The Killer Angels
~ A Capsule Book Review by Allen Kopp ~

“Any man who doesn’t do his duty will be shot!”

The Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) is one of the most significant battles of the Civil War and one in which casualties were staggering for both sides. The Northern forces were commanded by General George Meade and the Southern forces by General Robert E. Lee. The Southern forces hoped to win at Gettysburg and push on from there to invade the North.  The Northern forces hoped to stem the Southern advance and stop the invaders in their tracks.

The Civil War and been raging for two years at the time of the Battle of Gettysburg. Many people, especially in the South, hoped that Gettysburg would be the final battle and the war would end. But, alas, the war dragged on for almost two more years.

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara is a historical novel, a fictionalized account of the Battle of Gettysburg and the men who fought there. While it is fiction, it feels more at times like a document written by somebody who was there. We get to know some of the men from both sides, such as Lieutenant Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain from Maine and General James Longstreet, Lee’s second in command for the Southern forces. Men from the opposing sides don’t hate each other, but they are absolutely committed to the causes they are fighting for. They will kill or be killed. For the North, the cause is to keep the Union intact, and for the South the cause is to establish an independent sovereign nation free of government intervention. I will lay down my life for the cause if that’s what it takes. That’s war. War is hell, as somebody in another historical period stated.

So, we have all these dead from both sides (about 50,000), and the Battle of Gettysburg was mostly a draw. Neither side won and neither side lost. The North gained a psychological advantage by keeping Southern troops from advancing, but very little else was accomplished. It was a bloody—and some might say a senseless—slaughter.

Copyright © 2024 by Allen Kopp