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American Civil War Literary Analysis

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“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” -Abraham Lincoln. The American Civil War, which occurred between 1861 and 1865, pit brother against brother in a fight for freedom: both slaves and Confederates. Southern agricultural states seceded from the industrialized Union in the North. War raged on for years, many Americans dying as a result. The Confederacy was choked out on May 10, 1865 when Jefferson Davis surrendered to the Union (Valentine). The Civil War’s depressing situation and loss of loved ones impacted American Literature through the tonal shift to realism.
Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809 in a log cabin in Hodgenville, Kentucky. When Abraham was two, he moved to Knob Creek. The young Lincoln would trek two miles to …show more content…

The main ideas are that the sacrifice of the soldiers should never be forgotten, they cannot make the ground more sacred than the troops by serving in the battle, and they are responsible for making their deaths meaningful. Themes from this work are the cost of freedom, accepting casualties from the war, and hope for the future (Henderson 2006). Important quotes from President Lincoln’s address are “The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” and “We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.”. These statements bring humanity to Lincoln’s message and hope for the audience. At the ceremony in which the Gettysburg Address was delivered, former Secretary of State Edward Everett was the focal point of the event. His two-hour-long 13,609- word harangue dwarfs Lincoln’s 272-word three minute address. When Lincoln concluded his speech and say down, many in the audience had not realized he was done speaking. He was respected for his conciseness, yet criticized for it as well. Critics thought it was in bad taste and disrespectful to the dead to be so brief (Henderson

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