The Bancroft Copy of the Gettysburg Address was written by President Lincoln in February 1864 . The famous historian George Bancroft , the `` father of American History '' , who wrote History of the United States , had asked him to write it for him . The Bancroft Copy of the Gettysburg Address was written out by President Lincoln in February 1864 at the request of George Bancroft , the famed historian and former Secretary of the Navy whose comprehensive ten volume History of the United States later led him to be known as the `` father of American History . ''