Product Description

Jeffry D. Wert re-creates the last day of the bloody Battle of Gettysburg in astonishing detail, taking readers from Meade's council of war to the seven-hour struggle for Culp's Hill -- the most sustained combat of the entire engagement. Drawing on hundreds of sources, including more than 400 manuscript collections, he offers brief excerpts from the letters and diaries of soldiers. He also introduces heroes on both sides of the conflict -- among them General George Greene, the oldest general on the battlefield, who led the Union troops at Culp's Hill.

A gripping narrative written in a fresh and lively style, Gettysburg, Day Three is an unforgettable rendering of an immortal day in our country's history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #608371 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Amazon.com Review
On July 1 and 2, 1863, armies commanded by George Meade and Robert E. Lee clashed in the hilly farm country surrounding Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Badly bloodied, the outcome of the battle still uncertain, they fought on into a third day, one whose close would decide the Civil War.

Jeffry Wert, a Pennsylvania high school teacher and well-published scholar of Civil War history, offers a sweeping account of that third day of battle, one that relies heavily on letters, diaries, and other primary sources. From those combatants, we learn of the "carnival of hell" that was Pickett's Charge, when "the incessant rattle of musketry sounded like the grinding of some huge mill." We read of the heroic Union defense of Culp's Hill against equally heroic Confederate attackers, of a stirring charge of Virginia cavalry that elicited "a murmur of admiration" from opposing Michigan horsemen led by George Armstrong Custer, and of the exhaustion and terror of ordinary soldiers, one of whom mused, "What men are these we slaughter like cattle and still they come at us?"

Like the battle itself on that final day at Gettysburg, Wert's narrative unfolds with breakneck speed, and sometimes with so much detail as to yield momentary confusion as it proceeds from one butchery to the next. Still, his account is painstakingly researched and very well written, and it deserves a place on the shelf alongside the work of Bruce Catton, Shelby Foote, and other popular historians of the Civil War. --Gregory McNamee

From Library Journal
A top Civil War scholar reinvestigates the final, bloody day of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The climactic final day of the Battle of Gettysburg has become enshrined in the consciousness and hearts of Americans. For southerners, the futile valor of Pickett's charge came to symbolize the nobility of the "Lost Cause." Of course, northerners also have their heroic images, including that of the gravely wounded Winfield Scott Hancock, refusing to be carried from the field as he rallied his troops at the stone wall. Wert, a high-school history teacher and author of five previous books on the Civil War, does a masterful job of re-creating the confusing vortex of battle as he shifts his descriptions from sector to sector. He interweaves experiences of individual soldiers with the broader tactical moves of the familiar command icons such as Lee, Longstreet, Hancock, and Meade. Wert makes effective use of letters and diaries of combatants from both sides while providing some original insights into the motives behind some controversial battlefield decisions. This work will be an excellent addition to Civil War collections. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Gettysburg - Day Three
As an Australian Army Officer, Gettysburg doesn't represent a pivotal moment in my nation's history, nor in our collective consciousness. However I find the depth to which Gettysburg has been commented on over the years to be an absorbing and captivating area of study.

Almost from the moment that Pickett's, Pettigrew's and Trimble's tired and bloodied soldiers made it back to their line of departure up on Seminary Ridge, blame for the failures of Day 3 of the Gettysburg battle seems to have been laid at the feet of the majority of the key players. Wert describes them all and provides perhaps a deeper insight into the mind-set of each of them.

Wert's book is not one for those who do not possess a reasonable understanding of the 3 day battle in it's entirity. The fighting on days 1 and 2 were equally ferocious and, as Wert describes, pivotal to the Lee's decision to continue the attack on Day 3. Wert deliberately doesn't go into detail - after all, this book is about Day 3 - but it's helpful to have a overall view before buying this book.

The book itself is full of first hand accounts, many of them touching and quaintly mis-spelled, plus a detailed breakdown of what each regiment and unit was up to during Day 3. All in all, an enjoyable read but not without some criticisms:

Firstly, I'm sure the devotee's would disagree, but more maps would have been useful, especially when Wert is describing the actions of several units all with similar numbers. I got sidetracked a few times and had to grab a map from another book to see who was where! Secondly, and a word to the wise consumer, this book has to be the worst quality book that I've ever purchased! The pages look as though they've been guillotined with a serrated bread knife and the binding is already starting to go after one read..

Not a book for the new Civil War enthusiast.
The reviews found on the jacket of this book implied that the reader would become immersed in the human drama of one of the most historically significant days in American history. Unfortunately, I found myself immersed instead in page after page of minutiae on the command structure and order of battle of the opposing forces on the final day of Gettysburg. The first-person accounts that I expected to find, the personal recollections and narratives that I thought would comprise the bulk of the book and bring this extraordinary battle to life, were in fact few and far between. I have read Civil War history for more than two dozen years. It is an interest that was sparked in me, as it was in so many others, by a childhood visit to the field at Gettysburg. Having read a fair number of books on that conflict generally, and on Gettysburg in particular, I do not think that this volume would appeal to any but the most sophisticated students of the tactical and strategic issues of the battle. This book, in my opinion, is one that will be appreciated most by those ardent military historians whose interest in the battle from the view of the participants was long ago satisfied by other works. I believe it is they who will appreciate Wert's massive assemblage of information on unit identification and combat participation on July 3rd on an almost hour-by-hour basis. The review blurbs on the cover led me to believe that this account of the final day at Gettysburg might well be a Civil War version of Cornelius Ryan's extraordinarily compelling history of June 6, 1944, "The Longest Day". Unfortunately, I just found this book to be a very long read.

On the Field at Gettysburg
After 30 years of reading books about the Civil War and about Gettysburg in particular, I recently have found very little to keep my interest. It was almost as if I had "read it all". I picked up Jeffert Wert's book "Gettysburg :Day Three" primarily because of his past books. I had read one on Longstreet and one on Custer. In the past I have found Wert to be highly readable yet consistly knowledgable on his chosen subject. I was not disappointed. Suddenly I was on the battlefield I had visited over 25 year ago. Seeing Culp's Hill,Spangler's Spring and the surrounding woods.I was reminded of standing at Hay's position at the stone wall and viewing Seminary Ridge and the Blue Ridge Mountain range behind it.When you read the section on the cannonade against the oncoming Confederates the distance takes on a completely new meaning.( If you've ever visited Gettysburg on a hot July day you have a greater appreciation of how suffocating it must have felt.)

Wert transports the reader to the field of battle. To read this book makes the reader feel the temor of the earth during the cannonade prior to the Confederate charge. You also sense the desperation in the fighting on both sides. The reader comes to, somewhat, understand the hesitation yet the fortitude of the men in gray as they rose to march against the postion so prominent and so formidable yet so far away. I found the book even handed and fair to both sides of the battle. I agree with the previous writer that more maps would have been better but I always complain about a lack of maps.

I highly recommend to those that have become jaded,as I had, to pick this book up and once again experince this battle in the only way left to us. You won't be disappointed.