Happy 150th birthday, Gettysburg Address! Four score and seventy years ago the Great Emancipator, President Abraham Lincoln, stood on the beatified battlefield at Gettysburg and delivered what is universally considered one of the most eloquent, powerful speeches ever recorded in the annals of American history.

And while the American public is very much familiar with the outstanding oration, digesting it in some capacity or another in elementary school and beyond, certain aspects of Lincoln’s appeal remain relatively uncertain. For example, there were five different copies of the sermonic address and it’s completely unknown which is the one spoken by Lincoln and which is the one we commonly refer today – though scholars do have a sense of an idea.

So in respect to the same timely manner in which Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, here are five quick facts you might not know about it.

1. Four Score

While it might seem like complete nonsense on the surface, the iconic introduction to the Gettysburg Address is a term used to measure the passing of years. A score is a group of 20. Four score means 80. Four score and seven years is 87 years. When Lincoln used this phrase to demonstrate how long ago our forefathers “brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty,” he’s saying it happened 87 years prior to 1863 back in 1776.

2. Not the keynote speech

The entire proceeding that took place that day was the dedication of  Gettysburg National Cemetery to house the remains of, and commemorate those, who died during the bloody Battle of Gettysburg. Lincoln was expected to give a few dedicatory remarks, which he essentially did, while the keynote was delivered prior to Lincoln’s by Edward Everett. His speech lasted two hours, while Lincoln’s approximately 10 minutes.

3. Edward Everett was a Massachusetts man

Mr. Two-hour-speech, who proceeded Lincoln in the order of those speaking at the ceremony, hailed from Boston and held a number of honorable positions in nearly all levels of government. And it’s from him that Boston neighboring city Everett, Mass. derives its name. Everett was a Senator, Congressman, Secretary of State, Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and Governor.

4. 10-Lines Long

As mentioned before, Lincoln’s speech is known for its eloquence and succinctness, lasting no more than 10-minutes long. But to really understand how short-lived it was, consider that the copy from which he read was just 10-lines long. Everett’s two hour speech boasted over 13,000 words.

5. One audio recollection

Despite the tens of thousands of spectators that fateful November 19, only one person recorded their recollection of the speech. William Roedel Rathvon (1854-1939) taped his reminiscence, noting the military procession, Lincoln’s physical size and scope, and his manner “serious, almost of sadness.”

You can listen to Rathvon’s audio below. Skip to 2:00.

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

 

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”