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50 free Gettysburg Address trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Gettysburg Address trivia quiz is devoted to the speech itself rather than the battle: the 271 words Abraham Lincoln delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery on 19 November 1863. The easy questions are the ones every American student meets: the opening phrase, how long the speech took, who spoke for two hours before Lincoln, and where the text is carved in Washington. From there it moves into the day itself: the lawyer who invited Lincoln with a request for 'a few appropriate remarks', the illness the president was coming down with, the crowd outside his host's house the night before, and the reporters who telegraphed his words. The harder end is for history buffs: the names and homes of the five manuscript copies, which two lack the words 'under God', the Cuban ambassador who bought the Bliss copy at auction, the archivist who found Lincoln in a photograph in 1952, the Chicago paper that called the speech 'dishwatery', the newspaper that retracted its 1863 review 150 years later, the sermon that may have inspired 'of the people, by the people, for the people', and the schoolbook that spread the envelope myth. For the three-day battle, Pickett's Charge and the town, try our Gettysburg trivia quiz. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on the address, Edward Everett, David Wills and the national cemetery before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On what date did Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg Address?
November 19, 1863
The ceremony dedicated the Soldiers' National Cemetery four and a half months after the battle.
Q 02Approximately how many words long is the Gettysburg Address?
271
It was read in under two minutes.
Q 03Roughly how many people gathered to hear the dedication ceremony?
15,000
More than 3,000 Union soldiers had been killed in the three-day battle they were commemorating.
Q 04The opening 'Four score and seven years ago' refers back to which year?
1776
Lincoln was pointing to the Declaration of Independence and its claim that all men are created equal.
Q 05How many sentences make up the Gettysburg Address?
10
Modern scholars still disagree on the exact wording Lincoln spoke.
Q 06Who was the featured orator whose two-hour speech preceded Lincoln's remarks?
Edward Everett
His now seldom-read oration lasted two hours.
Q 07How many words long was Everett's main oration?
13,607
Lengthy cemetery dedications were the fashion, a tradition begun by Justice Joseph Story at Mount Auburn in 1831.
Q 08Which offices had Everett held before Gettysburg?
Governor of Massachusetts and Secretary of State
He was also a Harvard president, minister to Great Britain and Unitarian pastor.
Q 09Who invited Lincoln to Gettysburg, asking him to set apart the grounds 'by a few appropriate remarks'?
David Wills
Lincoln stayed at his house the night before and finished the speech in an upstairs bedroom there.
Q 10Under which famous Pennsylvania politician had Lincoln's Gettysburg host studied law?
Thaddeus Stevens
His host was the principal figure behind creating the national cemetery.
Q 11What illness was Lincoln probably coming down with when he gave the speech?
Smallpox
He felt dizzy that morning and was feverish with a headache on the train home.
Q 12Which three cabinet members travelled with Lincoln to Gettysburg?
Seward, Usher and Blair
His secretaries John Nicolay and John Hay came too, and Hay noted the president's ghastly colour.
Q 13How many known manuscript copies of the Gettysburg Address exist in Lincoln's hand?
Five
Each is named for the person who received it from Lincoln.
Q 21The Bancroft copy was requested by George Bancroft, known as the father of what?
American history
His ten-volume History of the United States earned him the title; he was also a former Navy Secretary.
Q 22The fifth and final copy is named after a colonel who was what to George Bancroft?
His stepson
He published Autograph Leaves of Our Country's Authors, for which the copy was made.
Q 23Who found the Hay copy among John Hay's bound papers in 1908?
Robert Todd Lincoln
Lincoln's son had been searching for the original copy of the speech.
Q 14Which copy is regarded as the standard text because Lincoln titled, signed and dated it?
Bliss
It is the last version he is known to have written and the one carved into the Lincoln Memorial.
Q 15Where did Oscar Cintas's will require the signed, standard-text copy be kept?
The Lincoln Room of the White House
The Cuban ambassador bought it at auction in 1949 and willed it to the American people on condition it stayed there.
Q 16How much did Oscar Cintas pay for the signed copy at auction in 1949, then a record for a document?
$54,000
His property in Cuba was later seized by the Castro government.
Q 17What gas fills the sealed cases protecting the two earliest copies at the Library of Congress?
Argon
They were the two written around the time of the speech, for Lincoln's private secretaries.
Q 18Which two-word phrase is missing from the Nicolay and Hay drafts but present in the later copies?
Under God
At least three reporters telegraphed the phrase on the day, suggesting Lincoln added it as he spoke.
Q 19Which university holds the Bancroft copy, the only one privately owned?
Cornell
Lincoln wrote it on both sides of the paper, which made it unusable for the charity book it was meant for.
Q 20Which state library holds the Everett copy?
Illinois
Everett bound the day's speeches into a volume sold for the Sanitary Commission Fair.
Q 24What stationery was the first page of the Nicolay copy written on?
Executive Mansion letterhead
The second page was written in pencil on lined paper, and matching folds suggest it was the reading copy.
Q 25Which 1906 book helped spread the myth that Lincoln wrote the speech on an envelope on the train?
The Perfect Tribute
Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews's story sold 600,000 copies and was filmed twice.
Q 26Garry Wills compared the Address to a speech by which ancient Athenian statesman?
Pericles
It too honoured ancestors, praised democracy and urged the living to continue the struggle.
Q 27Historians link 'four score and seven' to which Bible passage on the span of a human life?
Psalm 90:10
Adam Gopnik argued Lincoln's rhetoric was deliberately Biblical rather than classical.
Q 28Which abolitionist minister's line on democracy 'by all the people' did Lincoln mark in pencil?
Theodore Parker
Lincoln's law partner William Herndon had brought him the sermon.
Q 29Which senator's 1830 'Second Reply to Hayne' described government 'made for the people, made by the people'?
Daniel Webster
Webster in turn may have borrowed from an 1819 speech by John Hobhouse.
Q 30What did Everett write to Lincoln the day after the speech?
That the president came nearer the central idea in two minutes than he had in two hours
Lincoln replied that he was glad to know it was not a total failure.