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The Civil War
(1861-1865)



Gettysburg Address


Gettysburg Address
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   high interest, readability grades 3 to 5
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.16

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    failure, rededicated, cases, accent, original, shocked, impressed, president, working, speaker, battlefield, draft, pennsylvania, bury, battle, speech
     content words:    President Abraham Lincoln, Edward Everett, After Everett, Gettysburg Address, Alexander Bliss, Civil War


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Gettysburg Address
By Cathy Pearl
  

1     It was November 19, 1863. President Abraham Lincoln stood in Gettysburg. It was about four months after the North had won a battle there. He was there to dedicate a new cemetery. He only spoke for two minutes. His speech is still famous today.
 
2     The battle left many people dead. There were more than seven thousand bodies on the battlefield. The town wanted to bury these dead quickly and honorably. Pennsylvania bought land near where the battle was. This land would be a cemetery.
 
3     The main speaker that day was Edward Everett. At the time, he was considered to be one of the best public speakers in the country. Almost as an afterthought, Lincoln was also invited to speak that day. He would not be the main speaker.
 
4     About fifteen thousand people are thought to have come that day. There were also governors from six different states. The cemetery was not ready yet. The town was still working to rebury men from the battle into it.

Paragraphs 5 to 15:
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