On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his “Gettysburg Address” at the dedication of the cemetery created to intern the dead from the bloodiest battle of America’s Civil War at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
More than 45,000 men were killed wounded or were missing after the three day battle fought on July1st, 2nd, and 3rd, earlier that same year. Lincoln was asked merely two weeks before the dedication to offer a few word to Consecrate” the ground. Legend has it the address was written on the back of an envelope during the train ride from Washington to Gettysburg. The address, just 272 words long has become one of the most famous speeches ever written.
Edward Everett, an orator of the day, spoke for nearly 2 hours before Lincoln. Lincoln’s address lasted between 2 and 3 minutes and has been immortalized as the single document most defining of equality for all men as being the reason the bloody conflict must continue.
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I love visiting Gettysburg. My grandmother has a cabin about 10 miles north of Gettysburg and I spent a lot of time there as a kid.
I love it there. We have been several times and will probably go back again.
always creeps me out. That place is REALLY haunted. What you expect with all that died there tho-.
Beautiful country there. I have not been able to get up there at all in the last few years...well, quite a number of years actually. The boys keep me so busy with baseball in the summer. Maybe I'll have some more time soon.
Yeah Wit..but I like the ghosts that go with it. They do have the very publicized ghosts tours...but one can find more "activity" on their own.
Lincoln actually passed about 3 miles west of Gunpowder Chronicle HQ on the Northern Central Railway. The Western Maryland Ry up through Westminster was still heavily damaged from the retreat of Lee's Army, so Lincoln was forced to go through Baltimore and change in York.
It would the first of two trips on the Northern Central... the second would be after his death on his way home to Illinois.
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