After the battle, Burns was elevated to the role of national hero. Hearing about the aged veteran, Mathew Brady's photographer Timothy H. O'Sullivan photographed Burns recuperating at his home on Chambersburg Street and took the story of Burns and his participation in the battle back home to Washington. When President Abraham Lincoln came to Gettysburg to dedicate the Soldiers National Cemetery and deliver his Gettysburg Address that fall, he requested to meet with Burns. Burns accompanied the president on a walk from the David Wills house to the Presbyterian Church on Baltimore Street on November 19, 1863. Burns's fame quickly spread and a poem about his exploits was published by Bret Harte in 1864.