Carin T. Ford - Lincolns Gettysburg Address and the Battle of Gettysburg Through Primary Sources

This Nation Shall Have a New Birth of Freedom

President Abraham Lincoln delivered these words in his Gettysburg Address, a speech commemorating the fallen soldiers at the Battle of Gettysburg. The three-day battle, the bloodiest ever fought on American soil, was the turning point of the Civil War. The Union claimed victory, and the Confederacy suffered heavy losses. But both sides had thousands of casualties. Author Carin T. Ford explores this pivotal battle in American history and the famous speech that memorialized it forever.

About the Author

Carin T. Ford has been writing professionally for more than twenty-five years, including many books for Enslow Publishers, Inc. In addition to writing, she teaches English and journalism at colleges in the Philadelphia area.

Joshua Chamberlain, leader of the 20th Maine Infantry, was charged with holding Little Round Top against the Confederate attack. The fighting was bloody, but his troops pushed the Confederates back. This photo shows four dead soldiers in the woods near Little Round Top.

Joshua Chamberlain did not know what to do. It was July 2, 1863the second day of fighting in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Chamberlain was leader of the 20th Maine Infantry in the Union army. He had been ordered to hold a hill called Little Round Top at all costs. He could not let the Confederates take control of it.

Chamberlain had fewer than 400 soldiers. Most of them were fishermen and lumberjacks. They had no experience in battle. But they were stubborn and willing to fight to the death. Five times the Confederates tried to push them off the hill. Five times they pushed the Confederates back.

The blood stood in puddles in some places on the rocks, said Confederate colonel William Oates.

The bodies of soldiers who had been killed or wounded lay everywhere. Chamberlain had lost a third of his men after an hour and a half of fighting. The rest of the soldiers had only a few bullets left for their guns. Chamberlains men could not give up the hill yet how could they stay and fight without bullets?

Suddenly he yelled, Bayonet! Each man quickly jammed a steel blade into the muzzle end of his gun. The Maine soldiers then charged wildly down the hill with their bayonets held highstraight at the terrified Southerners.

Chamberlains plan worked. The Confederates ran away like a herd of wild cattle, said Oates. The Union had held Little Round Top.

The Battle of Gettysburg lasted three days. It took place halfway through the Civil War. The war had started in April 1861. However, trouble had been brewing between the Northern and Southern states for many years. At the root of the problem was slavery. For 250 years, slaves had worked on Southern farms and plantations. Slaves planted and harvested the cotton that made money for the South.

* The North was also known as the Union, or the United States. The people there were often called Yankees.

* The South was called the Confederate States, or the Confederacy. During the war, Southerners were also called Rebels or Johnny Reb.

Slaves often worked fourteen hours a day in the hot fields. They were not paid. They were treated like property. Many were harshly beaten, and few had enough to eat.

The businesses and small farms of the North did not depend on slaves to do the work. Slavery had been abolishedor endedin the North years earlier. Many Northerners believed slavery was wrong.

Southerners did not want to get rid of slavery. They worried that President Lincoln, a Northerner, would try to end slavery throughout the United States. Southerners did not think the federal government had the right to tell each state what to do.

Beginning in December 1860, seven Southern states broke awayor secededfrom the rest of the country. They formed their own country, the Confederate States of America. They set up their own government. But President Lincoln was determined to keep the United States together.

Confederate soldiers fired on Union soldiers on April 12, 1861, at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Soon after, four more states joined the Confederacy. The Civil War began as a battle to bring these states back into the United States, or Union.

Many Northerners thought it would be a short war. They had more men and more guns. Yet during the first two years of fighting, the South won many victories over the Northern soldiers.

Part of the reason was Robert E. Lee. A polite man in his mid-fifties with a neat white beard, Lee was the chief general of the Confederate armies. He was an excellent military leader, and his men were devoted to him.

Robert E. Lee graduated with the second highest grades in his class at West Point Military Academy. In early 1861, President Lincoln asked Lee to take command of the Union army. It was a hard decision for Lee. He did not believe in slavery. He also did not think the South should have broken away from the rest of the nation. Still, he would not fight against his home state of Virginia.

If Virginia stands by the old Union, so will I, he said. But if she secedes then I will follow my native State with my sword, and if need be with my life.

Lee said no to President Lincoln. Instead, he joined the Confederate army.

General Robert E. Lee

By 1863, Lee was eager to invade the North. He came from Virginia, where there had been a lot of fighting.

Lee hoped to draw the fighting away from his war-torn state. Also, Confederate soldiers would be able to find badly-needed food and supplies in the North. Finally, Lee believed that most Northerners were getting tired of the war. He thought that if the South won a major victory in the North, Northerners might want to end the war and make peace with the Confederacy.

In June 1863, Lee led 75,000 men up to central Pennsylvania. General James E. B. Jeb Stuart rode ahead of Lee. Stuart led the cavalrythe soldiers on horseback. His job was to scout the area and find out exactly where the Union army was located. Stuart decided to ride around the entire Union army so he could give General Lee a full report.

The Union forces were led by General George G. Meade. Meade had just been made the Union commander a couple of days earlier. He had a quick temper and a sharp tongue. Soldiers did not always like Meade, but they respected him.

This birds-eye view of the battlefield at Gettysburg, drawn in 1863, shows the positions of the Union and Confederate armies during the battle.