Perhaps the most famous battle of the Civil War took place at Gettysburg, PA, July 1 to July 3, 1863. At the end of the battle, the Union's Army of the Potomac had successfully repelled the second invasion of the North by the Confederacy's Army of Northern Virginia. Several months later, President Lincoln went to Gettysburg to speak at the dedication of the cemetery for the Union war dead. Speaking of a "new birth of freedom," he delivered one of the most memorable speeches in U.S. history.
At the end of the Battle of Gettysburg, more than 51,000 Confederate and Union
soldiers were wounded, missing, or dead. Many of those who died were laid in
makeshift graves along the battlefield. Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin
commissioned David Wills, an attorney, to purchase land for a proper burial
site for the deceased Union soldiers. Wills acquired 17 acres for the cemetery,
which was planned and designed by landscape architect William Saunders.
The cemetery was dedicated on November 19, 1863. The main speaker for the event
was Edward Everett, one of the nation’s foremost orators. President Lincoln
was also invited to speak “as Chief Executive of the nation, formally
[to] set apart these grounds to their sacred use by a few appropriate remarks.”
At the ceremony, Everett spoke for more than 2 hours; Lincoln spoke for 2 minutes.
President Lincoln had given his brief speech a lot of thought. He saw meaning
in the fact that the Union victory at Gettysburg coincided with the nation’s
birthday; but rather than focus on the specific battle in his remarks, he wanted
to present a broad statement about the larger significance of the war. He invoked
the Declaration of Independence, and its principles of liberty and equality,
and he spoke of “a new birth of freedom” for the nation. In his
brief address, he continued to reshape the aims of the war for the American
people—transforming it from a war for Union to a war for Union and freedom.
Although Lincoln expressed disappointment in the speech initially, it has come
to be regarded as one of the most elegant and eloquent speeches in U.S. history.
