Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

by James M. McPherson

Lincoln’s visit to Richmond produced the most unforgettable scenes of this unforgettable war. With an escort of only ten sailors, the president walked the streets while Porter peered nervously at every window for would-be assassins. But the Emancipator was soon surrounded by an impenetrable cordon of black people shouting “Glory to God! Glory! Glory! Glory!” “Bless the Lord! The great Messiah! I knowed him as soon as I seed him. He’s been in my heart four long years. Come to free his children from bondage. Glory, Hallelujah!” Several freed slaves touched Lincoln to make sure he was real. “I know I am free,” shouted an old woman, “for I have seen Father Abraham and felt him.” Overwhelmed by rare emotions, Lincoln said to one black man who fell on his knees in front of him: “Don’t kneel to me. That is not right. You must kneel to God only, and thank Him for the liberty you will enjoy hereafter.”33 Among the reporters from northern newspapers who described these events was one whose presence was a potent symbol of the revolution. He was T. Morris Chester, who sat at a desk in the Confederate Capitol drafting his dispatch to the Philadelphia Press. “Richmond has never before presented such a spectacle of jubilee,” he wrote. “What a wonderful change has come over the spirit of Southern dreams.”34 Chester was a black man.