Lincoln told the crowd that the nation would “have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” He stated that the Union had to remain dedicated to “to the great task remaining before us” with “increased devotion to that cause for which” the dead had given “the last full measure of devotion.” Drawing upon the biblical concepts of suffering, consecration, and resurrection, he described the war as a momentous chapter in the global struggle for self-government, liberty, and equality. Less than 275 words in length, Lincoln’s three-minute-long Gettysburg Address defined the meaning of the Civil War. President Lincoln had been invited to make a “few appropriate remarks” at the cemetery’s consecration. The main speaker was Edward Everett, a former US senator, governor of Massachusetts, and president of Harvard. At the cemetery dedication in November 1863, the day’s speakers found themselves tasked with finding the right words to commemorate those who had perished in the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. The battle had been a Union victory, but at great cost-about 23,000 Union casualties and 23,000 Confederate (a total of nearly 8,000 killed, 27,000 wounded, and 11,000 missing). On November 19, 1863, four months after the Battle of Gettysburg, a ceremony was held at the site in Pennsylvania to dedicate a cemetery for the Union dead.
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