The historian views the year 1863 as a turning point.

LISBON FALLS – Charles Plummer of Auburn, Civil War historian, will present the third in a series of talks on the Civil War at a meeting of the Lisbon Historical Society at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 12. Plummer has titled his presentation “The Year 1863 as a New Birth of Freedom in the United States.”

It is Plummer’s contention that the Revolutionary War made the United States a nation, but the Civil War defined the nation. Prior to the Civil War, the term “United States of America” was a plural noun but following the Civil War it became a singular noun.

Focusing on President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which he issued on Jan. 1, 1863, several other speeches he wrote during the year and his Gettysburg Address, which he delivered at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg on Nov. 19, 1863, Plummer will show that the year 1863 was one of the turning points of the Civil War and a defining moment in the nation’s history.

His previous talks before the Lisbon Historical Society were “Lisbon Volunteers at the Battle of Gettysburg” and “The History of Lisbon’s Volunteers in the Civil War.”

The meeting is open to the public free and will be held at the society’s archives on 9 Union St.