Who delivered the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of Gettysburg National Cemetery?

Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of Gettysburg National Cemetery on November 19, 1863. His speech followed a longer oration by Edward Everett and lasted only a few minutes.

Lincoln’s address honored the soldiers who had fought and died at Gettysburg while connecting their sacrifice to the founding ideals of the United States. Its famous language about equality, liberty, and government shaped the way Americans remember the Civil War.

The cemetery dedication was not a Memorial Day ceremony, but it belongs to the same broader American tradition of honoring military dead. Memorial Day later developed from post-Civil War observances in which communities decorated soldiers’ graves with flowers and flags.

The Gettysburg Address is often associated with the phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Historians generally agree that Lincoln wrote several drafts, though the exact wording and delivery details have been studied extensively.