The Gettysburg Address was Abraham Lincoln’s short 1863 speech at the dedication of a cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Lincoln delivered the speech on November 19, 1863, during the American Civil War. The ceremony dedicated the Soldiers’ National Cemetery on the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, one of the war’s largest and most important battles. Edward Everett, a renowned orator, gave the main address, while Lincoln delivered the brief concluding speech.
The address contains 272 words in the commonly accepted version. Lincoln connected the Civil War to the founding principle that all people are created equal and described the conflict as a test of whether a nation based on that principle could endure.
There are five known manuscript copies associated with Lincoln, and scholars identify them by the people who received them, including Nicolay and Hay. The speech is often confused with Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which was a wartime executive order issued on January 1, 1863, rather than a cemetery dedication speech.