Tomorrow will mark the 150^th anniversary of arguably, the greatest speech ever delivered by an American president but, there are things you may not realize about the Gettysburg Address.

To fully understand the monumental moment in American history, one must first stand back just far enough to see more of the picture.

The Battle Itself.

Gettysburg pitted the Confederate army under Robert E. Lee against the Army of the Potomac under General George Meade.

In all, 170,000 fought in that battle between July 1^st and July 3^rd and, on July 4^th, 1863, Lee retreated but…Not before nearly 1/3 of his army was killed or wounded and…1/4 of the Union forces were likewise.

The dead had been hastily buried in shallow graves and most were either not or poorly identified.

There was a need to commemorate the battle and pay proper tribute to the Union soldiers whose lives ended there, and that leads us to…

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