Photograph of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States, and is famous for many things. When we think of Lincoln, we think of Honest Abe from the log cabin, the man who freed the slaves, the man who died after being shot in the Ford Theater. President Lincoln guided the Union through the Civil War and then died less than a week after Robert E. Lee surrendered.

A Rare Photograph of Abraham Lincoln Delivering the Gettysburg Address

Here are some quick facts about Abraham Lincoln:

-Born February 12th, 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky.

-Shot April 14th, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth at the Ford Theater, during a production of Our American Cousin. He died the next day after slipping into a coma.

-John Wilkes Booth was tracked down by the US Army and killed April 26th, 1865.

-President Lincoln was married to Mary Todd on November 4th, 1842. They had four sons together, 3 of whom died tragically young. Only one son, Robert Todd Lincoln, survived his infancy.

Abraham Lincoln was elected twice to the Presidency, in 1860 and 1864. His path to the Presidency began in 1846, when he was elected to the House of Representatives. He served only one term, before returning to his law practice. He remained active politically, running for the Senate in 1854. He was defeated then, and again when he ran in 1858. At the Republican National Convention in Chicago, he secured the Presidential nomination on May 18th 1860.

His presidential terms covered the entirety of the bloody Civil War. The Civil War began April 12th, 1861 and continued until April 9th, 1865, when the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered. It was during the Civil War that President Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation was announced on September 22nd, 1862 and put into effect on January 1st, 1863. This proclamation freed all slaves in territories not already under Union control and abolished slavery in the United States of America.

The most famous battle of the Civil War is the Battle of Gettysburg, which lead to the historic Gettysburg address, Abraham Lincoln's most famous speech. The Battle of Gettysburg spanned just three days, July 1st-July 3rd of 1863. Those three days of fighting alone resulted in over 46,000 American casualties. This bloody site was turned into Soldiers' National Cemetery (in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), where President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address on November 19th, 1863. The Gettysburg Address was meant to help boost waning support for the war effort, to help rally America to finish what it had started. It was a short speech, taking just over two minutes for the 272 words. And it included one of the most quoted passages of all time, declaring that”...government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".

Abraham Lincoln's life was full of struggle and bloodshed and heavily marked by tragedy. In the face of adversity, he persevered to become one of the most famous of all American Presidents.

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