A boy risks life and limb to travel across the war-torn southern states of America during the height of hostilities in the Civil War, hoping to visit his wounded brother in a field hospital on the other side of the country. His accidental meeting with Abraham Lincoln helps the disheartened president understand just how important the Gettysburg Address really is.
The day after his Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln meets a wounded Confederate soldier in a hospital. The blinded rebel, not knowing his visitor's identity, regales him with memorized lines from the speech.
A wealthy young American, bred to class distinction and racial intolerance, enters the Marines during the First World War. In the course of his training and his experiences in the trenches fighting, being wounded by, and being hospitalized with Germans, he comes to a recognition of the equality and brotherhood of men.