Not enthralling prose, but a readable and balanced report on the battle of Gettysburg
358030
I am no expert on the Civil War, but I have done a lot of reading on the subject over the decades, and I mostly enjoyed reading this entry into the sub-genre.  It struck me as a balanced telling of what happened at Gettysburg, and why. No one appears to be categorically praised or criticized for their role in the outcome.

I was intrigued to realize that it was a rare book about this battle that did not at least mention Joshua Chamberlain and the bayonet charge on Little Round Top.  But this is due to two reasons. One, this book was written before Michael Shaara's novel The Killer Angels, which brought Chamberlain's role in the battle to prominence; and two, this book rarely mentions any officer below the rank of general, except in passing or because the officer wrote something he is using as source material. I don't mention all this as a criticism of this book, but just as a matter of personal interest.

The writing style is rather straightforward and dry - quite readable, mind you, but I think we have gotten used to a more energetic and imaginative style for non-fiction that has developed over the past 30 years or so. It read well enough to hold my attention, but was by no means a can't-put-it-down book.  My only complaint, a minor one, is that the pictures, maps and drawings are small and black and white, and in my mind do not add a lot to the enjoyment of reading this book. I suppose it was a decision that allowed the book to be sold less expensively at the time of publication.

So while I will not extol the virtues of this history with hyperbole or exclamation points, I do recommend it for people seeking an unbiased view of the battle by someone who has extensively researched the subject.
1915416
An in depth but readable account of Gettysburg.  Very informative of the overall scope and importance of this battle.  Historical context well explained.
639991
This book is not a detailed history or analysis of the battle. What it is a nice, basic overview of the battle and battlefield. The author addresses popular legends (demolishing some) and controversies of the battle. Written in a very conversational manner, the writing is easy to follow - almost like being there with the author and hearing him. This would be a fine book for someone with only casual interest in the subject.
584268
The author gives his account as a soldier in the 99th Infantry Division from the unit's arrival in France to his evacuation during the Battle of the Bulge. The author was one of the college boys who was transferred to line units during the manpower crises of 1944. He is a good writer and quite a proper man, who records his observations with fluency. A fair bit of his text is spent on the training, including the challenge of melding with the regular army soldiers in his unit.

His account of the Bulge is Ok, with a lot of focus on the awful conditions he and the others had to endure, following army incompetence in getting winter supplies through to the front. The main downfall for me, was the author's very slight involvement in combat himself. He was shelled and so on but that was about it. He does relate a reasonable number of combat stories of some other fellows in his unit, so that issue is somewhat addressed. He also gives some details on the importance of his divisions achievements in the battle. He doesn't shy away from mentioning some of the less savoury elements of combat. He finishes the war in London in an office privy to some of the most momentous signals of the time.

So overall a fair read but not a compelling one. I was certainly impressed with the author. He is a decent and brave man but my rating reflects his limited combat involvement, which is the focus of my memoir reading.
432746
The late Gettysburg historian and author Elwood (Woody) Christ wrote this excellent account of a "smaller battle" that occurred during the battle of Gettysburg on July 2 and 3, 1863.  The Bliss Farm was a peaceful "average" farm located near Gettysburg, PA, where the Bliss family farmed for many years.  This small farm would be placed in "no mans" land between both the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia and had strategic value for both armies during the battle.  Regiments from Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware. Ohio, and Pennsylvania would fight for possession of the farmstead against the regiments from Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.  The engagements between the Union and Confederate regiments consisted of small scale skirmishes that involved hundreds of men at any given moment which the farm buildings would change hands at least ten times.
Woody Christ says between sunrise of July 2 and the early afternoon of July 3 approximately 2160 Union and 2310 Confederate soldiers fought around the Bliss Farm which resulted in 360 Union and 470 Confederate casualties.  Though small compared to the larger battles around them during the Battle of Gettysburg, this is still a lot of soldiers who perished or were seriously wounded.
The actions of the regiments around the farm directly affected the strategies of both armies during Gettysburg.  Impromptu artillery barrages between both armies, which wasted precious long-range ammunition that Confederate Colonel E. P. Alexander would need to support Pickett's Charge.  The actions around Bliss Farm would help the Union later on have devastating actions on Pickett's Charge due to Ohio Regiments being strategically placed to fire upon Pickett's soldiers during the charge during the afternoon of July 3.  Confederate General William Dorsey Pender would be mortally wounded while trying to reconnoiter the farmstead for possible troop placements.  The effects of the actions around the farm would force the withdrawal of Confederate Regiments that could of been of better support of Generals Pettigrew's and Trimble's troops on the left of Pickett's Charge.
Woody Christ accurately summarizes that because of the actions of Bliss Farm and the holding of the farm ultimately by Union regiments that Pickett's charge on July 3, 1863 could have met with greater success.
The Bliss Farm was totally devastated when Union troops set fire to the barn and buildings to drive out Confederate sharpshooters and skirmishers.  The family was one of the few families in and around Gettysburg to have lost everything due to the battle.  After the war Bliss family members would spend their entire lives trying to receive compensation from the U.S. Government because of the destruction of their farm.  They were never compensated.
Woody Christ wrote a fascinating, in-depth, yet easy to understand account of the "small battle" of Bliss Farm during the Battle of Gettysburg. Excellent maps, photos of the key soldiers both Union and Confederate are included, order of battle enhance this great read.  It is unfortunate that this was the only book this Gettysburg Historian would write.  His prose and accuracy are outstanding and he undoubtedly had more history about the battle that he could write.  This is a "rare" book to find and not that many were published, thus it is a little expensive to purchase.  However, it is DEFINITELY worth acquiring and studying for anyone interested in the Battle of Gettysburg.  Woody Christ's excellent book definitely shows that "small actions" during the Battle of Gettysburg had a definite effect overall in the outcome of the battle.  A great book that hopefully will be republished to a wider audience who can learn about these small battles within the large Battle of Gettysburg.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
1173135
This is a difficult review to write and I finally settled on four stars.  The authors have filled an important niche in Revolutionary War literature, one providing summaries of all important (but not all!) battles of the Revolutionary War for quick reference.  This by itself is extremely useful even though the mere act of summarizing actions necessarily leaves much out and can create impressions of neatness on the battlefield that does not reflect reality.  In some summaries the authors mention difficulties in reconciling contradictory reports, and indeed, sometimes it is impossible to reconcile some reports into a summary.  In those cases, one can only mention the conflicting viewpoints and leave the situation open to further study.  Without such presentation, the summary is hardly definitive but rather more of a educated guess, and such qualification is needed so that an uninformed reader does not take the summary as gospel.

  I applaud the authors for attempting to present casualties as a means of constructing a scorecard, but a major word of caution is needed here.  Often the casualties on the American side were understated due to a lack of efficient staff work, and militia casualties often went totally unreported.  Desertion almost always was a factor, as was the fact that  many soldiers going missing and then sometimes returning after the battle, sometimes not.  The captured number of Americans must be taken from the British reports, and these were often inflated.  In short, the casualties on one's own side were usually understated, while those of the enemy were over-estimated.  In addition, the number of killed did not include those mortally wounded which sometimes represented a major portion of those reported as wounded.  Not only that, but of the Americans captured by the British, few ever returned to fight again.  Some 20,000 Americans died in British captivity (not all soldiers), and those paroled or exchanged were usually too feeble to fight again and many expired within months of release.  So the actual American casualties in killed (killed in battle, died of wounds, died in captivity, or died soon after parole or exchange, can be assumed to approach 70% of the total casualties.  Rebellion was/is truly a serious business.

  Another plus point in this work was the inclusion of many often totally overlooked campaigns and battles in popular history.  The Cherokee Campaign comes immediately to mind, and this was important since it led to the Southerners eventually expelling the Cherokees and creating the "Trail of Tears."  Americans tend to forget the Cherokees supported the British and attacked patriots from the rear while the British attacked from the front.  This was not forgiven in the Carolinas and Tennessee, and the Cherokees later paid dearly for their actions.

  I felt the book was excellent within the scope of what the work presents and would have deserved five stars except for two factors.  The first is certain errors in proofing.  For example at White Plains, Rahl took up a position beyond the American right, not the left.  At Quebec, Morgan actually made his way into Lower Town, rather than turning into the Upper Town as shown by the map.  Unfortunately, there were a number of such mistakes that the authors would be well-advised to correct in later editions.

  The second factor is that this work does not include all battles -- Short Hills and the various skirmishes in New York and Connecticut during the siege of New York in 1778-1781 (one in which Washington's Lifeguard was roughly handled) are missing.  Perhaps these and others that do not immediately come to mind could be included in a later edition.

  All in all, this work is well recommended.
1248937
Mark L. Hopkins got some good advice during the writing of his first novel, "Journey to Gettysburg." It was to make sure his first sentence hooked the reader. His certainly does:
 "'Son, do you have a gun?' the officer asked."
 The question is addressed to 15-year-old Matthew Mason, a North Carolina farm boy who has wound up in the thick of the defining battle of the Civil War. Before long, he is holding a signal flag in his hands and marching to almost certain death on the Pennsylvania killing field: The Union and Confederate forces suffered combined casualties of 57,000 men at the Battle of Gettysburg.
 "Journey to Gettysburg" is aimed at a young adult reader audience, but it is appealing to adult readers, too. I had the unusual opportunity to read it as it was written, because Hopkins asked me to clean up his grammar and punctuation as he completed chapters. From the first page, it was like climbing onto the back of fast horse and hanging on for dear life.
 In the book, Matt leaves his family's struggling farm near Mt. Airy, N.C. following the death of his mother. On her deathbed, she directs her only child to find his father Zeke, who is fighting with the Army of Virginia under General Robert E. Lee. Initially traveling in the company of the ancient family mule, Matt eventually avails himself of every mode of mid-19th century transportation from boat to buggy, train to horseback, sparing his bare size 14 feet from the rocky roads and paths of North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania whenever possible.
 Along the way, Matt has many adventures and misadventures, encountering people whose hearts go out to a young boy alone--and others who see him as an easy target for their own greed. Through it all, the life lessons taught him by his Quaker mother and hard-headed "English" (non-Quaker) father help Matt solve his dilemmas and keep going, even through the hell of Gettysburg.
 While the main characters in the book are fictional, it is underpinned by fact. In the preface, Hopkins said he first became enthralled with the battle at age 11 when his father took him to visit the battleground.  "Twelve of my ancestors fought in that battle, four for the union and eight for the south," he writes. After attending a re-enactment there in July 2013, the idea of a book began forming in his mind. He started writing "Journey to Gettysburg" in January 2014, and completed it in less than six weeks. It was a pleasure to be along for the ride then, and to re-read the book now. Honest and brave, Matt is a role model for young people today, and they can learn about the horrors of this war through the eyes of a peer rather than generals.
  "The Battle of Gettysburg was a pivotal turning point in the Civil War that sealed the fate of the South," Hopkins says. "For example, many people are not aware of how nature conspired to deprive General Lee of the cannons he needed to continue the war." Also, "It was the presence of a shoe factory at Gettysburg that brought the battle there rather than the initial target, Harrisburg, which was the capital of Pennsylvania. It is estimated that up to 25 percent of Confederate soldiers and 15 percent of Union soldiers spent much of the war without shoes."
 You will have to read the book to find out if Matt got a pair.
3347106
I have heard that Harry Pfanz has probably forgotten more about Gettysburg than many will ever learn about the battle.  In my humble opinion, after reading Gettysburg The Second Day, there is much truth to that statement.

Pfanz' narrative is full of details about Little Round Top, Devil's Den, the Stony Hill, the Wheatfield, Rose Farm and Woods, and other important landmarks during the July 2 conflict.  He weaves terrain features in with descriptions of several units in the conflicts.

While some people criticize Pfanz for too much battle narrative and little analysis (saves it for the last chapter), I personally enjoyed the book. If you are the kind of reader who enjoys reading battle narratives and descriptions of the participants, then this is the book for you.

The main gripe I have with the book concerns the maps.  While excellent (goes down to the regimental level, clear terrain features, and has a unique description of the action portrayed in the map), there are not enough.  Unfortunately, this is an all too common weakness in many Civil War titles.  While Pfanz' narrative is full of interesting details, not having enough maps is distracting when trying to comprehend the actions of several units during the engagements.  While there are 13 maps in the book, there easily could have been at least 20 total to provide more clarity to the action.

Complaint aside, I recommend this book as the definitive title on the second day at Gettysburg.  I plan to refer to this book often during my next trip to Gettysburg.  Read and enjoy!  Recommended.
3604583
if you are looking for anything resembling a blood-n-guts retelling of one of the toughest modern battles ... then just read the last 5 chapters or so.

yahara was a staff officer, and it shows very clearly in this book. a good 80% of the text is detailed troop movements and status reports. To keep up with the regiments and divisions, if you're into that, you'll need a notebook probably - because yahara jumps around quite a bit. Also, there are two or three battle maps of southern okinawa for reference to the movements being discussed, however they are VERY low resolution and if you want to have a full tactical grasp on what yahara specifically attempted and actually achieved, you'll want to find a more easily readable map elsewhere - if you do this, and especially have one which you can write on yourself, then you can very easily follow the progression of yahara's "war of attrition" tactics as they so effectively played out.

however, it IS rather dull in most of its retelling. The real charm of this book lies in the character of Yahara - calculating and well schooled, and full of honor that conflicts with his non-tradition order to survive while watching his beloved and respected commanders fight to the death or take their own lives.

The last few chapters of this book deal with, blow by blow, how Yahara nearly escaped the civilian camps of Okinawa (sometimes even mistaken as a woman to do so!) and how he was eventually discovered. Yahara makes an attempt to "clear his name" of the controversy surrounding his capture and failed warplan. Intermittently, the book is supported by short chapters by Frank Gibney, one of the officers responsible for his interrogation (and eventually one of his old war-buddies)These last few chapters are grippingly related by Yahara in a way which leaves you tingling and inevitably filled with respect for the men of the self-doomed and dying Japanese warrior doctrine of the time.

Included in an appendix is a full transcript of the interrogation reports - a nice little study in the historiography of how such things were carried out in the pacific theater - a standalone of its own right, to me anyway.

Overall, i wouldn't recommend this book to anyone with just a passing interest in the subject matter. But for anyone seeking detailed insight into the other side of this monumental battle, its a must.
4276053
Not a Civil War fan, but this is an easy read.
1863604
First of all it's readable.  It's a story sufficiently endowed with communicative word pictures which allow the author to build colorful rhetorical flourishes on an important historical narrative, one of a pivotal military event, under reported by an eastern-centered media.  Having visited Vicksburg and being surprised by its terrain of ravines, flood plains, and thickets and it's high bluffs with their view of a wildly meandering river, it made it easier to imagine the terrain at Shiloh, a truly torturous milieu in which to engage in savage, close quarters combat, with shot and shell shrieking and exploding overhead - a true maelstrom.  But before all this description of mayhem the reader is treated to a finely rendered explanation of the origins of this avoidable and seemingly insane war.  And in this endeavor the author shines.

Groom seems to have gone the extra mile in his insights into why soldiers fight, and specifically why they continue on with "attack and die" tactics in the face of an unending carnage (What happened to helicopter perspective?)  The realization that the rifled round had evolved since the Mexican war in 1846-1848 (t'were it a technology advance it would have changed the behavior of any market-sensitive businessman) a development which effectively eliminated the cavalry charge as an option seems to have slipped the grasp of our west-pointers, one and all.  A cursory reading of the battle depictions in 'Shiloh' would disabuse any reasonable person against the notion that repeated charges into more accurate weapons could succeed.  That they might succeed in achieving short term military goals, yes, but eventually it could only end in disaster, and ruination.  It's a telling and well done story!
3292730
To the names of the great Civil War military leaders Grant, Sherman and Sheridan, plus Lee, Jackson, and Stuart, don't add Colonel E.R.S. Canby (North) and General Henry H. Sibley (South). Adversaries of limited talent, Canby and Sibley were starved both for materiel and ideas during a series of poorly run battles in 1861 and 1862. In hindsight we know that what they did in New Mexico mattered little to the larger course of the war. What keeps their story from becoming absurdly comical is that Canby and Sibley believed that control of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and California was at stake. Many a soldier died because of that belief.

Pittman provides a great service to readers studying the New Mexico campaigns by gathering many details of the day-to-day events surrounding the opposing mini-armies. Particularly important are his accounts of the battles of Valverde and Glorieta. There is little in the way of larger context nor do we learn anything about how this conflict was perceived from the opposing capitols of the Union and the Confederacy. But Pittman can be forgiven for this since his goals seem modest: This is a just-the-facts kind of book about an obscure but nonetheless interesting little corner of a world-shaking conflict.
2982567
The Third Day at Gettysburg and Beyond edited by Gary Gallagher is a nice relatively short volume of historiographical works on the last day at Gettysburg and it's immediate aftermath.
The book is not without its problems. In his chapter "Lee's Army Has Not Lost its Prestige" Gallagher asserts that the defeat at Gettysburg was not a crushing defeat for the Confederacy and the defeat at Vicksburg was a much larger defeat for the CSA and its people. While this conclusion is interesting, it's completely at odds with Gallagher's later assertion in his book The Confederate War, that Lee's army was of paramount importance to the people of the CSA. His conclusion that the populace was not as concerned about Gettysburg based upon analysis of letters and diaries needs more study. However, his conclusion that Gen. Lee originally did not regard the defeat at Gettysburg as a crushing blow is well grounded as is his conclusion that Lee's soldiers were not crushed by the defeat which they attributed to the Union army simply having the advantage of better ground and "not fighting a fair fight." Their confidence was certainly not crushed and they believed they did inflict a blow to the Union army in the previous three days fighting.
William Garrett Piston's chapter "Cross Purposes" on Gen. Longstreet and his orders for the final days fighting which ended up causing Lee to order the ill fated, and misnamed, Pickett's charge is also quite interesting. Piston fails to convince however that it was in fact Longstreet not following Lee's orders that caused the disaster. However he does acknowledge ultimate blame falls on Lee for not following through with Longstreet's plan once in motion, he didn't have to order the ill fated charge.
However, after these two chapters the book starts to take a turn and not for the better. Carol Reardon's chapter on Pickett's Charge focuses on the historiographical conflicts waged after the war concerning the responsibility for the failure of the charge. While this is interesting, it really doesn't have much to do with the actual aftermath of the conflict or the charge itself. It only includes a small discussion of which account of the charge and the responsibility for its ultimate failure, is correct.
Perhaps the most interesting chapters are the last two in the book. Robert L. Bee includes the wartime correspondance of Sgt. Ben Hirst's account of the fighting and its aftermath, as well as mentioning his accounts of other battles. Hirst's letters detail the horror of war in a very intense way that brings the action to life for the reader.
A. William Greene conclusively demonstrates that the charges against Gen. Meade of not pursuing Lee after the battle are completely baseless. Bad weather as well as the fact the Confederate army was not as defeated and lacking supplies as Lincoln and many historians after the battle would have one believe, demonstrate had Meade gone after the Confederate army his own army, lacking sleep, food and shoes, would likely have been repulsed on the banks of a swollen Potomac by an angry, well supplied, Confederate Army with many of its soldiers looking for another fight. These charges also ignore that Meade's actual orders were to protect Washington and Baltimore, and force him away from the Federal capital and out of Maryland, not attempt a crushing defeat of Lee which would have taken him and Lee much closer to Washington. Given Lincoln's paranoia about protecting the Federal capital, had Meade spoiled for a fight nearer Washington, Lincoln likely would have criticized him for putting the capital in jeopardy. The consequences of such a battle for the Union had Lee's army been successful would have been desasterous.
Overall, this is a decent historiography that loses its way in the middle with Reardon's chapter and Robert K. Krick's chapter on two Virginia Confederate soldiers. Had those chapters been replaced by ones more germane to the fighting the last day at Gettysburg, this would have been a better book.
2912224
The first thing that surprised me about Patriot battles is how little it relates to the War in Iraq. The rest of the reviewers here make it sound like the author is constantly dragging Dubya into the mix. In fact, he's only mentioned in the introduction, a part of the book where authors traditionally depart from the script a bit. I'd also suggest that it's one thing to argue against Stephenson's politically incorrect comparisons, it's another to be offended and enraged by them and to (IMO) have them color your reading of the rest of the book. The text proper sometimes puts our nation's early heroes in a negative light, but we're big boys and girls who don't need a child's book of uplifting myths.

This book isn't intended to be a straight historical narrative of the Revolutionary War. It's a bit of a hodgepodge of interesting information and battle summaries. It's probably not a good first book on the topic (CW challengers rarely are), but it's a fine read. Stephenson can flat out write, although he does struggle at time with structure. Still, I'll side with the professional critics on this one, and against Amazon's reviewers.
492867
I've read a lot of books on American history, especially military history. Many concentrate of course on wars, and one of the things I enjoy is reading about the more obscure wars of American history, the ones that don't get talked about much. This book is more or less a recounting of America's adventure in the Philippines, between our Declaration of War on the Spanish and the end of the insurgency around 4 years later. Author Gregg Jones does a pretty good job of recreating the era and the personalities involved, and provides a good introduction to the various events of the period. The book is therefore in general worthwhile.

Jones starts his narrative by explaining how the war came about. As far as I'm concerned he puts a bit too much emphasis on Theodore Roosevelt's role in starting the war, but that's a matter of perspective; there's no argument that TR, despite his junior status in the Administration at the time (he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy) had a lot more to do with the beginning of the war than you'd expect. The author provides a brief recounting of the events in Cuba that culminated in the end of the war (and curiously less about the American attack on Manila, which ended the war in the Philippines) before moving on to how the insurgency in the Islands started. He provides a reasonably clear narrative of the guerilla war that Aguinaldo (the Philippine resistance leader) led, and how he was captured. The book then spends a great deal of time discussing the war crimes allegations against the various soldiers in the American army who, in their frustration at continued Philippine resistance, used torture to extract information from reluctant civilians or insurgents they'd captured. A discussion of the courts martial, and a brief summary of what happened to everyone afterward, rounds out the book.

Generally, I liked the book. I think he on occasion overstated his case, and occasionally I disagreed with the conclusions he drew, but there was nothing that he said that I thought completely unfair, even to TR (of whom this book is more or less an indictment). The writing's good, there are few if any factual errors, and generally it's a corner of American history few people know much about. Recommended.
2464585
If you've ever fought in close battle or have witnessed such firsthand the place or places where it occured- or where others have fought- take on different meaning.
  Sadly, at the Gettysburg battlefield I watched many visitors drive by the various unit monuments and fields, momentarily glance at a map or brochure and then back out to what looked to be empty fields before moving on. There's not much in the way of shade in the area so many that I saw didn't leave their vehicles. Some even seemed bored, as though the  expanse, didn't offer up much in the way of entertainment.
  Getting to a place isn't the same as getting back to the time. That takes work on our part and help from others.
  In this instance that help comes from Richard Wheeler's WITNESS TO GETTYSBURG. This is a book of old voices that come to back to life to tell their stories of the huge and costly three-day battle in early July of 1863. Thousands fell dead, tens of thousands more wounded in a fight that shaped the rest of the War Between the States and the nation itself.
  Yeah, this is just a 'history book,' but in it you'll find more than you ever would with a brochure and more of an opportunity to appreciate those who went before us- from the housewife who attended the crowded wounded to the soldiers who gave the last full measure and died horribly.
  There are some great fictional accounts of the fight and some excellent factual books. WITNESS TO GETTYSBURG has its place with the best of the factual personal histories.
  A good book and by the way, the Gettysburg battlefield is a place you should walk. Will it take time? Yes and in the summer months it can be hot and miserable but then so was the three-day battle.
4809760
I liked this book because it contains information which I haven't been able to find elsewhere. The style of writing is strange so it is a little difficult to read, in a sort of Dostoevsky meets Yoda kind of way,  Description of the physical characteristics if the land after the 3 days are worth the price of the book. The author spends very very little time on what is usually common knowledge for the average Civil War buff which I found nice.

The book doesn't draw you in to the scenes, if that what you are looking for, however there are a good selection of letters and diary entries which I found revealed some things about Gettysburg I had never considered. The collection of photographs is fairly unique in that they are not the same 7 photographs splashed around every other publication. Here you see whole forests stripped of bark, branches shattered by weaponry, photos of survivors returning months or years later contemplating recognizable sections of the battlefield.

I could go on. Worth having in any collection on the Civil War (or the War of Northern Aggression, if you will). The first hand accounts are priceless.