Lincoln's Gettysburg address is clearly one of the finest examples of effective communication in history. Faced with a diverse audience, sensitive subject matter, and a gloomy setting the former president sent a powerful, understandable message to all that were present. The address was so powerful that scholars, politicians, and historians have revisited it for nearly 150 years. It will remain known as one of the most famous speeches in American history. In the following paragraphs I will analyze Lincoln's Gettysburg address paying particular attention to his audience and delivery, the setting, the address content to include verbiage and chronology, and how well the message was understood by his audience. .
Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Union General George C. Meade battled in and around Gettysburg. The battle ended on July 4, 1863. Both sides suffered heavy casualties totaling nearly 50,000, which were split almost equally between the North and South. The pain of the lost in the battle at Gettysburg was shared by the divided states. Pennsylvania governor Andrew Curtain tasked David Willis, a successful local citizen and judge with cleaning up the aftermath of the battle. Seventeen acres of the battlefield were acquired for the purpose of establishing a local cemetery for the soldiers who had lost their lives there. .
On November 2nd, 1863 Abraham Lincoln received an invitation from David Willis requesting his participation in the dedication ceremony for what would become known as the Soldiers" National Cemetery. It was requested that he make a personal appearance to share "a few appropriate remarks". According to Willis his personal representation would "kindle anew in the breasts of the Comrades of these brave dead, who are now in the tented field or nobly meeting the foe in the front" and to "let the dead know they are not forgotten by those of the highest authority.
