On a wooden platform, located in a small town in war-torn Pennsylvania, President Abraham Lincoln stood before a crowd of people. around 15,000 people and summarized the issues of the American Civil War in a careful 272-word speech.

GOOD, about 272.

On November 19, 1863, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address during a ceremony to dedicate part of the city’s battlefield as a national cemetery. Historians regularly cite the prose poem as one of the most important speeches in American history.

But in the 161 years since its founding, debate continues over Lincoln’s exact words.

“In a speech so brief, but so momentous, each syllable tells,” wrote Major William H. Lambert in his 1909 book on the subject.

» LEARN MORE: Did Abraham Lincoln leave God out of the Gettysburg Address?

There are five versions of the speech written in Lincoln’s handwriting, and then dozens of newspaper reports which offer slightly alternative accounts.

The gist is the same, but the question remains: which version did he actually say?

Numerous newspapers across the country and in Philadelphia reported an abbreviated version noted by Associated Press reporter, but no definitive version of this transcription exists, as each newspaper’s interpretation included erroneous omissions or additions, or inconsistent prepositions, or verbal variations, most likely mixed up in translation by telegraph operators .

Several papers, including The Inquirer and the Chicago Tribunesent their own correspondents, but many of these versions were either paraphrased or confused, probably due to the same transmission problems.

Early versions of Lincoln’s speech are named after his two private secretaries to whom he gave the copies, John Nicolay and John Hay. And historians differ on which version might have been the reading copy, while others believe this copy is lost to history.

Notably the Nicolay and Hay versions omit the words “under God” of the phrase “that this nation (under God) will experience a new birth of freedom…” But those words are included in a few newspaper articles, adding fuel to the theory that Lincoln went off-script during the speech and added flourishes which were not pre-written.

And these words are present in three copies Lincoln later wrote as a remembrance. For these drafts, Lincoln consulted several newspaper articles to help him create more refined versions.

The fifth manuscript, known as the Bliss copyis generally accepted as Lincoln’s preferred variant, as it is the only edition he signed and dated. It is on display at the White House and at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, it is engraved in marble.