Prior to the speech Lincoln delivered, the Gettysburg Address, America was in the midst of a bloody Civil War. Four months before, the Union had just defeated the Confederate soldiers at the Battle of Gettysburg ,which is also known as the turning point of the war. This speech was given at the end of the ceremony dedicating the Battlefield Cemetery to the fallen soldiers. Although this speech was intended for the fallen soldiers, it actually gave the rest of the Union soldiers the push to continue to fight. In the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln stated, “ Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” In this quote Lincoln is stating that the principles on which
