Lincoln gave an impromptu pre-speech the night before the Address. The only two guests in the Wills House to get their own beds were Everett and the President.ģ. Even the governor of Pennsylvania had to share a bed. A prominent Adams County attorney David Wills had 38 lodgers staying at his home the night before the speeches - despite a very pregnant Mrs. The problem was Gettysburg was a town of only 2,500 people. Fifteen thousand people came to the town for the dedication, knowing it would be a momentous and historic occasion. and they wanted to be there for the dedication of the national cemetery for the Union war dead.
Everett later wrote to Lincoln that the President had accomplished in two minutes what it took him in two hours.Īfter so much grief and loss, people in the North felt a turning point had come with the Battle of Gettysburg. President Lincoln was only to make a few remarks.Įverett's speech gave a play-by-play of the Union exploits at Gettysburg and made allusions to Greek history, and lasted two hours. Over one-hundred fifty years ago today, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the "Gettysburg Address."Īt a scant 272 words, it has become Lincoln’s most famous speech and is one of American history’s best known as well.īut there’s a lot that isn’t commonly known about the context in which it was delivered, and our Civil War contributor Thomas Martin Sobottke offers these little-known facts.Įdward Everett was considered the greatest orator in the North, and was invited to be the keynote speaker for the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery.
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