Lincoln crammed the words "we," "our," and "us" into this speech as many times as humanly possible, and for good reason.

By stressing that the pain of loss and work ahead was shared by everyone from the president to the lowliest private, Lincoln united the people of the Union behind the same standard. This was crucial because war fatigue was a grave threat to the mission of complete Confederate surrender.

The president needed the people to believe that this kind of victory was not only possible, but also necessary at all costs. Given the results, we'd say mission accomplished.