WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne will join representatives of the Lincoln Fellowship of Pennsylvania, the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College and the Gettysburg National Military Park on November 19, 2007 at the Soldiers’ National Cemetery to commemorate the 144th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s delivery of the Gettysburg Address.
On November 19, 1863, four months following the Battle of Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln and other dignitaries gathered to dedicate a portion of the battlefield as the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. The cemetery was created to inter the fallen soldiers of the Union Army and to commemorate their cause.
The dedication ceremony featured orator Edward Everett and included solemn prayers, songs and dirges to honor the men who died at Gettysburg. Yet, it was President Abraham Lincoln who provided the most notable words in his two-minute long address, eulogizing the Union soldiers buried at Gettysburg and reminding those in attendance of their sacrifice for the Union cause, that they should renew their devotion "to the cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion."
| Who: | Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne |
| What: | Commemoration of the Dedication of Soldiers’ National Cemetery and the 144th Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address |
| When: | Monday, November 19, 2007
10:15 a.m. wreath laying ceremony at the Soldiers’ National Monument precedes the Dedication Day Ceremony at the Rostrum |
| Where: | Soldiers’ National Cemetery Gettysburg National Military Park Gettysburg, PA |
| Media: | All credentialed media are invited to attend and photograph the event. |