Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States in 1863. The Civil War broke out almost immediately after he took office in 1860. Three years later, the fighting was getting bloodier and bloodier with no end in sight. Gettysburg was the worst battle of the war in terms of casualties - both sides lost over 20,000 men. But in that same year, another 36,500 died at Chickamauga, and still another 30,000 at Chancellorsville. In November 1863, Lincoln was under tremendous pressure to win the war. He had recently signed the Emancipation Proclamation, an act that made him even more hated in the South. Lincoln was the sixteenth president and considered one of the greatest. He spoke for about two minutes at the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery on November 19, 1863.

Edward Everett

Edward Everett held a chair in Greek studies at Harvard University in 1863 and later became president of that university. An ordained Unitarian...