Unlike a previous review, there are stories in here that don't deal with Gettysburg at all. This is a "Top 40" women of the CW, not Gettysburg. And some of these women contributed nothing worth reading, let alone writing about. Poorly written.

An eighth grade project where students rewrote biographies of Civil War people in first person was nearly impossible for a hundred eighth graders until I discovered this book. The accounts of forty women at Gettysburg from townspeople to wives of both sides give girls an equal opportunity to relate and connect to the people and events of the Civil War. Even with the "big names" such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman, Sarah Emma Edmonds, Clara Barton, Rose Greenhow, and Mary Todd Lincoln, women doctors, a few more spies, women soldiers, abolitionist/suffragettes, there were not enough women's biographies for the females in my middle school's eighth grade.

There is no dearth of men's biographies. I was so desperate the last time my class did a Civil War reenactment that one girl ended up as the wife of Arthur MacArthur since the encyclopedia described him as a hero of the Civil War and the father of Douglas MacArthur. We assumed Arthur was married! The girl had to extrapolate the barebones information into a story from Mrs. MacArthur's point of view as did generic nurses in the Sanitation Commission or bits gleaned from the indexes of the Civil War epics by Shelby Foote; creative but difficult for many.

This is the second year using Women at Gettysburg, and I hope to bring the time, the people, and the events alive even better this time.

Conklin presents a well-researched view of the roles of women in the Civil War by concentrating on those who were involved in the Battle of Gettysburg. By focusing on one battle, one place, she is able to give us a broad range of what women could do to aid the war effort. Many are common women forced to open their homes to the thousands of wounded from both sides out of compassion and necessity. Some are volunteer nurses who travel with the hospitals. There are soldiers - the anonymous woman whose body was found in uniform on the ground after Pickett's Charge. There are nuns, wives, scavengers and helpmates. Women who worked along side the men to fight the respective causes. We can apply what we learn here to other places in America during this turbulent time and realize that women were more than just the girl who waited at home or the tireless nurse. They were an essential element of the war effort that has been greatly underestimated and ignored. Presented in a format that is both personal and easily accessible to all, it's a must-read!

JD Coleman has attempted to illustrate how the battles around Wonju were the high-water mark for the Chinese, much as Gettysburg was the beginning of the end for the Confederates. There is an interesting account of a task force all but wiped out in what became known as "massacre valley" but most of the book has been recounted elsewhere, in greater depth. The author spends a substatial amount of time on the 187th Airborne RCT (his old outfit) and while this is interesting in its detail, the author tends to dwell a little too long on it. Most of these accounts revolve around one or two companies and this gives a disjointed perspective which magnifies things out of proportion to what's going on elsewhere.

This is a fascinating first-person account of the brutality of the Forgotten War. It's equally fascinating to us today how America and China both paid dearly to defend the two Koreas, with Red China losing 10-20 times as many men as the U.S., and 50 years later, neither country is appreciated (or liked) by their respective protege. Wars, indeed, are silly and futile, especially when you die for others.

The book details the bloody battles around Wonju in early 1951. While the major phases of the Korean War had ended by Christmas 1950, the Chinese, under the leadership of the psychotic general Peng Te-hwai (Peng Dehuai), only began to launch their massive human wave attacks in 1951, pretty much all of which ended in failures and cost the Chinese half a million lives but also inflicted heavy losses on U.S./UN forces. Wonju is a prominent example of the insanity of war, especially at an individual level. The accounts here are a little too lengthy and confusing at times, but Coleman makes an attempt to provide a comprehensive story. The bravery of the young American soldiers fighting for a people unappreciative of their actions (even the Rhee gov't resented American intervention, despite the fact it came very close to being swallowed by their North brothers who had no love for them) comes out alive in the pages, but you can also feel for the peasant "volunteer" soldiers of Red China who died like ants rushing into a fire, so their comrades behind could march on.

A worthy read for everyone interested in military history... and the history of human suffering.

It's really GOOD and I can't believe it!
Also it was very resonable price.
I'm fully satisfied with my purchase this book.
Wow!

I bought this book as a reference book. The profiles on each officer were well done and contained much information. However, there is no index in this book and only corp commanders are listed in the table of contents. Unless one knows the corp in which a particular officer served, it makes it very difficult to find any information. It is difficult to use as a reference. The book contains no footnotes, end notes, or a bibliography. The suggested readings at the end of each profile were helpful.

This book is a comprehensive listing of all officers (brigade-level or higher), both Union and Confederate, who fought at Gettysburg. It provides a brief synopsis of their careers prior to the battle, the role they played in the battle itself, and a concluding synopsis of their careers afterwards. Its scope is all-encompassing: no officer of any significance is omitted (to my knowledge). The book is most informative, and I found myslef reading it constantly for weeks after I purchased it (and since each entry is essentially self-contained, one can read brief snippets at a time and still glean valuable information). The author also provides short bibliographies for each figure as well. As the first reviewer has noted, its main shortcoming is organizational: it has a brief table of contents and no index (and given the nature of this book, I cannot understand why this was omitted). The photographs included are also of uneven quality; indeed, some are quite fuzzy. The maps are generally sound, but are relatively few in number (only nine). These factors notwithstanding, I rate the book highly because of the considerable research that went into it and its overall value as a source for all interested in the battle of Gettysburg and the Civil War in general.

Wheeler has written his history of the battle of Gettysburg and the campaign leading up to it in narrative style, without footnotes. This works if you're a great writer like Catton or Foote. But Wheeler is not a great writer; his use of language is quite pedestrian, so the "story" aspect of the book doesn't really work. Also, without footnotes, some of the dialogue and the accounts of individuals' experiences becomes suspect. Is this material accurate, or is he making it up? The depiction of the battle is quite simplistic, giving rather little attention to events on the Confederate left. Wheeler puts great emphasis on General Stuart's activities before the battle, which makes sense when you realize that he has decided to be one of the Stuart-scapegoaters (as opposed to the anti-Longstreet and critical-of-Lee and where-was-Anderson crowds). In pursuit of that thesis, he puts thoughts in Stuart's head in a way which, without corroborating quotes from primary sources, seems unjustified. Overall, this book reads rather like a pamphlet written for battlefield tourists or an indifferent young adult history textbook. It isn't serious scholarship, and I don't recommend it.

I visited the Gettysburg battlefield for the first time in Nov 99. Not being that familiar with the events of Gettysburg, I decided to read a book about it before I traveled to the site. I was very fortunate to have selected Gettysburg 1863 by Richard Wheeler. The book thoroughly explains the events surrounding the battle of July 1863. In addition to the outstanding narrative, Mr. Wheeler has included many drawings and maps that further detail the battles fought and the military strategy of the two armies. The book was very easy to read and extremely interesting. I couldn't put it down. By the time I arrived at Gettysburg, I felt like I had been there before. Thanks to this well written book, my visit to Gettysburg was twice as enjoyable. If one wants a quick, complete and accurate history of the Battle of Gettysburg, this is the book. Any sincere Civil War buff should have this book in his or her library.

This book takes the reader out on a limb and trys to build a hypothetical story as to the South winning the war starting at Gettysburg.

At least it was entertaining, at most it's a lively spin on events that actually took place with the addition of a more Southern slant on history.

Good for those with a vivid imagination and a thirst for "What ifs"

I liked it because it had a happy ending, unlike the actual historical event.

You will not learn anything new in this book that you don't already know. The book consists of 4 or 5 different essays written by 4 or 5 different authors. It isn't a clear book describing the civil war. I was looking for a book that described each of the reasons for the start of the civil war. This book didn't do that. Each essay tried to make a different point - but it was not clear. The book was too scattered for me. So if you want a more in depth, and more straight forward book about the start of the civil war - try another author.

In the face of recent debates over the Confederate flag flying over South Carolina's capital, a lot has been said regarding the author's subject. Some contend that the war was over state's rights and others contend it was over the issue of slavery. It has even been suggested by many sources that Lincoln came to oppose slavery late. I bought this book hoping to read an author who both knew history and could examine the facts impartially. I clearly found both.

The editor explores pre-Civil War history through the voices of the main figures and groups. In the process I discovered that both states rights and anti-slavery contentions are correct. However, these two are so closely tied that it hardly matters, as you will discover through the eyes of the players. Please read this book. This book should be required reading in every high school history class in America.

I found the book to be the best slice of easy reading history I've ever read, and highly applicable to related debates of the 21st century.

Incidentally, if you are interested in the unique origins of the Republican party, the formation of our two parties, the demise of early parties, the early black leaders, the early womens' movements or even early trends in women's literature, this is an amazing read regarding those topics alone. Can't put it down, highligher in hand stuff.

The World Will Long Remember is as the rest of the title states a guide to the battle of Gettysburg. This book is very good for the non-historian, for the person wanting to know about the battle. The book includes pictures of the generals commanding divisions and/or regiments. It takes the reader through each day at each point on the battlefield. Included in the appendix are the official rosters of both the northern and southern armies at Gettysburg. The book is written as if the reader is on a tour as each major section includes not only the location but also the fact that it states this is Stop 1 or Stop 2, etc. The book is also written as guide for the individual who wants to tour the battlefield for the first time or for the umpteenth time. With this bok in hand and time, the visitor can get a good picture on what took place on the battlefield.

Ms. McDonald's book makes it easy for someone who is not so interested in learning all the details of the U.S. Civil War to have a solid understanding and appreciation of what took place at Gettybury in July 1865. This book is a must-read for anyone who really wants to enjoy the Gettysburg National Military Park. It gives the reader a basic, solid and easy-to-read background of the Civil War. The book includes maps and photographs that really help you get a feel for where you are and what each part of the Battlefield looked like during the war. The only problem with the book is that it's a bit too bulky to take along if you actually want to do a field trip to the Battlefield.

Another Carl Smith Osprey effort, though this one isn't quite as bad as his Chancellorsville. The maps by Adam Hook are quite good, but I found it annoying that there wasn't a _single_ overhead view of the battlefield showing the reader the distinctive "fish hook" formation of the Union lines. The problem, though, isn't with the maps, it's with the text.

Like his other Osprey books, Smith's text has a number of factual errors and sloppy editing. Some of the errors are fairly minor, like Captain W. A. Tanner of the Courtney Artillery (Confederate II Corps artillery) being named Turner, but when there are so many of them you start to really wonder about the accuracy of the work. For instance, he suggests that Buford heard about the Confederates marching through Gettysburg on the 26th when he arrived in the town on the 30th. In actuality Buford new of this before he entered Gettysburg on the 30th because Union troops went through the town on the 28th.

The previous review mentions the wounding of Hancock, and how it shows Smith's accuracy and the "bar he set for himself". This is rather ironic as Smith gets the incident wrong. In the book he makes a big deal of a bullet smashing the pommel of Hancock's saddle, sending shrapnel and a nail into his thigh, and bouncing off his belt buckle. The buckle supposedly saved Hancock's life, leaving him with a wound that was "merely painful". I would like to know the source of this (there are no footnotes or end notes), for that's not what happened. According to Earl Hess (_Pickett's Charge: The Last Attack at Gettysburg_) and Jeffry Wert (_Gettysburg: Day Three_) the bullet hit the pommel and entered Hancock's leg. A nail was removed from his leg, but the bullet remained until August when it was finally pulled out. The bullet broke part of his hip, and he spent most of the rest of his service in the war riding in an ambulance. As for the "smashed" pommel, that is not mentioned in the other books. In fact Hess brings in evidence to suggest that the nail did not come from the pommel but might have been in the musket when it was fired! In any case, Smith appears to have made up the part about the belt buckle.

There are plenty of books about Gettysburg, but admittedly the Osprey book fills an important niche: a short overall volume on the battle. The many errors, however, perpetuate inaccuracies in the minds of those who use this as their only reference to the battle. I'd give it 1.5 stars due to its length and the maps but 2 stars is too generous. The Osprey books are usually much better than this one. I can recommend Osprey's 6 volume Order of Battle series for Gettysburg. If you want a single short book on the battle buy the guide they sell at the battlefield.

Carl Smith's first book for Osprey Military is a winner. The book, #52 of the Osprey campaign series, gives a very detailed look at the background, battle, and post battle manuevering of the Confederate and Union armies. Smith is to be praised for his detailed order of battle. The text is supplemented with excellent three 3-dimensional maps that show a section of the battle, such as Little Round Top. There are six other maps and a plethora of pictures. A special bonus are the battle painting by Adam Hook which help to bring the battle to life. The 128 page book is 32 pages longer than the average Osprey Campaign book, but has the same price. The books only weakness is that in being so detailed, some readability is sacrificed. However, the text flows smoothly and the topic is gripping.

"Gettysburg 1986: High Tide of the Confederacy" is indeed a good choice for taking with you on a visit to the National Battlefield at Gettysburg, although be careful what continual use will do to the binding of this Osprey Military Campaign Series volume (however, the front and back cover flaps are useful for marking particular pages as your tour Gettysburg). Carl Smith's volume is organized like most books in this series, looking at the origins of the campaign, detailing the opposing commanders and armies, and then providing a day-by-day analysis of the three days of the battle. There are not as many maps as I would have expected, or have liked to have seen, but those included are pretty good. There are photographs of as many participants as possible throughout the book as well as photographs of the battlefield taken shortly after it was over and battle scene artwork by Adam Hook. The descriptions of the engagement are straightforward, detailing what happened when and where and to who. Do not expect in-depth analysis or lyrical narratives from this volume, because the emphasis is clearly on a detailed recitation of the relevant facts. I was struck by Smith's observation that the nail that pierced Winfield Scott Hancock when he was hit at the Bloody Angle probably came from the pommel of the general's saddle. I think that is a particularly telling detail of the standard Smith sets for himself in this volume.

Ironically, one of the strongest sections of this book for me is the one that deals with what happened on July 4th and afterwards, which looks at Lee's retreat across the Potomac back into Virginia. This volume also claims to have one of the most detailed order of battles for the combatants at Gettysburg yet published, but, of course, Osprey's Order of Battle series, which offers six volumes up on this pivotal Civil War battle (both sides for each of the three days) goes well beyond this effort. The book also includes some hints for wargaming the Battle of Gettysburg and suggestions for further reading. I would agree with Smith's notion that this is the most popular battle refought by wargamers (so why is this volume #52 I wonder?), usually testing the hypothesis that if Lee could have gotten the high ground on the First Day he might have carried the battle. However, I have always been interested in Meade's ability to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia after repelling Pickett's charge. Either way, this volume is of above average utility in that regard.

This collection of essays about the Battle of Gettysburg is an unusual mixture of descriptions of selected people and incidents inter-cut with the author's personal reflections from today's (© 1994) perspective. The author presumes that the reader is familiar with the participants, geography, sequence of events, and details. I probably should not have bought the book because I don't yet know enough about the battle.

Gramm's descriptions of historical events often left me wondering and in a few instances they are intentionally incomplete. Describing Lincoln's reaction when asked what he should do about slavery, Gramm says only that "Lincoln's dry and more or less sardonic reply is well know." Gramm doesn't tell me what it was and I don't know (p. 22 in the Indiana U. Press paperback). Elsewhere Gramm reports "'If I can't whip Bobby Lee with this,' said George McClellan, waving the copy of Lee's orders-but the rest of the story is well known." (p. 72) Not to me.

Gramm's approach to the history of the battle wobbles. Sometimes he writes straight historical detail: "For the Second [Wisconsin regiment], 302 present, 26 killed in action, 155 wounded, 52 missing: 233. . . . The Seventh, with 370 originally present, defended 35 yards, losing 39 killed, 103 wounded, 52 missing during the whole battle. During the war the 7th Wisconsin enrolled 1,714 men: 1,029 originally mustered in plus 685 recruits throughout its service . . . ." (p. 161)

Sometimes he indulges in careless approximations: After stating, "Gettysburg receives on the average 3, 018,123 visitors per year, who spend $81,077,687," Gramm astounded me by saying, "I have made these figures up, but they will do." (p. 2) If Gramm wants to make this point, why would he not go to the little trouble it would take to gather the data?

Sometimes he offers chat and speculation, perhaps intending to be witty or disarming: "maybe Archibald was a pain in the neck, a self-righteous, teetotaling ass" (p. 121); "that incredible jerk Kilpatrick" (p. 26); "Quite possibly Lee blew his cork, and Stuart cried" (p. 25); and regarding Heth, "Somewhere he had requisitioned too big a hat and had stuffed a wad of newspaper inside to make things fit, and the bullet's impact was cushioned by the newsprint. The moral is that it's good to steal hats." (p. 66)

At their best, Gramm's "meditations on war and values" are trite or puzzling: "The idea that voting is nonviolent is wistful; the physical violence is merely at one or two removes." (p. 29). "The battlefield itself is like a holy book., motionless yet always moving, palpable but always new. Similarly all the world: infused, shot through, with mystery, terror and beauty, changeless but changing as we are changing" (p. 45).

But often his "meditations" are attacks. Sometimes they are aimed at fundamental and evangelical Christians whom he calls "fundagelicals" (p. 121). An example: "Fundamentalists are sinister. Most American 'evangelicals' are fundamentalists who shop at Marshall Field's." (p. 242)

More often they are attacks on American culture and values.

"Today a young black man in an urban ghetto is worse off than his father or grandfather was. If you are poor, young and black you have as little hope as a slave had. . . . America is dying in the streets." (p. 23)

"We have been expending everything, and putting nothing of a moral nature back in. . . . Out goes the children's education, out go the poor, the homeless, the Hispanics and blacks, out go the old people, out goes Nature itself; out go Vietnam vets and 300,000 Iraqis . . . In come the Japanese." (p. 31)

"But now all the glory is spent, and America is a geriatric debauchee rolling downhill in a Japanese wheelchair." (p. 107)

"The New American Dream has become a cruel reality. . . . We are beyond all appeals to honor. We are about to be overwhelmed. . . . we don't believe in what we are doing." (p. 242)

To me, Gramm's ideas are tired, his insights are banal, and his ranting is mostly confused, stream-of-consciousness, self-indulgent ruminations woefully in need of a heavy-handed or even ruthless editor. Perhaps somewhere behind the jumbled gush of words there are fresh ideas that with more discipline and rigor could have been expressed coherently to readers.

I expected much better than this from a book about the Battle of Gettysburg and subtitled "meditations on war and values."

If the book is redeemed for me to any degree, it is largely by the essay on Dorsey Pender.

To any person who has visited the Gettysburg battlefield and experienced its spiritual quality, this book is definitely for you. This book brought back the rush of visiting the battlefield with a crushing force. The author describes the battlefield in terms of sight, sound, smell, and sometimes touch in such detail that a past visit is recalled and an additional visit is desired. Anyone who is anticipating a visit to Gettysburg would find this a useful preparatory source. The locations and geographic aspects of the battle are vividly described. The only down side of the book is that detailing some of the author's "Values" which I find a curious combination of sixties liberalism and latterday pessimism. I found the historical analysis of the battle to be accurate but challenging to many of the commonly held tenets which are printed about the Civil War and the battle. More than anything else, the author's love and reverence of the Gettysburg National Park flows out of this book like a river.

Kent Gramm's, "Gettysburg- A Meditation on War and Values", is the oddest "war" book I've ever read- and the most wonderful. Gramm's novel approach posits the Battle of Gettysburg as a lens through which to view contemporary society for the purpose of examining two basic questions: "Are we better off today than we were in the Civil War era?" and "Have we earned the sacrifice that those soldiers made?" In Gramm's opinion, we fall woefully short of positive answers to both of them.

Gramm attempts to show that we have squandered both the ideals and the dreams those men fought for through a combination of purposeful action and outright indifference. We have, he argues, fallen headlong into a morass of thoughtless materialism. The result of our tumble is an unforgivable lack of any sense of nobility in our society on either the collective or individual level. Whether or not one agrees with the author's conclusions, they are argued cogently and with tremendous passion, and are, at a minimum, quite thought-provoking.

Gramm's history is as well-done as his sociology, rendered in a semi-conversational style that is eminently readable, informative, and entertaining. His accounts of events and people from the Battle of Gettysburg are fascinating and spot-on, with the effect of making his social critique that much more moving (his brief study of Confederate general Dorsey Pender is especially effective in that sense).

"Gettysburg" is a brilliant book that not all will find to be such- if one prefers his history "straight up", Gramm's approach will likely be rather annoying. But for anyone willing to try history "with a twist", written from what is clearly a deep reservoir of feeling and experience, this book will prove to be a treasure.

At the very beginning of "Gettysburg", Gramm justifies his whole approach with a Thoreau quote: "...it is the province of the historian to find out not what was, but what is." Perhaps it is the province of the reader of history to do the same.

Having read and studied the author's book carefully, the most accurate way I know how to describe it is simply as "factually challenged history." That there are many omitted facts from Nesbitt's book one wonders why the attempt was made in the first place. If someone is looking for a well reasoned treatise on the Lee-Stuart issues at play in the Gettysburg campaign, they need look elsewhere.

Nebitt's SABER AND SCAPEGOAT redefines the depths to which an author bent on historical advocacy is willing to stoop. Nesbitt's attempt to explain why "Jeb" Stuart should not be blamed for any part of the Confederate failure in the 1863 Pennsylvania campaign could not pass History 101, let alone be considered as serious military prose. The author's incredibly narrow criteria that employs only selective use of some portions of certain documents, while ignoring vital evidence such as the historical context in which ALL of the orders were written, Lee's important restraining orders, Stuart's own actions at Haymarket, Dover and elsewhere throughout the ill-fated eight day "raid" that show he was following an agenda all his own, and much much more, reduce this work to a poorly organized, intellectually shabby exercise. With such a spotty and incomplete use of all the available evidence, Nesbitt's work should be viewed with greatest amount of caution and skepticism possible.

It's about time someone has taken the initiative to defend Stuart's rightful actions during the Gettysburg Campaign. Nesbitt's book explains fully what I have known all along. Lee had cavalry with him and failed to use them. That is Lee's fault. End of story. These people that feel the need to keep the blame from Lee and continually find "scapegoats" need to get over it. This was an excellent book that I will recommend to anyone who wants the real truth of the battle of Gettysburg.