Gettysburg

Mention the American Civil War and the first battle to come to mind is likely to be that fought at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was neither the first nor the last engagement between Union and Confederate forces, but it was, in retrospect, a critical one.

After the opening volley against Fort Sumter, the general opinion was that the war would be over in a few weeks. It did not end then, nor after a few months. As the fighting dragged into its second year, the Confederacy had adjusted militarily to a potentially long war and was, overall, doing fairly well on the battlefield. Southerners had recently trounced the Northern army in Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Expectations were high for similar success as General Robert E. Lee and his men readied to attack the small, quite town of Gettysburg in early July 1863.

A successful campaign here would help offset the likely loss of Vicksburg, Mississippi, to Union troops. As Lee prepared to descend on Gettysburg, Vicksburg lay besieged and possibly lost to enemy troops -- a disaster that, if it occurred, would endanger the South's position in the west. Victory in Gettysburg would keep Southern morale up and downplay the devastating loss of Vicksburg. The stakes were high.

Beginning his narrative about mid-May 1863, the author takes the reader from preparations for troop movement, encampment on the outskirts of town, fighting over the three-day battle, and Southern defeat (and hasty retreat) and Northern victory, to President Lincoln's dedication of a national cemetery in November which began with the now-famous line, "Four score and seven years ago…." An engaging narrative laced with contemporary quotes, this is the first book in a generation that synthesizes battle-related material into a highly readable, understandable form.