A Major Event in My Career

During my time as President, our country was in the middle of a Civil War. The Union did a great job in the war even though we lost 360,000 good men. I had never wanted anything like this to happen. I have always been completely against slavery and I knew that this had upset people. But I had never hoped for a Civil War to break out.

July of 1863, General Robert E. Lee's Army Of Northern Virginia of 75,000 men and the 97,000 man Union Army Of The Potomac under the leadership of General George G. Meade met, by accident, when the Confederate army sent a brigade for supplies and happened to see a forward column of General Meade's calvary.

Out of more than the 2,000 land encounters during the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg is still considered to be the greatest battle of them all. Even though it did not end the war nor gain any war advantage for either the Union or the Confederacy, it is still a great battle (http://americancivilwar.com/).

At this battle site I gave the Gettysburg address. Probably the most famous line in the entire speech is the

opening line "Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, concieved

in Liberty, and dedicated to the propisition that all men are created equal" (http://americancivilwar.com/).

Mark Hendrick