History turned into fiction, a way to grab an audience’s attention to teach an audience about an event. Michael does a fantastic job taking the events of one of the bloodiest battles in American History and telling others about it. The battle of Gettysburg is an even marked in United States History. Taking place during the Civil War, a war in which the Northern States fought the Southern States over a variety of things, the most important thing being states rights.
An interesting idea found throughout the book is the two thought processes of the two sides. The Confederate soldiers discuss the fact they are fighting for their rights. The right to have slaves and the right to secede from the Federal Government of the United States. To the Union soldiers they thought that the Confederates were fighting over slavery.
In the book, it is told from the view of the Generals and commanders of both armies, from their positions and separated into the 4 days of battle. One general in the book grabbed my attention particular. General Longstreet – a long time friend of General Lee, a former United States West Point solider talks about the vow in which he broke. The vow he took when joined the United States Army – and the question that burdened him through out the entire war – whether or not he had the right to break that vow for an ideal he held higher, that of protecting his land and “state”. The other thing that interested me was his views on how they should have handled Gettysburg. Had it been handled his way – perhaps not as many lives would have been changed, and even the course of the way the war was played out. His thoughts were that of the defensive. Not to charge but to tactfully approach war – similar to the change that occurred late in World War I and into the Second World War
I was looking at the Readers Guide on the Random House Site and this section caught my eye. Not only does Michael do a great job of interweaving fact with some fictional writing, he pulls in other parts of history and literature in the process. “As Fremantle and Longstreet discuss the situation of Richard Garnett, who feels he must die in order to clear his name of Stonewall Jackson's accusation of cowardice, Fremantle brings up "Solferino" and "Charge of the Light Brigade." Though Fremantle considers them examples of bravery in the face of certain death, the references foreshadow events at Gettysburg. In a war for Italian independence, the 1859 Battle of Solferino was unexpected: Neither side knew the exact position of the other troops. Such heavy losses resulted (29,000 killed or wounded, 4,000 missing or captured) that the battle led to the establishment of the International Red Cross.
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