In Lincoln at Gettysburg , Garry Wills notes the similarity between Lincoln 's speech and Pericles 's Funeral Oration during the Peloponnesian War ( James McPherson and Gore Vidal also note this ) . In Lincoln at Gettysburg , Garry Wills notes the parallels between Lincoln 's speech and Pericles 's Funeral Oration during the Peloponnesian War as described by Thucydides . ( James McPherson notes this connection in his review of Wills 's book .