Two famous events at Gettysburg are:
• The Battle of Gettysburg
• The Gettysburg Address
The Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, in the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. The battle involved the largest number of killed and wounded soldiers in the war and is often described as the war's turning point.
The North defeated the South and ended the Confederacy’s attempt to invade the North.
The “high-water mark of the Confederacy” refers to a Gettysburg Battlefield area called The Angle which was the farthest the Rebels got into the Union Army’s defensive line on July 3 -- the final day of the battle. The term refers to the South’s best chance of winning the war. The assault known as Pickett's Charge resulted in heavy losses for the Rebels. Many were killed and wounded. General Robert E. Lee, head of the southern troops, rode out to meet his retreating army and said "All this has been my fault."
Union Major Gen. George Meade's led the northern army.
The Battle of Gettysburg is famous for being the bloodiest battle in the Civil War. Both sides suffered heavy losses of human and animal life.
The victorious army itself lost 23,049 out of a total beginning strength of approximately 85,000-88,000. Of these; 3,155 soldiers were found dead, 14,529 were hurt and 5,363 soldiers were missing. The Confederate Army also suffered heavy losses: 3,903 dead soldiers, 18,735 wounded men and 5,425 missing. The total loss of life on both sides was estimated as 51,116. However, there was only one civilian by the name of Ginnie Wade, who died due to the war. She was baking bread for the Union soldiers when she was shot and killed in her sister's home. (See Famous Gettysburg Natives for more on Wade.)
Sources:
http://www.historyrocket.com/American-History/timeline/1850-1899/battle-of-gettysburg/How-Many-People-Died-In-The-Battle-Of-Gettysburg.html
The Battle of Gettysburg, Hartwig, D. Scott; published by Kappa Publishing 2014
Pamphlet: Gettysburg published by the National Park Service
http://rovinghistorian.blogspot.com/2011/10/high-water-mark-of-confederacy.html
The Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address is a speech by Abraham Lincoln and is one of the most famous speeches in American history. It was given by Lincoln on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, four months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy.
15,000 people were there at the dedication on November 19, 1863. Although many had traveled great distances to see the President speak that day, most of the crowd was made up of residents of the town and nearby villages.
Here is the full text:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
-- Abraham Lincoln -- Nov. 19, 1863
Why the Speech Is Important
The speech is important because it is saying that soldiers’ who died gave their lives so that all men could be equal. Lincoln calls it a “new birth of freedom.” This means that all people – including slaves – would be free. Lincoln is asking the audience to continue the work of making people free that the soldiers died for and remind people of what America is all about that: "... government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Sources:
http://www.bluegraymagazine.com/gettysburg08/gettysburg081.html
http://www.gettysburg.com/bog/address.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address
The speech is important because it is saying that soldiers’ who died gave their lives so that all men could be equal. Lincoln calls it a “new birth of freedom.” This means that all people – including slaves – would be free. Lincoln is asking the audience to continue the work of making people free that the soldiers died for and remind people of what America is all about that: "... government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Sources:
http://www.bluegraymagazine.com/gettysburg08/gettysburg081.html
http://www.gettysburg.com/bog/address.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address