The Gettysburg Campaign

Book excerpt: "The Battle of Gettysburg attained a special aura that has distinguished it ever since. Boston journalist Charles Carleton Coffin dubbed it "the high water mark" of the rebellion, while others described it as the "turning point of the war." But it was President Lincoln who most eloquently expressed Gettysburg's significance. On 19 November 1863, Lincoln delivered "a few appropriate remarks" at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery that became known as the Gettysburg Address: "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." --p. 61.