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NARRATOR: Thursday, November 19, 1863, before an estimated 15,000 spectators, President Abraham Lincoln dedicates a new Soldier's National Cemetery at Gettysburg. In a few moments, he will deliver words that he hopes will guide the union through the war and start the process of healing.

MAN (VOICEOVER): Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

- Lincoln knew he had to raise the stakes of this thing or else they'd stop. He knew he had to raise the stakes morally, and that's what the Gettysburg Address is about.

MAN (VOICEOVER): That from these honored dead, we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.

- That short speech of 273 words became one of the most famous speeches in all of American history. Lincoln knew that we must prevail in this war if we are going to remain America.

MAN (VOICEOVER): That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. And that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.