Review of Michael Shaara's "The Killer Angels"

ISBN 0-345-34810-9

This remarkable historical novel describes four days at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in the summer of 1863 in what many consider to be the turning point of the American Civil War and the high water mark of the Confederacy.

The story opens with General Robert E. Lee leading a proud, unbeaten Confederate Army north into Pennsylvania in the hope of destroying the the Union Army by provoking it into an attack. It closes on General Lee leading his battered forces on a retreat south to the safety of Virginia after having lost thousands of men in furious assaults on Union positions.

Mr Shaara has written a superb (Pulitzer Prize winning) novel whose historical accuracy is unquestioned. I quibble in wondering why the heroic suicidal charge of the 10th Minnesotans on the second day of the battle was left out. Nevermind, the focus on Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the 20th Maine more than makes up for the lapse.

The desperate charge of the 20th Maine, for which Colonel Chamberlain later received the Congressional Medal of Honor, is told with such force and clarity that the reader smells the gunsmoke, hears the rebel yells, feels the heat and desperation and experiences the exhaustion and relief of the Union troops when the day is finally won.

Pickett's Charge on the third and final day of actual conflict, in which 15,000 Confederate troops charged a fortified Union position across nearly a mile of open ground with staggering loss of life, is told with great patience and sensitivity. The conflicting strategies acting upon General Lee which led him to order the ill-fated attack are closely examined.

Mr. Shaara also finds time, among the strategies and tactics, to offer some insights into the nature of men (Killer Angels) and war. He offers that the war was fought because of a clash in cultures and that the Union Army fought, not for plunder or loot or conquest, but to make a people free. But he also makes it clear that the Confederate leaders and soldiers also fought for their sense of freedom.

The conflicts within men, who having vowed in happier times to never take arms against each other, yet nevertheless find themselves on opposite sides of a battlefield, adds poignancy to an already poignant story.

No other work in my memory has so nearly allowed the reader to understand the peculiar madness of this civil war.

One suspects after reading this powerful, gripping novel that whenever cultures clash, there will be a final assimilation..or conflict. By showing us what the principals of this great battle were (and may have been) thinking, current thinking on multiculturalism are highlighted in a new and perplexing way. This is remarkable for a book written in 1974 examining a 19th century battle!

'The Killer Angels' has been made into a five hour long motion picture entitled, 'Gettysburg.' So compelling is the novel that the screenplay rarely deviates from it - a happenstance which speaks volumes on Mr. Shaara's ability to tell a complex story with clarity.

'The Killer Angels' will satisfy both the history buff and the Civil War buff. But more - the sense of duty and honor, the appalling loss of life and the incredible heroism displayed by both sides in the battle will move many readers to tears.

Order this book online.

Copyright 1996 Louis J. Rose All Rights Reserved.


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