Soldiers' National Cemetery

The cemetery where President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on 19 November 1863. More than 3,500 Union soldiers killed in the battle are interred here in concentric semicircular plots arranged by state. A small marker on the slope above the cemetery — the David Wills "Soldiers' National Monument" — sits roughly where Lincoln stood.

Walking the cemetery is a quiet, sobering hour. The visitor centre across the road can supply context. Open dawn to dusk.

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A story
Lincoln spoke for just over two minutes — 272 words. The featured speaker that afternoon, Edward Everett, had spoken for two hours before him. Everett wrote to Lincoln the next day: 'I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.'

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