General D. E. Sickles was wounded at Gettysburg, and brought to Washington, where a leg was amputated. President Lincoln called upon him, and in reply to a question from General Sickles whether or not the President was anxious about the battle at Gettysburg, Lincoln gravely said, 'No, I was not; some of my Cabinet and many others in Washington were, but I had no fears.' General Sickles inquired how this was, and seemed curious about it. Mr. Lincoln hesitated, but finally replied: 'Well, I will tell you how it was. In the pinch of your campaign up there, when everybody seemed panic-stricken, and nobody could tell what was going to happen, oppressed by the gravity of our affairs, I went to my room one day, and I locked the door, and got down on my knees before Almighty God, and prayed to Him mightily for victory at Gettysburg. I told Him that this was His war, and our cause His cause, but we couldn't stand another Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville. And I then and there made a solemn vow to Almighty God, that if He would stand by our boys at Gettysburg, I would stand by Him. And He _did_ stand by you boys, and I _will_ stand by Him. And after that (I don't know how it was, and I can't explain it), soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that God Almighty had taken the whole business into his own hands and that things would go all right at Gettysburg. And that is why I had no fears about you.' Asked concerning Vicksburg, the news of which victory had not yet reached him, he said, 'I have been praying for Vicksburg also, and believe our Heavenly Father is going to give us victory there, too.' General Rusling says that Mr. Lincoln spoke 'solemnly and pathetically, as if from the depth of his heart,' and that his manner was deeply touching."[49] CHAPTER XVIII "BEHIND THE SCENES" THE family of the President of the United States ought to be permitted a reasonable degree of privacy, but this has never yet been accorded them. In the case of the family of President Lincoln the rudeness of the public was shameful. It is not our present purpose to intrude into the domestic life of Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, and if we shall ever do so hereafter it will be, let us hope, with more of consideration than some critics have shown. After the death of Mr. Lincoln, a number of books and articles appeared which gave close and intimate glimpses of the life of President and Mrs. Lincoln during the four years which they spent in the White House. We shall examine two or three of these only in so far as they relate to Mr. Lincoln's religious life.