Edward Everett, perhaps the country's best know public speaker, had just sat down after delivering the main address on the program of the dedication of the new Soldiers' National Cemetery, a soaring speech of almost two hours. Then, following a hymn sung by a Baltimore choir, President Lincoln rose to give his "dedicatory remarks."  His two minute, roughly 272-word address took some time to enter history but enter history it did.  (By John Osborne)

Edward Everett, perhaps the country's best know public speaker, had arrived three days before in Gettysburg and stayed with David Wills as he toured the battlefields.  At around noon, after the invocation at the ceremony to dedicate the new Soldiers' Cemetery, he rose to give the main speech of the afternoon. He spoke for almost two hours telling the story of the war and its causes and of the massive confrontation around the small Pennsylvania town.  (By John Osborne)