Although one of Lincoln's shortest speeches, the Gettysburg Address may be his most famous. The July 1-3, 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, near the town of the same name in southern Pennsylvania, is commonly identified as the turning point in the U.S. Civil War. Union General George Meade successfully repelled Confederate General Robert E. Lee's incursion into the north, but at the cost of over 51,000 lives. The consecration of a battlefield cemetery for Union soldiers on November 19, 1863 gave Lincoln occasion to recall the founding ideals of the republic, and to reinforce in the public mind an understanding of the war as a moral as well as political cause.

Project Gutenberg etexts of The Writings of Abraham Lincoln by Abraham Lincoln.