Edited by Kelly
Knauer
In his introduction “Why Gettysburg Matters,” James M.
McPherson explains Robert E. Lee and the leaders of the Confederacy believed a
Confederate victory on Northern soil would force Ulysses S. Grant to loosen his
strangle-hold on Vicksburg, Mississippi, the tide of Northern sentiment would
turn against the war, and Abraham Lincoln would be forced to sue for peace or
be defeated in the following year’s election. If the Republican Party was defeated in large
numbers in the 1864 elections, Lee believed the newly installed President of
the United States would have no other option than to capitulate and give the
Confederacy her freedom. In short, Lee’s
second invasion of the North was a vital component of the Southern campaign to
win the war.
Having established the importance of the July 1863 battle, the
book’s creators take a step back in time and to look at the bigger
picture. In the chapter, “The Road to
Gettysburg,” the divisive issue of slavery is cited as the primary cause of the
regional divisions in the United States.
After decades of debates and compromises, John Brown’s raid on Harper’s
Ferry, was the match that lit the fuse, and the election of Abraham Lincoln was
the explosive detonation that caused the Union to fracture as one Southern
state seceded after another.
Moving forward in time to the summer of 1863 the next
chapter, “Lee Invades the North” follows what is now known as the Gettysburg
Campaign: the Army of Virginia’s northward movement through Virginia, West
Virginia, Maryland and into Pennsylvania with the Army of the Potomac at it
heels.
The battle took place over three days, July 1-3, 1863, and
each day of the battle is covered in one chapter of the book. Each of these chapters includes a “Battlefield
Guide,” giving its readers a reference point for information which follows in
the chapter’s successive pages, namely a glossary of military terms and a
timeline of day’s events; annotations about time, and the organization of
infantry and artillery units are also included.
On the opposing page is a map detailing the day’s action.
Interspersed throughout the book are articles covering
Abraham Lincoln’s search for a general able to defeat Confederate General
Robert E. Lee, Civil War Medicine, the Gettysburg Cyclorama, Death and the
Civil War, and Lee’s escape south after the battle.
The final chapter “Gettysburg in Memory,” brings us from the
immediate aftermath of the battle to the conclusion of the war up to the
present day. It delves into the realm of
recent of study, the Civil War in Memory; with articles covering Civil War photographers
and photography, Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address, and the Civil War
in movies.
Many of the officers who lead troops on both sides of the
conflict have become historical icons. “Gettysburg,
The turning Pont of the War” features lengthy biographical sketches of some of
the battle’s notable participants: Robert E. Lee, J.E.B. Stuart, George G.
Meade, Joshua L. Chamberlain and James Longstreet. Also included are shorter biographical sketches
of those commanding of the opposing armies: for the Confederacy A. P. Hill,
Jubal Early, Henry Heth, Richard S. Ewell, John Bell Hood, Richard H. Anderson,
Edward “Allegheny” Johnson, William Barksdale, George E. Pickett, Lewis A.
Armistead, Isaac H. Trimble and J. Johnston Pettigrew; and their Federal
counterparts Francis C. Barlow, Solomon Meredith, Winfield Scott Hancock, John
C. Caldwell, William J. Colville, Alfred Pleasonton, Henry Hunt, John Buford
and John F. Reynolds
First person accounts of the battle are also included in the
book from civilians Elizabeth Masser Thorn and Tillie Pierce; Confederates Colonel
William C. Oates of the 15th Alabama Infantry, Sergeant Valerius C. Giles of
the 4th Texas Infantry and Captain Henry T. Owen, of the 18th Virginia Infantry;
and Federal troops, Lieutenant Charles A. Fuller of the 61st New York Infantry,
Captain Edward R. Bowen of the 114th Pennsylvania Infantry and Lieutenant
George G. Benedict of the 12th Vermont Infantry
Using its linear narrative of each day’s action in
combination with first person accounts and a liberal use of photographs,
artworks and maps, “Gettysburg, The Turning Point of the War” gives its readers
a panoramic view of the largest battle ever to take place in the Western Hemisphere,
sets it into its proper historical context, and explores how we choose to
remember the battle and the Civil War.
ISBN 978-1618930538, Time, © 2013, Hardcover, Dimensions 10.5
x 1 x 11.5 inches, 192 pages, Maps, Photographs, Illustrations, Picture Credits
& Index. $29.95. To Purchase the book click HERE.
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