Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was the site of intense fighting between Union and Confederate
soldiers during the American Civil War
(1861–65). Over the course of three days in July
1863, forty-three thousand soldiers lost their
lives during the Battle of Gettysburg. On
November 19, 1863, a national cemetery was
dedicated at the Gettysburg battlefield. U.S.
president Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865;
served 1861–65) was in attendance and gave a
short but eloquent speech remembered as the
Gettysburg Address.
President Lincoln was not the main speaker
at the dedication. His speech followed that of
former secretary of state Edward Everett
(1794–1865), who spoke for two hours.
Lincoln’s address had just three hundred words
and took only a few minutes to deliver. In it, he
revisited themes from past speeches. He emphasized the historical union of the nation and the
words of the nation’s founders that all men were
created equal. He urged the nation to rededicate
itself to the Union cause and confirmed his own
commitment to a government of, by, and for the
people.
Lincoln’s words were received by a tired
crowd without much enthusiasm. Some people
criticized the speech, but others immediately
recognized its exceptional literary merit. The
eloquent and precise poetic expressions in the
Gettysburg Address make it one of Lincoln’s
most famous speeches.