Day 6 - Vicksburg, rebirth of a nation
The Battle of Gettysburg is probably the most famous battle during the American Civil War. In Gettysburg,
located in the state of Pennsylvania, the Southern General Robert E. Lee lost
the greatest battle of the Civil War on July 3, 1863. But the battle is perhaps
best known for the poetic words that Abraham Lincoln uttered at the
inauguration of the graveyard in Gettysburg for the fallen soldiers during the
battle. It was a short speech, but a haunting summary of the Civil War.
We have been created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, that means that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are on a great battlefield or that war. We have come to live with their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave one, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far from our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but we can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated to the unfinished work which they have fought here, so far nobly advanced. It is rather important that we do not have any responsibility for that, but that is the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolute that the dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall be a new birth of freedom, and that of the people, by the people, shall not be perishable from the earth.
One day after Gettysburg, on July 4, the Confederation also lost the Battle of Vicksburg in Mississippi. Ulysses S. Grant, the later president of the United States, managed to cross the Mississippi with his northern army and met up with the southern troops in Vicksburg. Without supplies, the southern troopes lasted fnly or another 14 days.
Both these battles were the turning point in the Civil War and decided the outcome definitively in favor of the North.
In Vicksburg, the battlefield became a timeless reminder of the events of the 1800s. There are plenty of statues and other memorials, and a giant crater of 33 meters created by a gunpowder explosion by the North. They provide a tangible reminder of the horror that took place here.
618,000 dead later, the South finally surrendered in June 1865. The Confederation no longer existed, the country became one again. The United States of America were really born.
We have been created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, that means that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are on a great battlefield or that war. We have come to live with their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave one, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far from our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but we can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated to the unfinished work which they have fought here, so far nobly advanced. It is rather important that we do not have any responsibility for that, but that is the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolute that the dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall be a new birth of freedom, and that of the people, by the people, shall not be perishable from the earth.
One day after Gettysburg, on July 4, the Confederation also lost the Battle of Vicksburg in Mississippi. Ulysses S. Grant, the later president of the United States, managed to cross the Mississippi with his northern army and met up with the southern troops in Vicksburg. Without supplies, the southern troopes lasted fnly or another 14 days.
Both these battles were the turning point in the Civil War and decided the outcome definitively in favor of the North.
In Vicksburg, the battlefield became a timeless reminder of the events of the 1800s. There are plenty of statues and other memorials, and a giant crater of 33 meters created by a gunpowder explosion by the North. They provide a tangible reminder of the horror that took place here.
618,000 dead later, the South finally surrendered in June 1865. The Confederation no longer existed, the country became one again. The United States of America were really born.
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