What events led to Lincoln's speech?

Question

This question involves with Abraham Lincoln's speech "The Gettysburg Address."

Answer 1

There were a lot, but here are just some:

From 1861 to mid-1863, the Confederate army was winning the Civil War. Then, the Confederates were defeated at the Battle of Antietam. The battle convinced Britain and France not to support the Confederacy, and the battle convinced President Lincoln that the time was right to make the emancipation of slaves the new focus of the war for the North.

Lincoln then gave the executive order, the Emancipation Proclamation, to free all slaves in Confederate territories, though it did not free slaves in the border states. It also inspired Southern slaves to escape which forced Southern whites to worry about their farms.

By mid-1863, the weight of the Northern population and industrial capacity began to turn the tide of the war in favor of the Union. Basically, it was becoming harder to sustain the fight because Britain and France were not going to join the Confederacy, the Union blockade had limited Southern manufacturing, and lack of grain fields left Confederate soldiers ill supplied, and to pay for the war, the Confederacy had printed money leading to massive inflation.

Then, Robert E. Lee's army was defeated at Gettysburg. This was the turning point of the war as Lee's army was halted from attacking Northern soil. The Confederacy never again attacked Union territory, and the Union army began winning the war.

Thus setting the stage for Lincoln to deliver "The Gettysburg Address."