The Gettysburg Companion: A Guide to the Most Famous Battle of the Civil War | Mark Adkin

The Gettysburg Companion: A Guide to the Most Famous Battle of the Civil War | Mark Adkin | GETTYSBURG COMPANION

books:

The Gettysburg Com...

	The Gettysburg Companion: A Guide to the Most Famous Battle of the Civil War Mark Adkin Stackpole Books, 2008 - 544 pages average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

There have been many books about Gettysburg, but never one to rival this in scale or authority. Based on extensive research, The Gettysburg Companion describes the battle in detail, drawing on firsthand accounts of participants on all sides in order to give the reader a vivid sense of what it was like to experience the carnage at Gettysburg in early July 1863. The many full-color maps--all specially commissioned for the book--and the numerous photographs, charts, and diagrams make this book a feast for the eyes and a collector's dream.

A Unique Classic Study of Gettysburg

The Gettysburg Companion
I have been waiting with great anticipation for the arrival of my copy of The Gettysburg Companion, and, upon receiving it, I am not disappointed. It, like Mrk Adkin's two previous companions, is a wonderful addition to a military library. It has surpassed all expectations! The three companions are comprehensive indeed.

The Gettysburg Companion is a unique tour de force unlike in quality and difference in persective to any previous published studies of Gettysburg. Encyclopedic in its scope, The Gettysburg Companion is an in-depth sweeping guide to the Gettysburg Campaign. It consists of twelve sections which inclde a detailed orders of battle, an analysis of weapontry and equipment along with how an army march, deployed, and fought battles. Not only does it include sections on the three branches, but on the ancillary branches. A section on command and control helps the reader to better understand how battles were fought during the Civil War. The majority of the text examines the Gettysburg Campaign beginning with an overview of Chancellrsville to the pursuit and retreat in a readable and compelling style.

The Gettysburg Companion uses the same successful 9 x 11 1/2 format with the same high quality paper as the Trafalgar and Waterloo studies. The use of modern photographs as in The Waterloo Companion with overlays indicating troop locations at the time of the battle are are great addition to the effectiveness of the book. Seventy full color maps using Tom Desjardin's 1998 map project as a base, along with sixteen pages of original art work depicting over fifty unit uniforms contribute to the quality of this book.

This book is difficult to fully describe; it must be examined to be fully appreciated. The Gettysburg Companion is highly recommended for its magnitude and vast amount of iinformation. It, like Bruce Catton's The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War, is destined to become a classic. It should be the best single reference on the Battle of Gettysburg.

for more information click here

GETTYSBURG COMPANION

Adkin does an excellent job of breaking down the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia into understandable components. The sections on artillery, infantry and cavalry are very well done. For anyone who has an interest in Gettysburg this book is a must.

"A gem with flaws-II"

One more addition to the list of flaws in an otherwise excellent compilation of the Battle: There's very little reference to Pender's division action on the first day, and I thought its failure was one of the keys to the CSA's eventual loss of the battle. Tremendous casualties for little real gain, and it hardly merits attention!

for more information click here

A Gem With Flaws

The Gettysburg Companion: A Guide to the Most Famous Battle of the Civil War, Mark Adkin, 544 pages, Stackpole Books, $69.95.

Scott Hartwig, supervisory historian of Gettysburg National Military Park, states on the front inside flap of the cover, that "This is the Gettysburg book that students and aficionados of the battle have dreamed about . . . . The Gettysburg Campanion is quite absolute gem." So it appears but CWL sees that many of the books strengths are also its weaknesses.

Open the book at page 429: There is a nice modern color photograph taken six feet above the ground of the terrain over which 'Kershaw's Brigade Attacks From the Millerstown Road'. The Millerstown Road is on the horizon not the foreground or so it appears from the title of the photograph. On the photograph are the key sites: Rose Farm and Biesecker's Woods in the distance; three orange arrows flow from the horizon and over the ground showing the path of Confederate troops towards the photographer. The photograph looks sharp and the graphics are crisp. The problem is that the author does not show on a map the position on the battlefield where the photographer stood. Though in the caption a description is given regarding the the photographer's position as being from the position of Bigelow's battery. If that is the case and it does appear so, then the title of the photograph is wrong. Kemper does not attack from the Millerstown (Wheatfield) Road but towards the Millerstown Road.

Now turn to panorama photographs on page 434 and 435. 'The View from Bigelow's Final Battery Position Looking Toward the Rebel Attack'. In this case the title matches the position of the photographer and the movement of the Confederate troops. CWL sees that Akins should have asked Stackpole Publishing for a few sharp-eyed, licensed battlefield guides to actually read everything in the book.

Adkin has invested a major effort into The Gettysburg Companion but he leaves CWL grasping in vain for explicit guideposts for the sources he consulted. CWL also has complaints that the citations are inadequate for convenient source checking. The bibliography of consulted sources is too small to substantiate the immense amount of material the author discusses. This leads CWL to consider the charges which J.D. Petruzzi levels in his Amazon.com review and his remarks on online The Gettysburg Discussion Group forum against Gettysburg Companion; specific quotations were used from diary and letter sources that can be found only in others scholarship. Also, Petruzzi states that the William Frassinito, acknowledged as the expert on Gettysburg photography, quickly found misidentified illustrations.

It appears that Adkin is a subscriber to both North and South Magazine and Gettysburg Magazine. In the acknowledgments, Adkin thanks Tom Desjardins and the Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg for allowing him to use their map as a base from which he adds enhancements. Yet it appears that some information is taken from North and South Magazine and Gettysburg Magazine without attribution. As enjoyable as The Gettysburg Companion can be, CWL winces at the lapse of acknowledgement by Adkin of the many, many historians who have mined primary sources and published their work with bibliographic citations. If Gettysburg Companion is intended to be a coffee table book which looks nice on display and a satisfying book through which to browse, then the meager citations are not an issue. But if Adkin hoped his work would stand alongside the work of scholars, then the Gettysburg Companion will not be on the bookshelf but stay on the coffee table.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2

products you might be interested in