The use of actual witness accounts is an interesting technique but it creates a read which is not vey focused. Each witness, telling their own part of the grand story, takes it in their own direction. The result is a lot of tangents that make it difficult to focus on the details of the battle. This should be the fourth or fifth book on Gettysburg you read, not the first.

This book offers an interesting account of the Battle of Gettysburg as seen through the eyes of participants, both North & South, and civilian witnesses like towns folk and such. Not a detailed account of the battle but certianly a very easy to read and enjoyable (if you can say such about a terrible battle) story about this period of history. The use of first person accounts/recollections fits in with the historical narrative of the author which makes this book a pleasure to read.

So I was in the 2nd book of Shelby Foote's 3 book narrative history of the Civil War when the battle of Gettysburg occurred. As happens with so many readers I became fascinated with the topic and had to temporarily postpone further reading of Shelby Foote's trilogy to drill-down into the battle of Gettysburg.

For me this drill-down into Gettysburg amounted to reading a biography of Joshua Chamberlain of 20th Maine and Little Round Top fame and this book on the Civil War. This book provides excellent elaboration of this topic. It is filled with 1st hand quotations of a wide variety of people from generals, to privates, to cavalry, to citizens. The book provides balanced coverage of both Union and Confederate sides. And the book does a decent job of placing the battle in context of the larger war, although of course not nearly a deep and extensive lead-in as provided by Shelby Foote. I enjoyed this book. If I was reading just one book about the Civil War, this book is of course too narrow in scope. But if one is reading many books on the topic, then this book provides excellent detail and insight into one of the most important and interesting battles of the Civil War.

Andy and Mark and the Time Machine Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg W.F. Reed 2000 Writer's Showcase

As a Secondary History teacher, I find historical fiction and historical science fiction an interesting break from reading strictly non fiction. As a browsed the historical fiction section looking for a children's book to read (as an assignment for a class), I found several that would have been relatively interesting. However, when I found this book Andy and Mark and the Time Machine Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg W.F. Reed 2000Writer's Showcase and saw that there was a science fiction element such as time travel, and one of the most vivid battles in American History I was sold.
This review will follow this format : a brief summary of the book, and a discussion of the book in terms of its use of historical content, reader enjoyment, and the books ability to generate interest in reading.
The story starts with a description of Andy and Mark two average students who are friends and spend time together out of school. Andy's father is "scientist" that has a lab in the family's basement. It turns out that in this lab Mark's father has built a working transporter and involves the boys in an experiment to send the family cat. After the experiment, the cat appears to have been lost, but shows up laterin the basement. After thinking about the results of the experiment, they conclude that the transporter could be a time machine.
As all kids seem to be a little anxious, they decide to test out the time machine and see what the machine will do and decide to send the cat again, this time with a radio receiver that would give information as to the destination of the cat. An accident occurs and Mark gets transported along with the cat to Gettysburg Pennsylvania July 1863 on the eve of Pickett's Charge. Mark finds that the conditions of the battle are even worse than history teaches and that he barely has the stomach to handle the brutality of war.
The story ends with Mark's return to his time, place and family.
In this book, the author uses historical detail in just the right amount. In terms of being factual enough to lend some accuracy, while at the same time being general enough to allow the story to come through to young readers with an even steady flow. That is a positive when thinking about young readers and the need to expose them to all kinds of stories and books.
For young readers who might be interested in history, especially Civil War history, this book would be a great book for them to explore the time period. An even more important use for this book would be to introduce students to the time period and maybe create some interest in not only the time period, but also reading historical fiction as well.
As a whole this book was well written, fast paced, easy to understand and had an interesting storyline for readers of all ages, especially young readers.

ehughes

Hi I'm Zack, and I'm 16 and I'm from Amherst, MA. I thought that it was so cool that the kid went back in time, and got to see Pickett's charge actually going on! And he got to WARN the general (Mead I think) that it was coming. I thought it was really good. It makes history more fun I think

If you visit the Gettysburg battlefield, pause at The Angle and spend a moment beside the monument to Cushing and his men. You will be standing on the very spot described in Brown's gripping account of the battle. Cushing was a distant relative of mine, which makes this book special to me.

Before I read this book I had no idea who Lt. Alonzo Cushing was or what he did. This very enjoyable book provided a detailed insight into the life of Cushing as a cadet and through the Civil War until he met his death beside his cannons at Gettysburg. The author provides vivid descriptions of the life of a Union soldier during the war and the terrible battles that they fought. A very engrossing and enjoyable book. Recommended for anyone who likes a good read about mans courage during difficult times.

The series was really good...and I enjoyed reading it! But I didn't like having the romance in it with kids only 13 or 14 years old. That's too young for anyone to have a boy-girl realationship. Besides during the Civil War era kids DID not kiss until they were married! Otherwise the history you learn is great; I just wouldn't suggest reading it if you don't like romance. Try the American Adventure books; they're AWSOME!

This book is great. I like reading books that take place during the Civil War and I also like romance books. This was a combination of both. It is a good clean Christian book and was very well written. Once I started reading it I didn't stop till I finished.

Why do we need another book on Gettysburg? First, this book by Hugh Bicheno is part of the excellent Cassell Field of battle series, which is marked by high-quality maps, data and writing. Second, the historiography of the Battle of Gettysburg has become so entrenched in popular mythology that this examination by a foreign observer serves to put the battle in a different light. Bicheno admits that his book is primarily a synthesis of earlier works by Coddington and Pfanz, but nobody really expects original research on this heavily documented subject. The main value of this book are the excellent color maps, two very detailed orders of battle and the author's insight into what occurred. Readers may not agree with everything that Bicheno asserts (I did not), but his views do stimulate new thinking about the classic battle of the American Civil War.

Gettysburg consists of fifteen chapters, beginning with the pre-battle movements into Pennsylvania. There are three chapters on the first day fighting, eight on the second day, and three on the third day. Each chapter includes a full-page color map that depicts the primary action described in that chapter - an excellent methodology. In fact, the maps are the heart and soul of this work. On the negative side, the maps lack a scale, a chronology or exact enumeration of all units depicted, so it can be difficult to relate events on one map to events on another. On the plus side, the maps are simple but accurate and Bicheno has included a number of maps on the wheat field and the peach orchard - actions usually neglected in other accounts. Finally, Bicheno ends his narrative with a concluding chapter, a bibliography and four appendices. The photographs in this volume are decent but not particularly original (oddly, there is not a single photo of the modern battlefield).

Bicheno sees his task as correcting the inherent "Lost Cause" bias that claims that Lee lost this battle due a variety of unfortunate circumstances. Instead, Bicheno asserts that Meade and the Union army WON the battle, despite the best efforts of Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. The author also seeks to break the narrative of Gettysburg out of the conventional Buford-Longstreet-Chamberlain-Pickett-Armistead perspective that became entrenched by Michael Shaara's popular The Killer Angels (which completely ignored events on Culp's Hill), Bicheno is particularly persuasive when arguing which events were later considered important and why. For example, Chamberlain's defense of Little Round Top has been mythologized into one of the decisive events of the battle, but Bicheno asks why similar events like the bayonet charge of the 1st Minnesota, the stand of the 17th Maine at Plum Run or Greene's defense of Culp's Hill shouldn't be regarded in the same light. Indeed, why single out Chamberlain's 20th Maine for praise when the rest of Vincent's brigade fought just as hard for the other side of Little Round Top? In an example from the Confederate side, why does Pickett's division attract all the attention when the assault of Pettigrew's division accomplished more? Bicheno does cover all the standard episodes of the battle, but he puts them in perspective. Certainly anyone interested in Gettysburg should consider the amazing attack of Barksdale's Louisiana brigade at the Peach Orchard, just as much as Buford's or Chamberlain's actions.

One aspect of the book that will either intrigue or enrage readers is Bicheno's tendency to depict all the major characters as more or less flawed individuals (sometimes based on innuendo). In these pages, Lincoln appears as a devious politician, A P Hill has gonorrhea, Longstreet is a second-rate general who thinks he knows best, Chamberlain is a self-promoter (along with Sickles and Jubal Early), Rebel General Johnson pounds his men with a walking stick, Hancock claims credit for other officer's deeds and Lee is a listless commander, veering between apathy and bloodlust. Personally, I believe Bicheno goes too far in his interpretations, particularly in regard to his evident loathing of Lincoln. While Bicheno does bring a few obscure heroes to light - such as the Union Colonel Philippe de Trobriand on Cemetery Hill - there is too much negativism in these interpretations.

Overall, Gettysburg is a good account of the classic battle, particularly in the way that it sheds light on aspects of the fighting that are ignored in popular accounts. When you read Bicheno's account, particularly of the second day's fighting, you will see that actions on various sectors influenced each other and were not merely individual episodes. Bicheno concludes that, "it was no accident that Union reserves appeared at the right place time and again," and by linking the various sectors together in his narrative he is able to demonstrate General Meade's accomplishment in shuffling troops from one sector to another.

This is a very well-written book on the most famous battle of the Civil War.
Richard Holmes says 'it is a seriously good book,
by far the best thing written on the subject to date". As this
book is part of the "Fields of Battle" series and Holmes is the
series editor he cannot be regarded as impartial.
Regardless, I found the book fascinating. The theme is that the
Union won the battle rather than that the Confederates lost. He
also makes the point that Meade never received the credit due
to him.
The author expresses very forthright views on the principal players - there are no shades of grey.
Barlow and Sickles(as might be expected) have their reputations shot to pieces.
There is quite a good overall map and each chapter has a map
to enable the relevant action to be followed. There are also
photos of many of the principal players and of parts of the
battlefield. Finally the command tree of each army is set out and there are detailed casualty figures.
All in all a very good book.

The Osprey Order of Battle series presents the military enthusiast with a microanalysis of famous battles, in this case devoting six volumes to the pivotal Civil War Battle of Gettysburg. The first volume is devoted to the deployment of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia on July 1, 1863, while the second volume in the series does the same for the Army of the Potomac. The chief utility of this volume is for war gamming enthusiasts, who want to be able to position troops accurately for recreating the situation and trying to achieve a different objective; I have used the information to generate a brigade level version of the Battle of Gettysburg with the Civil War 2 computer game. The first day of the Battle of Gettysburg hinged on the absence of Stuart's cavalry for reconnaissance purposes and the critical failure of the Confederates to take Culp's Hill, thereby securing the high ground overlooking the city. This book provides comprehensive organization diagrams, an analysis of operational objectives, and most importantly where each unit was at what point during the first day of the battle. This includes the "tooth" combat elements and the vital "tail" support troops. Certainly, the Order of Battle books meet their objective in providing the most detailed information ever published about the great battles of history. In addition to Gettysburg this series has also covered the 1759 Battle of Quebec and the WWII Battle of the Ardennes in 1944.

This book is a superb addition to students of the Gettysburg Campaign as well as those of Lee's army. It details the Confederate order of battle on the first day of the great Pennsylvania battle. If one is seeking a more dramatic,enlarged account of the first day they might look elswhere. This book however is best suited for those of us that seek sterile details such as unit strengths, and individual company names of individual units(although not complete).The text is well written and informative. There are photos of the brigade commanders,color drawings of many of the unit flags and good maps. A minor mistake was in identifying a photo of Brig.General McGowan as that of Brig.General Iverson. This however is tiny flaw in a book filled with the minute detail many of us hunger for when it comes to that vaunted American Army..the Army of Northern Virginia.

There is no question that this map is a wonderful tool. If you're going to visit Gettysburg I stongly recommend it. I've taken mine with me on both trips to Gettysburg and it's been well worth it.

The map's best asset is it's mapping of the monuments. More than once while at Gettysburg I would know I was close to a specific monument but not sure exactly where it was in relation to my current location. Checking the map I was quickly able to Locate the monument I was seeking. This is especially helpful around the Little Roundtop & Devil's Den area on my second trip where I was trying to locate a number of monuments.

The map does have two drawbacks that I hope are corrected in future editions. First it does not show any of the public rest rooms on the battlefield. At Gettysburg the rest rooms have been hidden away so to speak. For example at Devil's Den there is one on the other side of Plum Run but hidden in the woods so as not to stand out. This makes them hard to find. The map shows the picnic areas but not the rest rooms.

The second drawback is the map does not in any way mark the one way roads. Confederate Ave along with several other roads associated with the auto tour are one way but the map doesn't have any of them marked. I was forced to take a map showing the auto tour route and use that to show me which roads were one way. With a map this detailed this is a surprising oversight.

Even with those two deficiencies this map is still the best one you'll find out there. If you're planning a trip to Gettysburg be sure to pick this up. Just make sure when you get there to pick up one of the cheapy park maps. They aren't nearly as good but they'll show you where the rest rooms and one way roads are.

I bought this map because I was headed to Gettysburg with my history-buff husband to see the site of this historical battle. When I got there, I discovered I didn't need the map, but wasn't sorry I had it. The map is also a very concise reference work on this 3-day battle that encompassed 25 square miles, and studying it was good preparation. However, you will find enormous resources at the site for learning about the battle. The National Park Service, as usual, has done an amazing job.

If you can afford it, I strongly urge you to hire a "Certified Battlefield Guide." For <$$$> (<$$$> per hour, 2 hour minimum) you get your own personal expert who will drive your car around the site, stopping when you want or when it is appropriate, bringing the historical events to life. We would have kept our guide all day if he had not had another commitment in the afternoon. But we did find that, with his information and this map, we could go back to the battlefield and wander the key areas and have a wonderful, interesting, moving experience. I'm glad I bought the map because it is very well done, but know I could have managed without it.

Having recently visited Gettysburg, I picked up Clasby's reconstruction of the fateful battle and found this to be an amazing book. Starting from the disastrous Union rout at Chancellorsville, Clasby takes us through the reasoning that led Robert Lee on his invasion of the North. In part, Lee was overly confident after repeated Confederate battlefield victories. More importantly, he was driven to desperate measures by the knowledge that Grant's Army of the Tennessee was on the point of seizing Vicksburg and sundering the Confederacy, making the ultimate outcome of the Civil War a foregone conclusion in favor of the Union. In many ways, Lee's bold drive into Maryland and Pennsylvania was strategically brilliant given his dire circumstances. This final throw of the dice was doomed however with Lee's commanders, especially J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry, letting him down at key times and Lee himself making critical errors at Gettysburg. Clasby's reconstruction of the battle, from the gathering of the forces, to the opening skirmishes west of Gettysburg, right to the bloody climax of Pickett's fateful charge is excellently told. The heart of the book however is a series of over a dozen large computer-manipulated photographs. Starting with present-day digital photos of key battleground sites, software was used to edit out all traces of present day structures like bridges, modern roads, railway lines etc. The edited images were then populated with photographs of Union and Confederate re-enactors to simulate actual scenes of fighting. The result is startling to say the least, as one views what appear to be actual battle photographs. However the pristine condition of the green grass (almost like mowed lawns!) and the absence of blood and gore, to say nothing of torn up earth, makes the pictures resemble stylized paintings or video game imagery rather than reconstructed reality. Towards the end, I found the photographs to be more a distraction, even an annoyance, rather than an aid to understanding. In fact, Clasby would have done better to include maps of the region along with his re-telling of the battle. The only map is the battlefield tour of Gettysburg offered by the National Park Service! Civil war buffs and all who remember Abraham Lincoln's immortal words at the Gettysburg cemetery after the battle will find this book a fascinating read.

Considering the extraordinary number of books published about the American Civil War, it is unusual when some previously unexplored niche is found by yet another new volume. But Robert Clasby's "Gettysburg: You Are There" is such a work. The heart of Clasby's book is formed by 15 photographs, 15 large computer enhanced and mainipulated images. In each case Clasby started with a modern photograph of a key combat site during the Gettysburg battle, ranging from Buford's defensive action on McPherson Ridge to the Angle of the third day's fighting. He then, with computer graphics, subtracted away or covered up post-battle clutter - monuments, roads, buildings - and then meticulously added photographs of reenactors taken upon many occasions, building up a reconstruction of what the fighting would have looked like in 1863: lines of battle, artillery batteries, dead soldiers in the fields. It's as close a photograph approach to depicting actual combat during the Gettysburg battle as anyone has yet achieved. I will not claim that the end results would be readily mistaken for something shot from the window of a time machine - the uniforms are too neat and clean, the flags too crisp, the smoke too sparse, the grass too green, plowed ground too untrampled. Overall, the impact is perhaps one of exceptionally good graphics from a new Civil War computer game rather than actual battlefield combat photography, but Clasby's efforts have produced something nonetheless worth looking at. Given National Park Service restrictions, it is unlikely that we will otherwise ever see hordes of musket-firing reenactors amidst the rocks of the Devils Den.

Being a student of the 14th Connecticut Infantry, a regiment which defended the stretch of stone wall immediately north of the Angle during the July 3rd charge, I was pleased to see two of Clasby's photographs showing that position, including one quite literally from over the shoulders of the Connecticut men towards the advancing Confederates.

I didn't find much new information with this text. Perhaps a novice reader would find much of this of interest. Given that these are a series of "lectures" of sorts from periodic seminars at a Gettysburg "think-tank", I found the reading to be somewhat flat - indeed, I felt like I was sitting in an auditorium listening to the respective authors "sounding-out" chapters for their next book! Glad I borrowed this from my local library!?#
Of interest however, was points made to question the often presupposed inevitability of Northern victory, as well as a recognition that the contributions of free/escaped blacks to the Union cause is attaining almost "mythical" status! A nod to political correct revisionism, perhaps?

Mr Boritt does an outstanding job in bringing together several noted historians under one roof. Each author goes to the key underlying tones and brings the reader right to the point without dragging him through endless studies of tactics and military leadership.

This work is well balanced and sheds light into a subject that is often talked about but very rarely on an educated playing field. Too often basic tactics and strategy are molded together using 20th Century research methods to explain past issues and ideals. This work does not suffer from that finite method of study.

The ". . .hard-won triumph of the North was far from inevitable." How very true! This book is a must for every Civil War bookshelf.

"The Battle of Gettysburg" is a book crammed with photographs and details of one of the Civil War's bloodiest frays. Neil Johnson attended the 125th reenactment of this grand battle and caught nearly all of the sights that make this single site so compelling. The text touches greatly on the historical aspects of the battle but also discusses the reenactment and the people who are so compelled to do military reenactment for a Hobby. This book is for children but adults who like a good picture book won't mind this one. It is a worthy book for any budding history buff's bookcase.