Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War

The Civil War is the American Iliad. Lincoln, Stonewall Jackson, Grant, and Lee still stand as heroic ideals, as stirring to our national memory as were the legendary Achilles and Hector to the world of the ancient Greeks. Within the story of our Iliad one battle stands forth above all others: Gettysburg.

Millions visit Gettysburg each year to walk the fields and hills where Joshua Chamberlain made his legendary stand and Pickett went down to a defeat which doomed a nation, but in defeat forever became a symbol of the heroic Lost Cause. As the years passed, and the scars healed, the debate, rather than drifting away has intensified. It is the battle which has become the great "what if," of American history and the center of a dreamscape where Confederate banners finally do crown the heights above the town.

The year is 1863, and General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia are poised to attack the North and claim the victory that would end the brutal conflict. But Lee’s Gettysburg campaign ended in failure, ultimately deciding the outcome of the war.

Launching his men into a vast sweeping operation, of which the town of Gettysburg is but one small part of the plan, General Lee, acting as he did at Chancellorsville, Second Manassas, and Antietam, displays the audacity of old. He knows he has but one more good chance to gain ultimate victory, for after two years of war the relentless power of an industrialized north is wearing the South down. Lee's lieutenants and the men in the ranks, embued with this renewed spirit of the offensive embark on the Gettysburg Campaign that many dream "should have been." The soldiers in the line, Yank and Reb, knew as well that this would be the great challenge, the decisive moment that would decided whether a nation would die, or be created, and both sides were ready, willing to lay down their lives for their Cause.

An action-packed and painstakingly researched masterwork, Gettysburg stands as the first book in a series to tell the story of how history could have unfolded, how a victory for Lee would have changed the destiny of the nation forever. In the great tradition of The Killer Angels and Jeff Shaara’s bestselling Civil War trilogy, this is a novel of true heroism and glory in America’s most trying hour.

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We all know how that venture ended. Lee, in an uncharacteristic tactical lapse, decided to stand and fight against a well-supplied, entrenched Union force that occupied superior defensive ground south of Gettysburg. Under the circumstances it should not have required brilliant Union leadership to successfully repulse Lee's attacks, but Lee's efforts to take Little Round Top on Day 2 came within a hair's breadth of succeeding. Had Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain failed in his now-famous last-ditch defense of the Union left, the outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg might have been very different.

'Gettysburg' takes the "what if" scenario a step farther. What if Lee, instead of making the bullheaded decision to stand and fight at Gettysburg, had withdrawn after the chaos of Day 1 to mount a flank attack designed to draw the Army of the Potomoc to him on ground that gave the rebels all the advantages? Such a strategy seems more consistent with Lee's reputation for audacity and creativity, and co-authors Newt Gingrich and William Fortschen play out the premise in fascinating detail.

The authors obviously know their Civil War. The Union and Confederate officers are brought to life and act in accordance with their historical reputations, although Lee, with his sustained air of careworn courtliness comes off as something of a one-note caricature. The picture painted of life in both armies, the weaponry, tactics, the protocol, traditions and habits, are true to life and full of interesting bits of trivia.

The political leaders are less well-rendered and seem one-dimensional. One gets little understanding of the interpersonal dynamics of Lincoln's Cabinet. While the politics of the war were not the focus of the book, it would have been enlightening to spend a little more time on this part of the picture.

It's interesting to see the new roles that Gingrich and Fortschen built into their story for well-known officers at Gettysburg. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the hero of Little Round Top, is found unsuccessfully defending the Union right against as flanking maneuver by Confederate forces, a role he played successfully in the real battle. Gen. Dan Sickles, who impetuously advanced his division at the real battle thus imperiling the entire Union line, revives his reputation here by unsuccesfully pressing Gen. Meade to allow him to advance forward to investigate some mysterious Confederate troop movements. In the book, had Meade only allowed him to go, Sickles would have discovered the Confederate flanking maneuver soon enough to thwart it.

I got the book as a gift and initially thought it was an historical novel that followed the actual battle faithfully. While at first I was disapppointed to find that it branched off from true history, I nevertheless quickly became engrossed with the this sharply-written novel and it was interesting enough to finish in just three sessions.

42 of 49 found the following review helpful:

Take It From Me: Buy This BookJun 03, 2003
By Daniel Gainor
I am a lifelong Marylander and raised in the midst of tons of Civil War history. Gettysburg, especially, has always fascinated me. In addition, I am a huge fan of author William Forstchen. Even with both of those points, I was unprepared for just how fantastic this book truly is.

The book begins with detail worthy of a true history book, but done in such a well-written way that you are soon with both armies as they prepare for their epic conflict.

You can see the fields filled with soldiers in both blue and gray, hear the roar of the cannons and almost smell the smoke. The people and places are described so well that they almost jump off the page.

The battle begins just as it really did. For those of us who love history (and alternate history), it draws us in beautifully. But then events begin to change. There comes a moment when history, as we know it, is altered.

Now it is up to the soldiers themselves -- officers and enlisted men as drawn believably by the authors -- to act as they would have done. What will Lee, the master tactician do now? How will Meade react, so new to command?

I can't tell you and I'd love to, but I won't spoil one page of this book. Just know this: Buy the book. You won't regret it. (As an aside, I almost never bother with these online reviews. I like the book so much, I just had to.)

34 of 40 found the following review helpful:

Amazing historical detail! Fantastic reading!May 21, 2003
By steven l. ettenheim
There are many reasons for reading this book. Although an historical novel, it reads like a mystery thriller. I found myself reading as fast as I could to find out the ending. Another reason is, although a novel, the historical accuracies are many. I became much more familiar with the localized geography of the Gettysburg towns, rivers, bridges, hills, and valleys. There are also the breathtaking accounts of charges and maneuvers and skirmishes, not to mention details of military life during battle. I felt, at times, that I was right there and could smell the sickening odor of decaying and singed human and horse flesh, could actually see myself in hand-to-hand combat or running forward with hundreds of other Union soldiers (I'm a Yankee) in a line stretching 1/4 mile over crests and down gullies, through streams and parched, dusty fields, jumping over fallen comrades, and feeling the absolute knowledge that as I ran toward the Rebel fortifications, there was no place to hide and the only thing preventing a shard of lead slamming into me and ripping me apart was mere chance.

These are reasons enough. But they are not the main reason. George Santayana once said, "Those who do not learn from history, are bound to repeat it." And this is why this book is invaluable -- for reading this type of "history" makes one contemplate the "what ifs." What if the South had defeated the Union Army at Gettysburg? Would Lee have marched on Washington forcing the Union to sue for peace? Would the South have entered into the economic and political sphere of Great Britain? (Confederate delegates were in London trying to accomplish this during the 1860's.) What if the South had won the war? Would the southern states have been able to maintain their internal status quo after part of the slave population had tasted freedom by way of the Emancipation Proclamation? Would they have directed their attention toward Mexico and become a dominant force in the central part of the Western Hemisphere?

History not only helps us to understand where we have come from, but also where we are and where we are going. Alas, this book stimulates us to ask: What if Chamberlain had stood up to Hitler at Munich? What if Truman had stopped MacArthur from approaching the Yalu and Chinese border? What if we approach Syria and Iran diplomatically with 200,000 U.S. troops in Iraq as emphasis?

Therein lies the beauty of this book.

50 of 61 found the following review helpful:

A Surprisingly Powerful EpicJun 26, 2003
By Mark R. Whittington
I have to admit, I was surprised and pleased when I read Gettysburg by Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen. Their previous effort at alternate history, 1945, did not do very well, primarily in my opinion because that book was slapped together in haste to try to sell books based on Speaker Gingrich's name and fame.

Not so this offering. The premise is simple. On the second day of the battle, Lee does not assault the Little Round Top. Instead, taking Longstreet's advice, he sends a goodly portion of his army round to the far right flank of the Union Army, seizing its supplies and cutting it off from Washington. What follows is a hellish bloodbath which is all the more searing to the Civil War buff as one sees what happens to familiar charecters such as Chamberlain, Hood, Armestead, and others. I cannot recommend this book enough. It is nothing less than a counterfactural Killer Angels.

It is also, irritatingly, the first of a trilogy. Now we'll have to wait for the narrative of the second volume, to be named apparently Grant Comes East.

--Mark R. Whittington http://curmudgeons.blogspot.com/

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