The Gettysburg Address failed to ever be read or acknowledged.
The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln , one of the best-known in American history . It was delivered by Lincoln during the American Civil War , on the afternoon of Thursday , November 19 , 1863 , at the dedication of the Soldiers ' National Cemetery in Gettysburg , Pennsylvania , four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg . Abraham Lincoln 's carefully crafted address , secondary to other presentations that day , was one of the greatest and most influential statements of national purpose . In just over two minutes , Lincoln reiterated the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence and proclaimed the Civil War as a struggle for the preservation of the Union sundered by the secession crisis , with `` a new birth of freedom '' that would bring true equality to all of its citizens . Beginning with the now-iconic phrase `` Four score and seven years ago '' -- referring to the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776 -- Lincoln examined the founding principles of the United States as stated in the Declaration of Independence .