Date | November 19, 1863 |
---|---|
Time | ~3 PM |
Venue | Cemetery Hill, Gettysburg National Cemetery |
Location | Gettysburg, Adams Co, Pennsylvania |
Coordinates | 39°49′11″N77°13′52″W / 39.819767°N 77.231217°W [2] |
Type | Ceremony |
Participants | ~15,000 |
The Consecration of the Soldiers' National Cemetery [3] [4] was the ceremony at which U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863. In addition to the 15,000 spectators, attendees included six state governors: Andrew Gregg Curtin of Pennsylvania, Augustus Bradford of Maryland, Oliver P. Morton of Indiana, Horatio Seymour of New York, Joel Parker of New Jersey, and David Tod of Ohio. [5] Reporters present included Joseph Gilbert (Associated Press), Charles Hale (Boston Advertiser), [6] : 14 John Russell Young ( Philadelphia Press ); and Cincinnati Commercial, [6] : 13 New York Tribune, & The New York Times reporters. [6] : 15
Following the Battle of Gettysburg, an Evergreen Cemetery Association plan to create a soldiers annex requiring fee payments for interments (e.g., by families) was replaced by a plan by local attorney David Wills for a cemetery funded by the states. The Pennsylvania governor designated Wills the commonwealth's agent, who was authorized to purchase 17 acres (6.9 ha) for a cemetery, paying $2,475.87 for the land ($61,270 as of 2024). [8] Wills' September 23 invitation [9] : 183 to the renowned statesman Edward Everett requested an oration on Wednesday, October 23; [10] but Everett needed more time to prepare his speech, which would feature fine details of the battle culled from Everett's personal interviews with those involved. Wills rescheduled the ceremony to Thursday, November 19 to accommodate Everett's needs. [11] On November 2, Lincoln received formal notice[ clarification needed ] of Wills' invitation to participate. [12]
On October 27 from the Presbyterian graveyard on North Washington street (now defunct), the 1st of 3,512 Union Army bodies [9] : 161 was moved to the new cemetery. [13] By November 19, a speaker's platform had been constructed, and "1258 had been reburied in the semicircular cemetery". [14]
On November 18 at 6:00 p.m., Abraham Lincoln and party (including his guest, Canadian politician William McDougall [15] ) arrived at the Gettysburg Railroad Station. [16] Lincoln walked around the depot[ citation needed ] and uphill to the town square to spend the night in the Wills' house, [17] [ failed verification ] where a crowd gathered in the adjacent town square and was addressed by Secretary of State William H. Seward (Everett got to bed about 11 p.m.). [18] After Wills met with Lincoln about the ceremony c. 9:30; Lincoln's door guard, 1st Sgt Hugh Paxton Bigham of Company B (21st PA Cav.), provided a telegram to Lincoln that his son had improved—after which he asked his guard "at about 11 p.m." to take him to Seward. [19] : 3 While meeting with Seward at the adjacent Robert Goodloe Harper house "around the corner", Lincoln was serenaded by the Baltimore Glee Club (National Union Musical Association) with We Are Coming, Father Abra'am (Bigham later "pushed" a return path through the crowd for Lincoln). [19] : 5 Also posted through the night was a second military guard for Lincoln at the street-level door, Paxton's brother Rush Bigham. [19] : 15
On November 19 c. 9 a.m. when his secretary went to Lincoln's room, "Mr. Nicolay…found him at work upon the address which he was to deliver. He continued to write, so far as the many interruptions gave him opportunity, up to the time it was necessary for him to take his place in the procession". [20] : 52 At 9:30 a.m., Lincoln on a chestnut bay horse [21] joined the procession to the cemetery with other dignitaries, townspeople, and widows. [4] "We passed along Baltimore Street to the Emmittsburg Road, minute guns being fired, then by way of the Taneytown Road to the cemetery, where the military formed in line to salute the President at about eleven o'clock." [22] : 11
Scheduled events for the ceremony included: [7] : 35
The program ended c. 4 p.m. [5] and, after attending most of a subsequent service at the Presbyterian church with War of 1812 and Battle of Gettysburg veteran John L. Burns, [19] Lincoln departed via the Gettysburg Railroad c. 6 p.m. [27]
Following the ceremony, telegraphy regarding the program included at least three transmissions of Lincoln's address [28] (the New York Times report the next day included both Lincoln's address and the entire Everett Oration.) [5]
Wills requested a copy of Everett's oration via a December 14 letter, and Everett provided a copy with footnotes (e.g., describing the maps he used while composing). [9] : 186 In 1864, Everett published his book regarding the consecration; and an 1867 record of the consecration ceremony was published with the associated correspondence. [9]
Erected by the Gettysburg National Military Park (G.N.M.P.), a permanent historical marker within the Gettysburg National Cemetery states, "The speakers' platform was located in Evergreen Cemetery to your left." [29] The National Park Service's National Cemetery Walking Tour brochure concurs with the permanent marker:
The Soldiers' National Monument, long misidentified as the spot from which Lincoln spoke, honors the fallen soldiers. ... It was actually on the crown of this hill, a short distance on the other side of the iron fence and inside the Evergreen Cemetery, where President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address to a crowd of some 15,000 people. [30]
As recently as January 23, 2004, a multiple property submission by the GNMP extended the long history of misidentification by stating, the Soldiers' National Monument "Sits on site of speaker's platform where Gettysburg Address was orated." [31] Photographic analyses by Garry Wills [32] and William A. Frassanito, [33] completed in 1992 and 1995 respectively, conclusively place the location on the Evergreen Cemetery side of the dividing fence.
The Gettysburg Address is a speech that U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered during the American Civil War at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, now known as Gettysburg National Cemetery, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on the afternoon of November 19, 1863, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated Confederate forces in the Battle of Gettysburg, the Civil War's deadliest battle. The speech is widely considered one of the most notable and famous delivered in American history.
Gettysburg is a borough in Pennsylvania and the county seat of Adams County, Pennsylvania, the United States. As of the 2020 census, the borough had a population of 7,106 people.
Gettysburg National Cemetery is a United States national cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, created for Union casualties from the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg, which was fought between July 1 to 3, 1863, resulted in the largest number of casualties of any Civil War battle but also was considered the war's turning point, leading ultimately to the Union victory.
The Gettysburg Battlefield is the area of the July 1–3, 1863, military engagements of the Battle of Gettysburg in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Locations of military engagements extend from the 4-acre (1.6 ha) site of the first shot at Knoxlyn Ridge on the west of the borough, to East Cavalry Field on the east. A military engagement prior to the battle was conducted at the Gettysburg Railroad trestle over Rock Creek, which was burned on June 27.
Andrew Gregg Curtin was an American lawyer and politician. He served as the 15th governor of Pennsylvania during the American Civil War, helped defend his state during the Gettysburg Campaign, and oversaw the creation of the National Cemetery and the ceremony in which Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address.
Alexander Gardner was a Scottish photographer who immigrated to the United States in 1856, where he began to work full-time in that profession. He is best known for his photographs of the American Civil War, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, and of the conspirators and the execution of the participants in the Lincoln assassination plot.
The Gettysburg National Military Park protects and interprets the landscape of the Battle of Gettysburg, fought over three days between July 1 and July 3, 1863, during the American Civil War. Located in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the park is managed by the National Park Service.
"Pericles's Funeral Oration" is a famous speech from Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War. The speech was supposed to have been delivered by Pericles, an eminent Athenian politician, at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War as a part of the annual public funeral for the war dead.
David McConaughy was a noted attorney, state senator, cemetery president, and civic leader in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and a part-time intelligence officer for the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was a driving force behind the creation of the Gettysburg National Cemetery following the Battle of Gettysburg. He also led early efforts to preserve the Gettysburg Battlefield for future generations.
Evergreen Cemetery – formerly called Citizen's Cemetery and Ever Green Cemetery – is a historic 29.12 acre rural cemetery located just outside Gettysburg Borough, in Cumberland Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of Gettysburg Battlefield Historic District, and is surrounded by Gettysburg National Military Park and Soldiers' National Cemetery.
John Lawrence Burns was an American soldier and constable. A veteran of the War of 1812, at age 69 he fought as a civilian combatant with the Union Army at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. He was wounded, but survived to become a national celebrity.
The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission (ALBC) was the congressionally created, 14-member federal commission focused on planning and commemorating the 200th birthday of the United States' 16th president on February 12, 2009. The commission served for ten years, from 2000 to 2010. Its official successor organization, announced in 2011 with an expanded board and broadened mission, is the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation.
David Wills was the principal figure in the establishment of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. As a result of his efforts, the Gettysburg Address was given by Abraham Lincoln. Wills was Lincoln's host while in Gettysburg, and the Gettysburg Address was completed in the large upstairs bedroom occupied by the President during his brief stay in the town.
Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America was written by Garry Wills, who was an adjunct professor of history at Northwestern University at the time that his book was published. The book, which became a best-seller during the 1990s, argued that Lincoln's 272-word address, which was delivered during the dedication of the new national cemetery at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863, was so powerful that it reshaped the United States by altering Americans' view of both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
The Gettysburg Lincoln Railroad Station, also known as the "Gettysburg Train Station," "Lincoln Train Station" or "Western Maryland Railroad Station," is a historic train station with depot, platform, museum and offices on Carlisle Street in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Operable from 1858 to 1942, it contributes to the Gettysburg Battlefield Historic District and is most notable as President Abraham Lincoln's point of arrival on November 18, 1863 and departure, following delivery of the Gettysburg Address. The station served as both a hospital during the battle and hub for outgoing wounded soldiers and incoming resources and supplies following the end of the war. On 2015, following several years of delays, the station, which was originally owned by the Borough of Gettysburg but was bought by the Gettysburg Foundation, the non-profit partner to the National Park Service, was placed under the purview of the National Park Service.
The Soldiers' National Monument is a Gettysburg Battlefield memorial which is located at the central point of Gettysburg National Cemetery. It honors the battle's soldiers and tells an allegory of "peace and plenty under freedom … following a heroic struggle." In addition to an inscription with the last 4 lines of the Gettysburg Address, the shaft with 4 buttresses has 5 statues:
A large statue representing the concept of Liberty surmounts the pedestal. Eighteen large bronze stars circling the pedestal below this statue represent the eighteen Union states with buried dead. A statue is located at each corner near the base. They represent War, History, Peace, and Plenty. War is represented by a statue of an American soldier who recounts the story of the battle to History. In turn, History records, with stylus and tablet, the achievements of the battle and the names of the honored dead. A statue of an American mechanic and his tools illustrates Peace. Plenty is a female figure with a sheaf of wheat and the fruits of the earth that typify peace and abundance as the soldier's crowning triumph.
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The Gettysburg Rostrum is a Gettysburg Battlefield venue for historical commemorations which have included addresses by US Presidents Theodore Roosevelt (1904), William Howard Taft, Calvin Coolidge (1928), Herbert Hoover (1930), and Franklin D. Roosevelt (1934). The facility has been most often used during Decoration Day (May) and Dedication Day (November) ceremonies, but has been used for other events such as the Pennsylvania Days commemoration during Camp Samuel Harper in September 1889. Identified in 1908 as the location of the Gettysburg Address, the Rostrum and Soldiers' National Monument are each rejected by the NPS's modern Cemetery Walking Tour brochure. The brick pavilion was constructed in 1879 by P. J. and J. J. Tawney, temporarily extended in 1904, and is planned for restoration by 2013.
Everett School, also known as Davis Addition School, is a historic building located in Sioux City, Iowa, United States. Davis Addition School opened in 1888. It was named for the subdivision in which it was located. The original section of the building is composed of four rooms, and it cost $12,500 to build. It was renamed "Everett" in February of the following year, possibly after Edward Everett, the United States Senator from Massachusetts who gave the main speech at the Gettysburg National Cemetery dedication, the day that Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. The gymnasium and additional classroom space was added in 1917. The auditorium was added in 1940, and the building has been modernized over the years. Both Everett and Smith Elementary schools were closed in 2011, with their students going to the new Liberty Elementary School. Arch Icon Development of Woodbine, Iowa acquired the building and is in the process of converting it into apartments. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.
Lincoln in the White House is a 1939 American biographical short or historical "special" about United States President Abraham Lincoln, highlighting events during his first term of office, from his inaugural speech in 1861 to his delivery of the Gettysburg Address in 1863. Produced by Warner Bros. and directed by William C. McGann, the 21-minute Technicolor film stars Frank McGlynn Sr., a veteran actor who since 1915 had specialized in impersonating Lincoln on both stage and screen.
'… of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.' – Lincoln. November 13th[ sic ], 1863.NOTE: The webpage's photo shows the inscribed date is the correct "19th", not the webpage's "13th".
The assemblage was of great magnitude, and was gathered within a circle of great extent around the stand, which was located on the highest point of ground on which the battle was fought.(pdf version). p. 2: [Everett] Address; Delivered at Gettysburgh on the Nineteenth of November at the Consecration of the Cemetery
found him at work.
I happened to have bought a New York Herald before leaving and, observing that Mr. Lincoln was without a paper, offered it to him.: 9 … "Mr. Seward and Mr. Blair rode upon his right and Judge Usher and General Lamon on his left.": 11