Gettysburg

Locate Gettysburg and explain the 1863 turning point, and Lincoln's address.

Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.

What children learn in Level 66

At first, Lincoln fought to save the Union. But enslaved people were escaping to Union lines, and Douglass and others pressed him. On January 1, 1863, his Emancipation Proclamation declared people in Confederate areas free.
The war now had a new goal: freedom. And Black men could join the Union army. About 180,000 did, including the famous 54th Massachusetts.
In the summer of 1863, Lee marched north, hoping a big win would break the Union's will to fight. The armies met at Gettysburg, a small town in Pennsylvania.
For three days in July, they fought. About 50,000 soldiers were killed, hurt, or missing. Lee's army retreated, and it never invaded the North again. It was the turning point.
That November, Lincoln gave a two-minute speech at the new cemetery. He said the country needed a new birth of freedom, so that government of the people, by the people, for the people, would not perish from the earth.

Georgia Standards of Excellence in Social Studies:

SS4H5.c — Identify major battles, campaigns, and events: Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, the Atlanta Campaign, Sherman's March to the Sea, and Appomattox Court House.
SS4G1.b — Locate major man-made features of the United States: New York City, NY; Boston, MA; Philadelphia, PA; Washington, D.C.; Gettysburg, PA; and the Erie Canal.