Product Description

Stephen W. Sears has delivered a masterwork in Gettysburg, his single-volume history of the Civil War's greatest campaign. Drawing on original source material, from soldiers' letters to the Official Records of the war, Sears offers dramatic and informed accounts of every aspect of the campaign, from well-hewn portraits of the battle's leaders to detailed analyses of their strategies and tactics. Sears depicts General Meade's remarkable performance in his first week of army command and pinpoints General Lee's responsibility in the agonizing failure of the Confederate army. With characteristic style and insight, Sears brings the epic tale of the battle in Pennsylvania vividly to life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49010 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 640 pages

From Publishers Weekly
An outstanding battle study by the author of Chancellorsville, this comprehensive narrative will lend extra impact to the 140th anniversary this July of the climactic battle of the Civil War. Sears casts his net wide, beginning with Lee's meeting with Davis in May 1863, where he argued in favor of marching north, to take pressure off both Vicksburg and Confederate logistics. It ends with the battered Army of Northern Virginia re-crossing the Potomac some two months later, a near-run on both sides as Meade was finally unwilling to drive his equally battered Army of the Potomac into a desperate pursuit. In between is the balanced, clear and detailed story of how 60,000 men became casualties, and how the winning of Confederate independence on the battlefield was put forever out of reach. The author generally is spare with scapegoating, although he has little use for Union men Dan Sickles (who advanced against orders on the second day) or Oliver Howard (whose Corps broke and was routed on the first day), or Richard Ewell of the Confederacy, who decided not to take Culp's Hill on the first night, when that might have been decisive. Sears also strongly urges the view that Lee was not fully in control of his army on the march or in the battle, a view borne out in his gripping narrative of Pickett's Charge, which makes many aspects of that nightmare much clearer than they have been before. This book is not the place to start a study of the campaign, but it is absolutely indispensable for the well-versed.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
This authoritative history of the Battle of Gettysburg opens with a scene pertinent to what we imagine transpiring in the White House in recent weeks: a military-strategy planning session. In this case, the time was summer 1863, and the setting was Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital; putting their heads together were President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee, and the Confederate secretary of war. The Confederacy badly needed a victory because the stronghold at Vicksburg, Mississippi, was certain to fall to Union forces sometime soon. The plan that emerged from the session was to send the Army of Northern Virginia on an offensive across the Potomac River. The Confederate offensive abruptly failed, and Gettysburg represented the turning point of the war. Sears, author of a half-dozen Civil War books and a former editor of American Heritage magazine, leaves no stone unturned in his reconstruction of the battle, from preparation on both sides to the reasons for the Confederate loss. Readers thrilled by the minute details of battlefield maneuvers will be thoroughly engaged. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A first-class writer and splendid historian--a combination to be cherished--gives us the best book on America's most famous battle." (The Wall Street Journal )

Customer Reviews

For hard core Civil War buffs only
I'm a layman, and I started reading this to better educate myself about Gettysburg before taking a trip there. My take is the author wrote this for an audience who is already familiar with the battle. There is a tremendous amount of detail and minutiae that may be interesting to some people, but was far more than I wanted (or needed) to know. Moreover, the author's dry style did not make these details particularly compelling. Needless to say, I didn't finish it and, on the advice of a friend, read Michael Shaara's "The Killer Angels" instead. Good call! If you want an involving book that will enhance your visit to the battlefield and/or give you an understanding of what happened, read Shaara. I gave Sears' book three stars because I certainly respect the level of scholarship that's here, but I do not recommend it for anyone who is not a Civil War buff.

Not the same old......
Not just a book of dates and numbers.In depth work on Gettysburg,full of excerpts from soldier accounts.Very detailed.If you want to read a book about the battle and you want the most info you can get while keeping you interested in the next page....... this is the book for you.

Just...dull
A great author that suffers from a tremendously flawed narrative style; the good thing about this book is that is an extremely detailed account of the Battle of Gettysburg. The bad thing about this book is that it is an EXTREMELY detailed account of the battle of Gettysburg. At times this gets to be too much.

Overall-When all is said and done not only will you know a lot about the Battle of Gettysburg you will feel as if you have actually fought the entire campaign (along with the entire war) by yourself.