Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War

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Summary: A plausible alternative history of the Battle of Gettysburg
Review: For the first three days of July each year I watch the film "Gettysburg," based on Michael Shaara's "The Killer Angels," so of course I would be interested in reading "Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War" written by fellow Amazon reviewer Newt Gingrich and military historian William R. Forstchen. The book sat on my shelf for a couple of months before I decided to read it, at which point I took over the cover with ever bothering to look at it. Since I had missed all of the publicity for the novel, I actually started this book without knowing that it would turn into a "what if?" revision of the pivotal Civil War battle and finished it without being aware that it was the first in a trilogy, the second volume of which, "Grant Comes East," is due out next month.

Consequently, when on the night of July 1, 1863 General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, agrees with the suggestion of his senior corps commander, James Longstreet, that the Confederates pull away from Gettysburg and seek better ground on which to destroy the Union Army of the Potomac, I knew immediately that the authors were diverging from the path of history. My immediate reaction was that this would be interesting. Once of the problems with telling the story of the Battle of Gettysburg as a novel is that Shaara already won the Pulitzer Prize for doing so, and it is impossible to read the events of the first day of the battle without being aware of how Gingrich and Forstchen are stepping around Shaara's story of how John Buford's Federal cavalry delayed the Confederate advance long enough to preserve the lovely high ground at Gettysburg for the Union army and Henry Hunt's artillery.

Up to the night of July 1 this novel sticks very close to what really happened. The only significant point of divergence that I really picked up on was that General Henry Hunt, Chief of Artillery for the Army of the Potomac, showed up on the battlefield on the first day and artillery to effectively stop the Confederate advance up Culp's Hill. Historically Hunt did not arrive on the battlefield until late that first night, having been ordered earlier that evening by General George Meade, the newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, to move the artillery reserve to Gettysburg.

Hunt's presence is crucial to changing the calculus for Lee, because adding all that artillery to the equation at the beginning of the battle makes it clear to the Confederate commander that Gettysburg would be another Malvern Hill for his army. Lee mission in taking his troops into the North was not just to get supplies but also to destroy the Army of the Potomac in a last concerted effort to voice President Abraham Lincoln to the peace table. Vicksburg is on the verge of falling to Ulysses S. Grant in the West and unless Lee can win a decisive victory in July 1863 the industrial might and flood of immigrants in the North will make a Union victory inevitable.

I like how Gingrich and Forstchen play out their alternative battle. The ground for the decisive battle is obviously not as well known as the famous terrain of Gettysburg, but a string of roughly drawn maps are provided to give us a sense of the geographical situation. But basically what the authors appear to be doing is to provide a scenario that produces Pickett's Charge in reverse. However, you can never be absolutely sure that is what is going on here and you have to be open to the possibilities.

As with any alternative history Gingrich and Forstchen are often tempted to include bits and pieces of what really happened into their narrative. For example, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (called Joshua in an apparent attempt to carve a figure somewhat different from the one glorified in "The Killer Angels") still wants his brother Tom to be stay away during the battle because if they both get hit by a shell "It will be a hard day for Mother." Those familiar with Chamberlain's distinguished career after the defense of Little Round Top on the second day at Gettysburg will notice that a key moment from later in the war is transposed to this point in time.

Ultimately the battle being played out here is more important than the characters. The Lee of this novel is a mixture of piety and anger that I have not come across before, and there is clearly a sense in which it is the heroism of the troops rather than the quality of their commanders that matters in the battles. Now that I know that this story extends for two more books I have to reconsider the military figures that Gingrich and Forstchen are removing from the board (a number of generals who survived Gettysburg are killed) as well as those being tapped for future prominence. Hunt is clearly one of those and so is the politician turned Union general Dan Sickles, a choice that you cannot help but look at with an eye askance given Gingrich's political career.

I thought the ending of the novel allows it to stand on its own. By now means is it determined who is going to win the war at that point, making "Gettysburg" an inkblot in which anybody who wants to see the Confederacy winning the war can draw that conclusion and those who want to continue believing in the inevitability of a Union victory can see evidence to support that position as well. It is too early to be able to determine what ultimate point Gingrich and Forstchen intend to try and make with their alternative history, but I am sure there will be one, just as there was with Harry Turtledove's "Guns of the South." Therefore, judgment needs to be reserved on that score until the trilogy is completed.

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Summary: One of the best civil war books I have ever read.
Review: Gettysburg by Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen is so addictive it should have a warning label. It sucks you in to its world so completly I was up until 2AM reading and could not believe what time it was when I finally got around to looking. Gettysburg portrays an alternate history where the South wins a major victory. I can't wait for the second book of this 3 part series to come out. Lee marching on Washington with U.S. Grant there to meet him. The geography described in the book is exact. I live about 2 or 3 miles from Union Mills and the pond and mill described in the book are still there. The Baltimore pike from Littlestown to Westminster winds up the steep hill the Confederates were entrenched on. Littlestown is about 1 mile from the MD line. Also just so everyone knows Tawneytown is pronouced corectly in the opening dialogue of the movie Gettysburg, everyone around here knows if you are a local or not by how you say that towns name and they actually get it right in the movie.
Littlestown actually was involved in the real battle of Gettysburg in a small way: On The Morning Of June 26th A Band Of Confederates Entered Littlestown The Advance Of Early's Division, Ewll's Corps, The Army Of Northern Virgina, Which Were Crossing The Maryland Line Into Pennsyvania. On The Morning Of June 29th General Kilpatricks Division Of The Union Calvary Bivouacked For The Night Around Littlestown. Kilpatrick And General George Custer Both Lodged At The Barker House. The Next Morning In Union Mills Maryland, General Jeb Stuart Received Word From His Scouts That A Large Force Of Union Calvary Had Been Spotted In The Vicinity Of Littlestown , A Local Teenager A 16-Year-Old Herbert Shriver Volunteered To Guide The Confederates On A Detour Around Littlestown By Way
Of Hanover. Stuart Did Not Know That Kilpatricks Forces Were Already On The Move To Hanover, General Kilpatrick Was Also Unaware Of Stuarts Detour To Hanover And Both Were Quite Suprised When They Clashed In What Was Known As The Battle Of Hanover....

After Learning That Stuarts Troops Were Defeated At Hanover General Slocum's Corps Of 13,000 Infantry Entered Littlestown That Evening And Was Dispatched To Gettysburg The Next Day. General Sedgewick's Sixth Army Corp Of 15,000 Also Passed Through Littlestown On Thier Way To The Battle Of Gettysburg.

After The Battle, Hundreds Of Wounded Soldiers Were Brought In Ambulances From Gettysburg And Placed On Railroad Cars At Littlestown. General Daniel E. Sickles Who Had Lost A Leg At Little Round Top During The Battle Of Gettysburg Was Among The Wounded Treated In Littlestown. Hanover by the way actually has a street named after JEB Stuart where a battle really did occur that Stuart lost. The authors must have visited the area personally to get everything so accurate. Anyhow buy this book.

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Summary: Transported me to the past--and I loved every minute of it..
Review: Gettysburg is a fine novel, rich in history, and to me it was sooo believable! In fact, I kept asking myself, why didn't Lee really make those very decisions?

I've read a lot of great, good, and so-so Civil War novels...this one borders on great, and I gave it 5 start for the sheer enjoyment it gave me. Definitely it SCREAMS for a sequel.

Alternate history that follows closely true history with a key change is a treasure to find. Gettysburg is a great example of such a book...I'd love to see more from this winning team of Gingrich/Forstchen! If ONLY they would write a novel based on the moment that General Winfield Scott asked Lee to head the Union Army, and Lee said he'd think about it...when he submitted his resignation, Scott told Lee he was making the biggest mistake of his life. What if Scott had talked him into it and Lee had joined the Union instead of the Confederacy? That's a book I'd love to see. (I'm writing this in case Gingrich and Forstchen ever read the reviews of this book!)

Anyway, you cannot go wrong with this book. It is never boring, highly creative, the characterization is strong, and the subject very intriguing. And I DO imagine we'll see a sequel. Enjoy!

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Summary: Active history at its finest
Review: Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War accomplishes in expert fashion that which it set out to do. It masterfully transforms the passive history of mere names, dates, places, and seemingly foregone conclusions into a vibrant and exciting brand of living history. Having met Newt Gingrich at a book signing in Atlanta for Gettysburg and listened to a brief dissertation on the subject matter, his vision of active history IS indeed plausible and nothing short of engrossing.

Having enjoyed The Killer Angels and Gods and Generals, it was refreshing to be introduced to intriguing military commanders of the Army of the Potomac OTHER than Joshua Chamberlain such as Brigadier General Henry Hunt, Commander of U.S. Artillery, General Hermann Haupt, Commander of U.S. Military Railroads, & who could forget the brazenly impetuous, if not foolishly cavalier "hero" of Gettysburg - General Dan Sickles, Commmander of the III Corps. The authors bring this eclectic bunch of leaders of The Army of the Potomac, along with arguably their best leader in Winfield Scott Hancock and the hopelessly incapable George Meade, to life in a most skillful writing style.

As for the CSA, Gingrich hits the nail on the head when he writes from Robert E. Lee's perspective: "I have four men who are supposed to be my direct instrument of command. One is still trying to find his way after losing a leg, the second is sick, the third is bullheaded and not fully committed to this operation, and the fourth, well the fourth has simply disappeared." It is with this perplexing scenario that we are thrust into Lee's quandary of being, for the first time, not oly in the enemy's land, but also without any truly dynamic leaders under his command. This, invariably, is where the stale world of passive history ends and the vibrantly unpredictable world of active history begins. Enjoy.

"Convince your men that they can win. Convince the enemy they cannot win and the battle is half decided before the first shot is fired."

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Summary: Honest...
Review: I don't think this book rewrites history at all. The guy below is mad. The North kicked the crap out of the South? That's going a bit far. Indeed, the North won the war. No one disputes that. But..."kicked the crap out of?" I mean, the fact remains that families in the North had a lot more graves to visit after the war was over. Despite having about 1,500,000 more men enlisted than the South had, the North still managed to have about 16,000 more combat casualties. But when a side has over 2.5 million men going up against 1 million, they SHOULD win the war for crying out loud. The South had arguably better generals though... It shouldn't have even been a fight. How so few men managed to keep in a heated war with an army twice as big is to me, win or lose, rather stunning. That's what makes these stories interesting. Not who won or who lost...

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Summary: A Surprisingly Powerful Epic
Review: I have to admit, I was surprised and pleased when I read Gettysburg by Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen. Their previous effort at alternate history, 1945, did not do very well, primarily in my opinion because that book was slapped together in haste to try to sell books based on Speaker Gingrich's name and fame.

Not so this offering. The premise is simple. On the second day of the battle, Lee does not assault the Little Round Top. Instead, taking Longstreet's advice, he sends a goodly portion of his army round to the far right flank of the Union Army, seizing its supplies and cutting it off from Washington. What follows is a hellish bloodbath which is all the more searing to the Civil War buff as one sees what happens to familiar charecters such as Chamberlain, Hood, Armestead, and others. I cannot recommend this book enough. It is nothing less than a counterfactural Killer Angels.

It is also, irritatingly, the first of a trilogy. Now we'll have to wait for the narrative of the second volume, to be named apparently Grant Comes East.

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Summary: Book Review for Gettysburg a Novel of the Civil War
Review: The book Gettysburg by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen is a good book if you are really into the Civil War. If you have read The Killer Angels by Michel Shaara then you might find this book very much the same. If you've just started to learn about the Civil War then you probably should not start with this book because it is a fictional book and may be confusing. In Gettysburg the confederates win the battle of Gettysburg. Robert E. Lee the general of the Confederate States of America's Army of Northern Virginia listens to James Longstreet's plan to move in between the Union army and Washington to cut them off on July 2,1863. If you have seen the movie Gettysburg that is based on the Killer Angels this book will make more sense to you. The authors have used characters that were real people during the battle but they are people who were not extremely famous in the battle of Gettysburg. One example is Brig. Gen. Henry Hunt who is the Chief of Artillery for the Union army. I would recommend this book who any one who really likes reading about the Civil War.

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Summary: Please Listen General Lee
Review: When I first visited Gettysburg I found myself looking out at the distance that Pickett's division had to go in the face of cannon and musket fire and thought, "No Way." This place was exactly like Fredericksburg: uphill, against an entrenched enemy that was waiting for them, only the attacking uniforms were Butternut Grey rather than Blue. The result couldn't have turned out any different. I looked south, towards Washington, there had to be a place down there where Lee could find a hill for the Union to have to charge. Lincoln wouldn't have let the Army of the Potomac not attack.

I looked, I thought, I didn't do anything about it.

Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen looked at the same situation and researched it some more. They found that Meade had really wanted Lee to attack him at Pipe Creek. They found that Longstreet had told Lee that going around to the south and letting Meade attack them, but was overruled.==Then instead of forgetting it, they wrote a book where Lee responded to Longstreet with an "OK, let's do that." -- Excellent reading, obviously this is the first of a series. I'm anxiously awaiting to see what happens when Gingrich and Forstchen bring Grant back east.