Civil War Funeral Orations
Throughout the course of history, there have been many civil wars. In those civil wars, many persons fought and died in battles to defend their beliefs. In the aftermath of a major battle, a people's morale is as shattered and broken as the bodies of those that were slain. Following the battle, a funeral is conducted in remembrance of the deceased. At these funerals a funeral oration is usually given by a well-known domestic public figure, such as when Abraham Lincoln gave his "Gettysburg Address" in 1863 AD and when Pericles gave his funeral oration to Athens in 431 BC. These speeches were made not only to put to rest the souls of the dead and the grief of those who knew them, but to give those people hope that their friends and loved ones did not die in vain and to remind them why their civil war was being fought. The Peloponnesian War was fought from 431-409 BC. It was a civil war between the Greek city-states and was lead by Sparta and it's allies against the dominating Athenian government. The Athenian leader, Pericles, was a learned scholar and an ingenious military general. His speeches were known for their ability to motivate and give courage to a crowd whether it was to his soldiers in the final moments right be
This is why he disliked slavery and is why later, as president of the United States of America, he abolished slavery. In that speech, which would later be known as the "Gettysburg Address", he spoke of the inability of the living to consecrate the battleground at Gettysburg, for the dead had already consecrated it with something that could not be equaled by the living. Abraham Lincoln was saddened upon hearing the report of the number of dead and wounded soldiers on both sides and decided to dedicate a portion of the battlefield as a national cemetery to the fallen Union and Confederate soldiers alike. This division of the country often pitted neighbor against neighbor, and brother against brother. Many battles between Union and Confederate armies were fought, the biggest being the Battle of Gettysburg, where more than 58,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died before the Union army was declared victorious. Most importantly, civil war shows the population how fragile their government really is. President Abraham Lincoln, "Honest Abe", was known for his integrity and his strong sense of morality. After the first few battles of the Peloponnesian War, Pericles was asked to give the funeral oration for those that were slain in defense of Athens. These speeches were both given to offer hope to populations that were demoralized from the tragedies of civil war and to remind them of the reasons why these sacrifices were being made. That is why he declared them heroes and Greek heroes would always be remembered in their tales and stories for ages to come, which is why he said, "heroes have the whole earth for their tomb", meaning that heroes would live on through the stories told in remembrance of them. From these speeches we can learn that a civil war demoralizes the population of the country and needlessly kills many people. He did not offer his condolences to the families of those that died, but he offered them comfort. There he addressed the nation with a speech that he wrote the night before he arrived at Gettysburg. He told them that they needed to finish what the soldiers on that battlefield started and doing that was the only way to ensure that their deaths were not in vain.
Common topics in this essay:
Gettysburg Address,
War Pericles,
Peloponnesian War,
,
AD Pericles,
Union Confederate,
Confederate America,
Abraham Lincoln,
Gettysburg Little,
United America,
civil war,
abraham lincoln,
funeral oration,
union confederate,
union confederate soldiers,
peloponnesian war,
confederate soldiers,
gettysburg address,
loved ones,
pericles funeral,
died battles,
pericles funeral oration,
|
Acceptance Essays
