On what date did Abraham Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg Address?

Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863.

Lincoln spoke at the dedication of Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, about four and a half months after the Battle of Gettysburg. The battle had been fought from July 1 to July 3, 1863, during the American Civil War.

The ceremony’s principal speaker was Edward Everett, a renowned orator who delivered a much longer address. Lincoln followed him with a brief speech that emphasized equality, self-government, and the preservation of the Union. The address became one of the most influential speeches in American history.

The speech is often remembered as a lengthy formal oration, but surviving versions are short. The most familiar version contains 272 words, although historians identify five contemporary manuscript copies with small wording differences. Lincoln’s opening reference to a “new birth of freedom” linked the war to the Declaration of Independence’s ideals.