Abraham Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address (1863)
About This Text
Author: Abraham Lincoln
Composed: c.1863 CE
Abraham Lincoln delivered his immortal Gettysburg Address on November 19th, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Five-months earlier Gettysburg hosted the largest engagement of the Civil War, with both sides suffering a combined 51,000 casualties over the course of the three-day battle. Lincoln honored the soldiers who fought for a nation “conceived in liberty” and equality and called for Americans to commit themselves to “a new birth of freedom” to preserve the American experiment in self-government.