The Gettysburg Address contains 272 words according to the commonly accepted count.
Abraham Lincoln delivered the speech on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The ceremony followed the Battle of Gettysburg, one of the most significant Union victories of the American Civil War. Lincoln was not the main speaker; Edward Everett delivered a much longer oration before him.
The address lasted only a few minutes, yet it connected the Civil War to the principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln described the conflict as a test of whether a nation founded on equality could endure and called for a “new birth of freedom.”
The word count can vary slightly depending on whether a title, punctuation, or the five manuscript versions is included. The figure 272 refers to the standard text commonly printed today. Lincoln's speech was not immediately treated as the event's central address, but later generations made it one of the best-known statements in American political history.