The Killer Angels: A Novel of the Civil War

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Once Chamberlain had a speech memorized from Shakespeare and gave it proudly, the old man listening but not looking, and Chamberlain remembered it still. ‘What a piece of work is man…in action how like an angel!’ And the old man, grinning, had scratched his head and then said stiffly, ‘Well, boy, if he’s an angel, he’s a murderin’ angel.’”

Shaara depicts Lee as being the most loved man on both sides, but I don’t learn quite enough about why this is so. It’s obvious the Confederate soldiers are willing to put themselves in harm’s way to serve him and ‘The Cause.’ ‘The Cause’ is voiced as being states’ rights which includes the right to own slaves. So, all in all, probably a 5 star read, as if for no other reason than that it made this war's history more alive to me than anything I ever learned in school / high school. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the college professor turned Colonel who joins the army out of a sense of idealism and devotion to the concept of freedom. Shaara carries [the reader] swiftly and dramatically to a climax as exciting as if it were being heard for the first time.” — The Seattle Times I am not really a fan of books about war. I have trouble envisioning the action and the maneuvers of the troops, and I find that I get lost in the details and just don't really care about the characters.WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • After more than a quarter of a century and three million copies in print, Michael Shaara’s Civil War classic, The Killer Angels, remains as vivid and powerful as the day it was originally published. One of the most beautiful women ever to grace the silver screen, Hedy Lamarr also designed a secret weapon against Nazi Germany. General Robert E. Lee: There is another fight comin' tomorrow, and we need you. We need every man, God knows. You must take what I have told you, and learn from it, as a man does. The characters of the men involved shine through and in an epilogue we find out what happened to them afterwards. Having got to know them from the excellent way Michael Shaara got inside their heads to explain why they acted the way they did, we can extrapolate out how the rest of their life would have gone from the few facts included.

This is a novel, so it's a fictionalized account of the Battle of Gettysburg, but Shaara clearly did his research. Written from the shifting perspective of the main players in the battle and drawn from the personal correspondence of these men as well as the historic record and Shaara's own embellishments and best guesses, this book explains the nuances of the battle and of the war more clearly than I've read before. I've been taught the Civil War from the perspective that there was a clear side to root for. I've known for a long while that the reality was murkier than this, but Shaara helped make this murkiness more apparent to me (or perhaps I'm just now of an age where I can embrace murkiness better than I could in high school and college). There is a distinction here between the Cause and the people doing the fighting. I don't think that's a distinction I've often seen. This is a different kind of army. If you look at history you’ll see men fight for pay, or women, or some other kind of loot. They fight for land, or because a king makes them, or just because they like killing. But we’re here for something new. I don’t . . . this hasn’t happened much in the history of the world. We’re an army going out to set other men free.” The book starts with a Foreword that gives details of the armies and people involved. Four main chronological sections cover the days of Monday, June 29, 1863, through Friday, July 3, 1863, with the text alternating between the viewpoints of various Union and Confederate participants. An Afterword tells the reader what happens to several of the key characters. With the exception of the Foreword, which is written in the present tense, the entire book is written in the third person, past tense. I enjoyed reading this, and came to a better understanding of the ark of the civil war and the connection of the battles and campaigns than I previously had (speaking as a History major and military history enthusiast, that's saying something.

Die starken Schilderungen der handelnden Personen geht auch mit dem allgemeinen Schreibstil von Michael Shaara einher – THE KILLER ANGEL S liest sich schlichtweg grandios, spannend und enorm lehrreich. Nach der Lektüre hat man das Gefühl, nicht nur viel über die Schlacht von Gettysburg gelernt, sondern diese Schlacht auch verstanden (!) zu haben, Shaara bringt das gesamte Thema dem Leser sehr instruktiv und plastisch nahe. Beginning with the famous section about Longstreet's spy, Henry Thomas Harrison, gathering information about the movements and positions of the Federals, each day is told primarily from the perspectives of commanders of the two armies, including Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet for the Confederacy, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and John Buford for the Union. [2] Most chapters describe the emotion-laden decisions of these officers as they went into battle. Maps depicting the positioning of the troops as they went to battle, as they advanced, add to the sense of authenticity as decisions are made to advance and retreat with the armies. The author also uses the story of Gettysburg, the largest battle in the history of North America, to relate the causes of the Civil War and the motivations that led old friends to face each other on the battlefield.

Being an Aussie, the American Civil war was just something I was taught at school, it had no real relevance. Undoubtedly, US citizens have a totally different perspective from their much closer connection. So I understand if for some of you the book is overload of stuff you've been exposed to all your life. Publication of The Killer Angels and release of the movie have had two significant influences on modern perceptions of the Civil War. First, the actions of Chamberlain and the 20th Maine Infantry on Little Round Top have achieved enormous public awareness. Visitors touring the Gettysburg Battlefield rank the 20th Maine monument as their most important stop. Second, since Shaara used the memoirs of General James Longstreet as a prime source for his history, the book has renewed the modern re-evaluation of Longstreet's reputation, damaged since the 1870s by the Lost Cause writers, such as Jubal A. Early. The Last Full measure was good, but seemed to drag on forever. Maybe that was the point, though. It was a 2 year slog of trench warfare and horrible casualties while the Union slowly ground Lee's forces down. 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.In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation’s history, two armies fight for two conflicting dreams. One dreams of freedom, the other of a way of life. More than rifles and bullets are carried into battle. The soldiers carry memories. Promises. Love. And more than men fall on those Pennsylvania fields. Bright futures, untested innocence, and pristine beauty are also the casualties of war. Michael Shaara is the writer of the second book chronologically but first one published, "The Killer Angels" telling the story about the four days of the Battle of Gettysburg from the points of view of the general officers of both the Union and Confederate Armies in the American Civil War (1861-1865). The research was impeccable and telling the story from the viewpoints of the various generals absolutely fascinating. The honorable Robert E. Lee, Chamberlain (loved his gracious salute to the surrendering army), and the ever fascinating U.S. Grant.

Chamberlain’s men fired until they ran out of bullets and then Chamberlain in an act of desperation yelled: a b "Gettysburg". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on August 16, 2016 . Retrieved June 17, 2016. The Tuscaloosa News - Google News Archive Search". Archived from the original on 2015-12-22 . Retrieved 2015-12-11.General Robert E. Lee: [Lee nods and sighs; there is a short pause] It is the opinion of some... excellent officers that you have let us all down.