <P> Every stenographic report, good, bad and indifferent, says' that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom .' There was no common source from which all the reporters could have obtained those words but from Lincoln's own lips at the time of delivery . It will not do to say that (Secretary of War) Stanton suggested those words after Lincoln's return to Washington, for the words were telegraphed by at least three reporters on the afternoon of the delivery . </P>

What was the purpose of the gettysburg adress