Editing Gettysburg Address (section)

=== Audio recollections ===
[[William R. Rathvon]] is the only known eyewitness of both Lincoln's arrival at Gettysburg and the address itself to have obtained made audio recording of his recollections.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.historyonthenet.com/authentichistory/1860-1865/2-sounds/2-historical/19380212_Gettysburg_Eyewitness_William_V_Rathvon.html|title=Gettysburg Eyewitness – Lost and Found Sound: The Boy Who Heard Lincoln|publisher=Historyonthenet.com|access-date=February 15, 2019|archive-date=February 16, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190216040854/https://www.historyonthenet.com/authentichistory/1860-1865/2-sounds/2-historical/19380212_Gettysburg_Eyewitness_William_V_Rathvon.html|url-status=live}}</ref> One year before his death in 1939, Rathvon's reminiscences were recorded on February 12, 1938, at WRUL in [[Boston]], including his reading the address, and a 78 RPM record was pressed. The title of the 78 record was, "I Heard Lincoln That Day – William R. Rathvon, TR Productions". A copy of it was later aired by [[National Public Radio]] (NPR) during its "Quest for Sound" project in 1999.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1045619|title=Gettysburg Eyewitness – Lost and Found Sound: The Boy Who Heard Lincoln|newspaper=NPR.org|publisher=Historyonthenet.com|access-date=February 15, 2019|archive-date=April 2, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190402161827/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1045619|url-status=live}}</ref>

Like most people who were present that day in Gettysburg, the Rathvon family was aware that Lincoln was going to offer some remarks to the assembled crowd. The family went to the town square where the procession formed and proceeded to the cemetery, which was then still under construction. At the head of the procession, Lincoln rode on a gray horse preceded by a military band, which was the first the young boy in the Rathyon family 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]], who Rathvon described as the "most finished orator of the day". Rathvon described Lincoln stepping forward "with a manner serious almost to sadness, gave his brief address". During Lincoln's delivery, the young Rathvon boy and several others wiggled their way forward through the crowd until they stood within {{convert|15|ft|m}} of Lincoln, and looked up into what he described as Lincoln's "serious face". Rathvon later said that he listened "intently to every word the president uttered and heard it clearly", but "boylike, I could not recall any of it afterwards". However, he said, that anyone who said anything disparaging about "honest Abe", would have been a "junior battle of Gettysburg". In the recording, Rathvon speaks of Lincoln's speech as "echoing through the hills".{{citation needed|date=April 2021}}