In a letter to Tennessee military governor Andrew Johnson encouraging him to lead the way in raising black troops, Lincoln wrote, "The bare sight of 50,000 armed and drilled black soldiers on the banks of the Mississippi would end the rebellion at once".[231] By the end of 1863, at Lincoln's direction, General Lorenzo Thomas had recruited 20 regiments of blacks from the Mississippi Valley.[232]

Gettysburg Address (1863)
Main article: Gettysburg Address
Lincoln (absent his usual top hat and highlighted in red) at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863. Roughly three hours later, he delivered the Gettysburg Address, one of the best known speeches in American history.[233][234]
Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the Gettysburg battlefield cemetery on November 19, 1863.[235] In 272 words, and three minutes, Lincoln asserted that the nation was born not in 1789, but in 1776, "conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal". He defined the war as dedicated to the principles of liberty and equality for all. 