Fifth Grade
Worksheets
Gettysburg Address
Gettysburg Address
Reading Comprehension for November 19
Imagine what it would be like to live in a country at war with itself. During the Civil War, the United States was at war with itself. Sometimes whole families were divided against each other. Love turned to hate and anger.
Slavery was, and had always been, a big issue within the United States. So was states' rights. Northern states generally were against slavery. Southern states were generally in favor of keeping slavery. When the federal government tried to stop the spread of slavery to other parts of the expanding United States, the people of many Southern states got angry. They thought the government was trying to take away the states' right to make their own rules. To keep that from happening, they decided to leave the Union of states and form their own group. Those states became known as the Confederate States of America. They were determined to form their own country. The other states didn't like this idea and were determined to fight to keep the Union together.
Abraham Lincoln was president, and it discouraged him to see the country being torn apart. Both sides were sure theirs was the right way. The Confederate Army started out with many victories until they invaded the North. The Battle of Gettysburg, which occurred July 1-3, 1863, turned the tide of the war. Almost 50,000 men on both sides were killed or injured in those three days. There were so many dead that the Pennsylvania battlefield was purchased to become a national cemetery and memorial.
