1. And the Gettysburg Address

2.  In 1863, after Robert E. Lee’s big victory in Chancellorsville, VA, he decides to take another shot at a Northern invasion.  Lee thought a successful invasion North would yield him supplies, gain the Confederacy recognition as a country from Britain and France, and possibly win the war for the South by making Northerners want to quit.  This would be his second attempt at a northern invasion, the last one failed at Antietam

3. TThe Battle of Gettysburg, fought from July 1 to July 3, 1863, is considered the most important battle of the American Civil War. UUnion: 93,000 troops Confederacy: 71,000 OOn July 1, the Confederates clashed with the Union’s Army, commanded by General George G. Meade, at Gettysburg. TThe next day saw even heavier fighting, as the Confederates attacked the Federals on both left and right flanks. OOn July 3, Lee ordered an attack by fewer than 15,000 troops on the enemy’s center at Cemetery Ridge. The assault, known as “Pickett’s Charge,” eventually failed, at the cost of thousands of rebel casualties, and Lee was forced to withdraw his battered army toward Virginia on July 4 IIn total, both sides suffered about 46,000 casualties

4.  The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, one of the best-known in American history. It was delivered by Lincoln on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  In just over two minutes, Lincoln restated the principles of human equality as written by the Declaration of Independence and proclaimed the Civil War as a struggle for the preservation of the Union, which would bring "a new birth of freedom”, that would bring true equality to all of its citizens.