There are descriptions of battles so elegantly told that the horror is somewhat mitigated by the eloquence of Shaara’s writing. He’d been scapegoated by other Confederate officers after the war for the defeat at Gettysburg, but Shaara’s version of events based on letters and diaries of those involved makes a convincing argument that it was Lee whose stubborn refusal to disengage and pick a better spot for a fight was the main culprit for the Confederate failure. He offers a portrayal of General Lewis Armistead, one the the three Confederate General's serving in General Pickett's division. Though it did not prove a runaway box office hit, it did enough to lift The Killer Angels onto the bestseller lists. According to the NY Times article I referenced earlier, Shaara “resurrected Chamberlain as a hero, and he has remained one of the most popular figures associated with the battle ever since.

With this you not only get the raw history, but you are able to put the complicated pieces together and understand things like the battle at Gettysburg.

Shaara makes the case that Lee was already suffering from the heart condition that would eventually kill him. There’s a reason this book is a classic of its genre, and it’s simultaneously an enlightening and painful read.

His son, Jeff Shaara, has continued on the course his father charted, telling the stories behind the other great battles of the civil war, as well as going back in history further to create historical novels about the American Revolution and the Mexican-American war. It was the first book to give the reader the chance to hear the story of the war from the actual participants. Meanwhile, on the Union side, Buford is in charge of a cavalry division, and disappears after the first day.

It was interesting to get to know more about Grant -- I'm curious now to see if I can get my hands on his memoirs. Shaara puts the reader in Gettysburg, not only in the location but in the minds of the people who were there. This is one of those books that will sit with me for a while, and one that reminds me that even when justified—and I have a much higher threshold for justification than most rulers/countries over the course of human history—war is an awful, horrific, terrible thing that indelibly transforms the lives of all those involved, whether directly engaged in the battle, the family members of those combatants, or the civilians whose homes and towns are destroyed in the process.

The Killer Angels relates the thoughts and motivations of the leaders in the battle of Gettysburg, as well as details of the crucial actions across the battlefield over three days, as experienced by the leaders and soldiers.I'm listening to this in July, the same month as the battle was fought, sweating my butt off doing light chores. Jeb Stuart did let Lee down by not showing up at Gettysburg until the third day because he was riding around the east flank of the Union army with his three best brigades.