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dedicated, can long endure.

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    . . .
    we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation 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.

    November 28, 1863
    Tonight, the McCullys and Jane Ellen rode in the rain to our house. Mrs. McCully and Jane Ellen made a good meal of salt pork, yams, and biscuits.
    After dinner, Jed called us all into the parlor. He and Jane Ellen were holding hands. They announced that they are engaged to be married.
    Everyone was very happy. I think I was the happiest of all.
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    I am sitting on top of Cemetery Hill. A golden light bathes the freshly dug graves of those who died in the battle.
    Last night Reverend McCully said there has been praise throughout the land for President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
    He said that one magazine described the President's words best: They were from the heart to the heart.
    President Lincoln hopes that those who died this summer did not die in vain. He is praying that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people.
    He is praying that such a nation will never perish from the earth.
    I think God listens to President Lincoln.
    I think that people like President Lincoln,
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    Mrs. McCully, Mr. Hoke, Jane Ellen, Becky Lee, Captain Heath from the North Carolina mountains, Jed, and Pa will keep this nation from perishing from the earth.
    I also think that children like me, who believe that all people are created equal, will keep this nation from perishing from the earth.
    I might be bold to think that.
    But that is truly what I think.
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    Historical Note
    The Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865. It is also called the "War Between the States," for the Northern and Southern states were at war with each other.
    At the time of the Civil War there were many differences between the North and the South. The North had a more modern way of life. Many people lived in cities. Their economy was based on trade. The South had a rural way of life. They depended upon large plantations to grow sugar, cotton, and tobacco. Black slaves from Africa worked on these plantations.
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    Slaves work on a plantation in South Carolina in 1862.

    The North had outlawed slavery. But Southerners thought their plantations couldn't exist without slaves. They wanted to make their own laws. So they decided to leave the "union" of the North and South. They formed the Confederate States of America. This led to the Civil War.
    When the war had been going on for more than two years, General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate army, led his men into Pennsylvania. He thought a victory in the North would be an important step to winning the war.

    General Ri
    J\
    m
    / /.. .
    m his famous horse, Traveler.

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    General Lee did not know that huge numbers of Union soldiers were also heading into Pennsylvania.
    On July 1, almost 165,000 soldiers clashed in battle in the small farming town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle lasted three days. It was the largest artillery battle ever fought on this continent.

    Battle of Gettysburg
    --
    Charge of the Confederates on Cemetery Hill,Thursday Night, July 2,
    1863.

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    A
    young soldier who fought in the Civil War.

    The Union army won the battle. But the armies of both the North and the South suffered terrible losses in America's bloodiest war: A total of over 50,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing.
    The brave people of Gettysburg had no idea that they would ever find themselves in the midst of such a nightmare. When the battle was over, they were forced to bury all the dead and care for the wounded.

    Union soldier Sergeant Amos Humiston

    died in the war. This photo of his children
    was found in his pocket.

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    More
    than
    3
    ,000 women worked as nurses during the Civil War.

    Before the war, only men had been nurses. Here, a female nurse tends
    to the