Class Year
2015
Document Type
Blog Post
Publication Date
11-21-2013
Department 1
Civil War Institute
Abstract
November 19, 2013, marked a momentous day in the small Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg – the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The 272 worded speech given four months after the Battle of Gettysburg assigned meaning to the intense fighting and death that had besieged the nation for two years. With the war’s end nowhere in sight, Lincoln directed the American people on how to fathom the tragedy that surrounded them, both figuratively and literally, at the dedication of the National Cemetery in 1863. 150 years after this speech, thousands gathered to celebrate and commemorate those few appropriate remarks Lincoln made at a time when the nation’s future was tragically uncertain. [excerpt]
Copyright Note
This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
Recommended Citation
Kirk, Brianna E., "Ambivalent about Tragedy: David Blight on Bruce Catton" (2013). The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History. 5.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/compiler/5
Included in
Cultural History Commons, Military History Commons, Social History Commons, United States History Commons
Comments
This blog post originally appeared in The Gettysburg Compiler and was created by students at Gettysburg College.