November 19, 1863

Gettysburg Address

Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the cemetery dedication

Lincoln was asked only for “a few appropriate remarks.” The ceremony's star attraction spoke for more than two hours first.

The procession from the Wills house

Dignitaries gathered outside David Wills's Gettysburg home by 10 a.m. on 19 November 1863 and processed to the new Soldiers' National Cemetery for its dedication. Lincoln wore white gauntlets and mourning crepe on his hat for his dead son Willie.

Edward Everett, the principal orator, delivered the ceremony's planned historical oration for more than two hours. After a funeral dirge, Lincoln rose to give the shorter presidential remarks Wills had requested.

About two minutes

Lincoln spoke for roughly two minutes — one National Park Service account estimates three. He invoked the Declaration of Independence's principles of liberty and equality, honored the dead, and charged the living to complete their “unfinished work” and secure a “new birth of freedom.”

The familiar story of a baffled, silent crowd does not survive the transcriptions. Newspaper accounts recorded several bursts of applause, including prolonged applause at the end.

A cemetery still filling

The cemetery, laid out by William Saunders on 17 acres initially purchased, was officially dedicated that day — while workers were still moving Union bodies out of temporary battlefield graves.

Lincoln attended another address that afternoon and left Gettysburg by special train at about 7 p.m. Newspapers printed his words almost immediately and reactions divided largely along partisan lines; Everett sent Lincoln a strongly complimentary letter the next day.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 8 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

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What the sources leave uncertain

Lincoln left five known manuscript versions, and scholars are not certain which text he read or exactly what he said. Consequently, definitive claims of 271 or 272 words depend on the version and counting method.
Contemporary and institutional estimates differ on both crowd size and duration. Approximately 15,000 and about two minutes are common estimates, not stopwatch-and-ticket-count certainties.
Lincoln developed a mild smallpox-like illness, then called varioloid, after the trip. Claims that he was already dizzy or visibly feverish while delivering the address are retrospective medical interpretations rather than securely documented observations.