"Gettysburg: The Confederate High Tide" is the volume in the Time-Life Civil War series devoted to the most famous battle in American history. Author Champ Clark does a marvelous job of both providing the basic information for understanding the strategy and tactics of the battle as well as providing intriguing details for those more intimately familiar with the story of Gettysburg. For example, there is a photograph of Dan Sickle's shattered leg bone that was amputated on the second day of the battle and which he visited at the Army Medical Museum in Washington periodically for the rest of his life.

The book is divided into five chapters. "A Hard Road North" covers the movements of the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac north from Fredericksburg to begin converge on the town of Gettysburg on the last night of June in 1863. A very detailed map of the troop movements is provided. This chapter ends with a look at "Soldiering on Horseback," which looks at the trappings of the cavalry, including a McClellan saddle. "The Push to Seminary Ridge" tells of the first day of battle, July 1st, as John Buford's dismounted Union cavalry held off the advancing troops of Henry Heath's troops along the Chambersburg Pike. Most readers know of the strategic importance of getting the high ground at this battle, and Clark covers all of the key moves in this fatal dance. In this chapter particularly, Clark does a nice job of combining the military maneuvers with fascinating human elements of that day, from the stories of local civilians John Burns and Jennie Wade, to the battlefield friendship forged between Union General Francis Barlow and Confederate General John Gordon, and the story of Lt. Bayard Wilkinson, who commanded a Union battery and amputated his own leg after being hit by a shell.

"Through the Valley of Death" deals with the action on July 2nd, which begins with General Dan Sickle's idiotic redeployment of his III Corps off of Cemetery Ridge and ends with the defense of Little Round Top. The latter, with the pivotal role played by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's 20th Maine, is one of the centerpieces of the film "Gettysburg." The consequences of Sickle's blunder is covered in "Fury in the Peach Orchard," which we tend to remember up here in the Northland because General Winfield Scott Hancock ended up plugging the massive hole in the Union line created by Sickles with the 1st Minnesota regiment, whose 262 men attacked an entire Confederate brigade to buy time, at the cost of 82 percent of its men. This chapter ends with "An Artist's Portrayal of the Battle," which looks at the works of Peter Frederick Rothermel, who was commissioned by the state of Pennsylvania in 1866 to do a series of paintings of the battle.

Before the book's final chapter, we get "A Panoramic View of the Last Charge," a 400-foot cyclorama by French artist Paul Philippoteaux recreating Pickett's charge (If you visit the Gettysburg Battlefield, it is a must-see). Of course the high watermark of the Confederacy is covered in "'In Hell or Glory,'" which concludes with "Images of the Aftermath," taken by Mathew Brady's team a couple of weeks after the battle. However, the final two-page spread of the book offers the simple elegance of Abraham Lincoln's handwritten version of "The Gettysburg Address" super imposed over a photographic enlargement of Lincoln about to sit down after giving the most famous speech in American history.

Depicting the ebb and flow of troop movements on the battlefield is always a difficult task for an author. Words are helpful tools, and those scribed by capable historians frequently offer a fair representation of action. But in military history, it is the map that best unlocks the mysteries of the battlefield. John Imhof has provided Gettysburg affecinarios with a tremendous reference. Through the use of over 50 sequential maps, he has depicted the progression of the battle during the fateful afternoon and evening of July 2, 1863. Rather than presenting small maps of individual pieces of the battlefield, Imhof has focused on the battlefield as a whole, thereby providing the reader with a more complete vision of the interrelated events that occurred. John's research was based on participant accounts drawn from the Official Records, Bachelder Papers, the Southern Historical Society Papers, regimental histories, memoirs, the National Tribune, and much more. Maps, rather than chapters, form the divisions of each section of the book. Each map is followed by a heavily footnoted body of text that interprets them. The detailed commentary following each map is excellent. It is my opinion that there are few, if any, other battle histories that offer such a valuable and precise display of unfolding events.

A very descriptive and personal insight into one of the horrific battles of the Civil War. Through the soft southern voice of Mr. Foote you sense what it must have been like that fateful day. Ride along with General Lee that early morning as he reviews his troops, talks with his "Old War Horse" and contemplates the bloody battle to come.

Mr. Foote describes in great passionate detail the individual participants, strategy and events leading up to, during and after this battle. Take a glimpse back in time at the beautiful and tranquil rolling hills of Pennsylvania farmland. Soon to erupt to the most massive cannonade attack of the war. The once peaceful farmland will be covered by rivers of blood. Strewn throughout the countryside mounds of the dead and dying both man and beast .

After listening to this gripping audio tape, you will have experience the tragedies and horror of this battle both physically and psychologically from both sides. This account by Mr. Foote is a keeper and is a constant reminder of the ultimate sacrifice.

The savage fighting that burned across the rolling terrain of central Adams County, Pennsylvania, during the first three days of July 1863, has frequently been recounted by participants in conflicting ways. Though the veterans are long gone, many of the debates continue to captivate Gettysburg enthusiasts. One such little-described polemic involved men of Colonel Samuel Sprigg Carroll's Second Corps brigade, the Gibraltar Brigade, a "western" unit composed of regiments from Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana. The hard-bitten veterans of the Gibraltar Brigade had little time to relax after their hard march to Gettysburg. Early in the evening of July 2, three of Carroll's regiments were ordered from where they lay near Ziegler's Grove toward East Cemetery Hill which was under Confederate assault. The tired Ohioans, Indianians and West Virginians arrived at the Evergreen Cemetery Gate on the Baltimore Pike to find part of General Howard's Eleventh Corps line retreating up the east slope of the hill. The fiery Carroll deployed his men into line of battle and drove more than 50 Confederates from Captain R. Bruce Ricketts' Pennsylvania battery thereby securing this part of the Federal line. Or so it seemed, for unbeknown to those involved, disparate opinions of what actually happened in the July 2 gloom were soon to erupt into a sometimes caustic feud that pitted Second Corps veterans against General Howard's men and partisans. The dispute over who actually saved the Federal batteries on East Cemetery Hill commenced before the start of the Spring 1864 Campaign and endured into the twentieth century. Though such debates as the Meade-Sickles and Hancock-Howard controversies have received extensive coverage, little has been written on the Carroll-Howard quarrel. More than anything else, the protracted disagreement between the Second and Eleventh Corps veterans recounted in The Gibraltar Brigade on East Cemetery Hill reveals how comrades in battle could differ on specifics of that fighting and for such a long time. It also demonstrates how fervently these veterans contended for the honor of their regiments and corps.

My 7 year old son brought this book home from school this winter. He and my 11 year old daughter were spellbound listening to the story. The unique part of this book is the 10 or so different outcomes depending on choices presented throughout the story. They re-read the book several times, each time picking a different outcome. Gunfire at Gettysburg also stimulated their interest in history, as they asked many questions about the characters in the book. The storyline has many exciting moments such as encounters with soldiers, including General Lee. Since it was told from the perspective of a young boy, it was very easy to imagine yourself there during the battle. Since we read the book, we have been to visit Gettysburg twice in the last six months including attending the battle re-enactment last weekend. Now they have rented the movie "Gettysburg" ! Thank you for getting the kids away from Nickleodeon! There are several more titles in this series also. A format like this is a great way to teach history to kids.

I first read this superb little volume in high school and it had a profound impact on my later decision to become an artillery officer. It is also the only book to tell the tale of Gettysburg from the point of view of the artilleryman of both sides of the battlefield.

The author, an artilleryman himself, tells the tale of the men in both blue and grey who served the guns in the largest battle ever waged on the North American continent. From Calef's horse artillery battery that rode with Buford, through Pegram's Battalion and the Washinton Artillery of New Orleans, and finally to the great prepatory cannonade that failed to pave the way for Pickett's doomed attack on the third day of battle, the tale is told of men and animals sho served and pulled the guns and their supporting vehicles. Gallant battery commanders, one badly wounded and amputating his own leg with a pen knife, another told to hold at all costs, losing his battery to an overwhelming southern assault on the 2d day of battle, being wounded and taken to safety by his faithful trumpeter, and finally to gallant, Medal of Honor winning, Alonzo Cushing, swearing to give Armistead's infantry 'one more round' before being shot dead with the lanyard in his hand. None of the stories, however, is as stirring as the one of Hazlett's battery being ordered to the crest of Little Round Top, an almost verticle face on the rear of the hill without roads or trails of any kind. Calmly turning to his trumpeter to sound 'Forward' one can almost imagine the looks on the faces of his gunners and NCOs as they launched their battery at the gallop to and at the eminence. Horses strained at the harness, gunners dismounted to pull with the animals, now frothing at the mouth in their desperation to do their master's bidding. Finally, the battery's guidon crests the hill, the guns cresting the ridge along with the panting artilleryman and the exhausted, trembling horses.

One aspect the author does not leave out and that is the contribution of the horses to the guns, men, and the final effort. So well-trained that they maneuvered without any human direction save the calls from the battery trumpeter, they stoically endured murderous artillery and musket fire, dying in their harness, or mourning a lost companion after the action, their drivers sharing their grief. These loyal, magnificent animals should never be forgotten, and the author gives them their just due.

Even though this volume is out of print, it is a very important contribution to Civil War literature, and belongs on every historians shelf and in any bibliography of Gettysburg.

"When I was sixteen years of age I traded the golden harvestfields of grain for the red harvestfields of death." With these words the book Harvestfields of Death begins the epic journey of the men of the Twentieth Indiana Volunteers through the Civil War. An heroic regiment and an equally heroic endeavor to write this history. Craig Dunn is becoming the finest Civil War historian of his generation.

Tucker takes the entire battle beginning to end and places it together for the novice reader. Where does the "first-timer" look for a well rounded book on the battle? He or she may find it here. Tucker does an excellent job getting the basis for the battle complete while covering issues such as Lee's Campaign, Heth's attack, Longstreet's flank march, Little Round Top, Culp's Hill, the Pickett/Pettigrew charge and of course Lee's retreat from Pennsylvania. Don't let the word novice scare you or the fact that it was written in the late fifties sway your decision. Tucker includes many details and backs them up with roughly 400 pages of information valuable to anyone looking to gain further insight on Gettysburg. Does Tucker grab everything common in books covering certain days or events in Gettysburg? No. Though for someone trying to understand and get the general format of the battle, this is the book to read.

For my newest research project, I have been reading fairly extensively in the literature on how societies emerging from oppressive regimes deal with the legacies of political violence and human rights abuses. This book is one of best collections on the issue I've read. There are two major strengths that make this book stand out. The first is the historical breadth. By looking at not only the Latin American cases, or South Africa, but including the American Civil War and the Nuremburg trials, the editors present us with a larger, more encompassing view of the issues at stake than one usually finds in such works. This breadth should also help keeping any one group from being too smug that at least *they* weren't involved in such abuses, as several contributions make clear, for example, the US role in human rights abuses in Latin America. The second strength is that the essays are written by a combination of academics and human rights activists. This offers the reader a blend of theoretical insights and overviews, while also providing grounded case studies, where we can see the theory in action, so to speak. The contributions of the human rights activists keeps the academics from appearing to discuss merely abstract concepts, and the academics (usually) provide a wider framework for what the activists are telling us. I do have a few minor gripes, but they are minor. Some of the academics seem to forget that there are living, breathing people involved in these issues. Abstractions may be useful, but one shouldn't forget they must ultimately link to people, or risk being worse than useless. And the other gripe is simply that I would have liked to see more engagement with the post-Soviet issues, but that is a personal bias. In short, this book is highly recommended. It it suggested reading for anyone interested in how people and governments around the world are trying to come to terms with one of the most disgraceful legacies of the 20th century.

Reprint of an extremely scarce 16-page pamphlet; it was privately printed in 1879 and limited to 100 copies. The author, who served in the 19th Indiana Infantry, sought all obtainable data and facts from the surviving officers in preparing this record of the brigade's superb fight at Gettysburg.