The Battle of Gettysburg was from July 1st to July 3rd, 1863, and it goes down as the bloodiest battle in American history. At the height of the civil war, the Confederate army was fighting their way up north, and the Battle of Gettysburg may have been the turning point in the war.
The Confederate Army under Robert E. Lee had won their battle at Chancellorsville, Virginia in May 1863, and began their second invasion of the North, the Gettysburg campaign. On the first and the second days of the battle, the Confederate army had weakened the Potomac Army of the Union, and all it took was one big blow on the third day. However, the Union had successfully had kept high ground while the Confederate army struggled to pull themselves up. After three long days of fighting, casualties of over 46,000 people, the Union had won the battle.
The Confederate Army was pushed back into Virginia, a huge win for the Union. President Lincoln visited the Gettysburg National Cemetery to honor Union soldiers, where he presented the historic 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.”
"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
Today, we honor the fallen soldiers from both sides, Union and Confederate, for their work on the battlefield and why slavery is ended today, and why we are united as one country.
Comments
Post a Comment