Public Library Of Youngstown & Mahoning County: The History Of The Gettysburg Address

Press release from the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County:

Kelly

November 19th, 2021

The Battle of Gettysburg

The town of Gettysburg, located in southeastern Pennsylvania, was thrust into history when the Civil War literally came to its door steps.  In the scorching heat of July 1 through July 3, 1863, Union and Confederate forces fought in what became the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.  Even though the war would drag on until April of 1865, Gettysburg was the turning point of the war, turning the tide for the Union Army and for United States history.  This July was the 158th anniversary of Gettysburg, the northernmost battle of the Civil War.

Read more about the Battle of Gettysburg.

The Gettysburg Address

This November is the 158th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

Four months after the notorious battle, Gettysburg became the place of one of the most famous and beautiful speeches ever delivered: Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.  The Gettysburg Address, just 272 words and two minutes long, was given at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863.

Amazingly, Abraham Lincoln was not the featured speaker that day.  The main address, given by orator Edward Everett, took two hours.  Yet it was immediately eclipsed by Lincoln’s speech.  Lincoln’s speech was a statement to the American people about the enormous significance of the war.  It soon became widely quoted and praised, and recognized as a masterpiece.

There are five copies of the Gettysburg Address, all in Lincoln’s own handwriting!  Each copy differs slightly, perhaps due to additions or afterthoughts or modifications made during his delivery.  Two copies are housed by the Library of Congress, one is at the Illinois State Historical Library, one is at Cornell University, and one is in the Lincoln Room of the White House.  (This particular copy, known as the “Bliss Copy” as it was gifted to Colonel Alexander Bliss, is viewed by many as the standard text.  It is also the only version that Lincoln signed, and the last copy he wrote.)

Text of the Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

– Abraham Lincoln

Learn more about the Gettysburg Address

History.com: The Gettysburg Address.

Library of Congress: The Gettysburg Address.

Abraham Lincoln Online. Speeches and Writings: The Gettysburg Address.

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum: Gettysburg.

Learn More About the Battle of Gettysburg

Check the library catalog to request our many Gettysburg books.

View Ken Burns’ documentary miniseries, The Civil War, on DVD or via Hoopla.  Gettysburg is featured in Episode 5.

If you would like to visit Gettysburg and see the battlefield, learn more about planning your trip by visiting their official website, Destination Gettysburg.

Kelly

Kelly is a librarian at the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County. As the Adult Programming Specialist, her focus is bringing adults the library programs they love.  (Kids can’t have ALL the fun!).  She reads strictly nonfiction and picture books.  She believes that anything you could ever need or want is located somewhere in the library.  Including friends.

This press release was produced by the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County. The views expressed here are the author’s own.