Download Gettysburg Address

The Civil War began as a
war to restore the Union, not to
end slavery. However, as the war
progressed, President Abraham
Lincoln believed he could only
save the Union by broadening the
goals of war. On January 1,
1863, President Abraham
Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation,
which stated: “All people with
slaves in states in rebellion with
the Union are to free their
slaves.”
Free African Americans
could now join the Union army
as soldiers. They were assigned
to all-black units commanded
by white officers with half the
pay of white soldiers. One
famous African-American unit
in the Union, led by Robert
Gould Shaw was the 54th
Massachusetts Regiment.
Frederick Douglass, a strong
abolitionist, recruited officers
for it and his two sons served in
it.
On June 30, 1863, Union General
George Meade met Confederate General
Lee in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The
battle lasted three days, but Lee’s charge
on the Union failed and he was forced to
retreat.
There were more than
40,000 casualties and therefore
the battlefield became a
cemetery. On November 19,
1863, Northerners held a
ceremony to dedicate the
cemetery. During the ceremony,
President Lincoln gave a threeminute speech called the
“Gettysburg Address” in which
he stated that the Civil War was a
test of whether or not a
democratic nation could survive
and he reminded the people that
“all men are created equal.”
THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS:
As you listen to President Lincoln’s “The Gettysburg Address,” write down at
least five key words or phrases that describe Lincoln’s ideal America. (What
words or phrases show what Lincoln wants America to be?)
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Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, given November 19, 1863
on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon 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 battlefield 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 cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot 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.
In May 1864, General
Grant wanted to capture
Richmond, Virginia, the
Confederate capital. In
Petersburg, which is near
Richmond, Grant kept Lee
under siege for nine months.
Grant then took Petersburg on
April 2, 1865 and Richmond
fell. Lee withdrew to a small
Virginian town, called
Appomattox Court House,
where he was trapped by the
Union.
On April 9, 1865,
Lee surrendered to
Grant, which ended the
Civil War. Grant called
for no cheers and he
allowed the Confederate
officers to keep their
weapons, because he
wanted to respect his
fellow countrymen and
bring the nation back
together peacefully.