Gettysburg : A Novel of the Civil War | Newt Gingrich, William Forstchen

Gettysburg : A Novel of the Civil War | Newt Gingrich, William Forstchen | So Good You Might Think It's Nonfiction

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Gettysburg : A Nov...

	Gettysburg : A Novel of the Civil War Newt Gingrich, William Forstchen, 2004 - 480 pages average customer review:based on 131 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Civil War is the American Iliad. Lincoln, Stonewall Jackson, Grant, and Lee still stand as heroic ideals, as stirring to our national memory as were the legendary Achilles and Hector to the world of the ancient Greeks. Within the story of our Iliad one battle stands forth above all others: Gettysburg.

Millions visit Gettysburg each year to walk the fields and hills where Joshua Chamberlain made his legendary stand and Pickett went down to a defeat which doomed a nation, but in defeat forever became a symbol of the heroic Lost Cause. As the years passed, and the scars healed, the debate, rather than drifting away has intensified. It is the battle which has become the great "what if," of American history and the center of a dreamscape where Confederate banners finally do crown the heights above the town.

The year is 1863, and General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia are poised to attack the North and claim the victory that would end the brutal conflict. But Lee?s Gettysburg campaign ended in failure, ultimately deciding the outcome of the war.

Launching his men into a vast sweeping operation, of which the town of Gettysburg is but one small part of the plan, General Lee, acting as he did at Chancellorsville, Second Manassas, and Antietam, displays the audacity of old. He knows he has but one more good chance to gain ultimate victory, for after two years of war the relentless power of an industrialized north is wearing the South down. Lee's lieutenants and the men in the ranks, embued with this renewed spirit of the offensive embark on the Gettysburg Campaign that many dream "should have been." The soldiers in the line, Yank and Reb, knew as well that this would be the great challenge, the decisive moment that would decided whether a nation would die, or be created, and both sides were ready, willing to lay down their lives for their Cause.

An action-packed and painstakingly researched masterwork, Gettysburg stands as the first book in a series to tell the story of how history could have unfolded, how a victory for Lee would have changed the destiny of the nation forever. In the great tradition of The Killer Angels and Jeff Shaara?s bestselling Civil War trilogy, this is a novel of true heroism and glory in America?s most trying hour.

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Gettysburg

This is a fine alternative history. Being an avid Civil War buff, historical wargame player, and historian, I find the novel to be entertaining and fairly plausible, that is, up until the destruction of the Army Of The Potomac (AP) after the porposed Battle Of Union Mills (BUM).

Indeed, during the whole War Between The States (WBS), no major field army was destroyed in open battle. During the WBS this was so, because of the lethality rifled musket which made defense preeminent in the WBS. The facts are that it was far too easy for a relatively few brave, determined, and heavily outnumbered men to hold defensively. These few brave men would be able to effectively delay or to actually succeed defensively. Examples: Thomas at Chickamauga, Hornet's Nest at Shiloh, Jackson at 2nd Manassas, Lee at Antietam, and I could list dozens more.

After the proposed BUM in Newt's book, it is probable that a few knots of determined Union soldiers would have tenaciously hung on just long enough to allow most of the AP's remnants to escape to fight another day.

Otherwise, given the chronology of the proposed scenario in Newt's book, such a scenario could have been fairly darn possible.

In all cases, the book is exciting, enjoyable, and entertaining, especially, for the WBS history buffs. It is well worth reading, even for those not heavily historically educated or not with such historical proclivities.

PS - I have not read the remaining two novels in Newt's trilogy(, but I'm working on them). However, I don't think that a Southern victory at Gettysburg, even one as overwhelming as Newt's book proposes, would have ended the WBS in the South's favor. Indeed, the North had way too much materiel and way too many warm bodies.

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So Good You Might Think It's Nonfiction

Living in Gettysburg, I like to get books about Gettysburg. The problem is this book isn't about Gettysburg. It starts out familiar enough, but then after the first day of what was the Battle of Gettysburg, the change happens. That change is what creates the alternative history of how the battle might have turned out. Gettysburg is well researched and thought out and truly reads as a book that easily could have happened. The final battle is gut wrenching as it was meant to be. The only problem I have with the book is one that I have with any good alternate history. It's written so well that I might confuse real details with fake ones when I try and recall my Civil War history.

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Gettysburg as it might have been

This is a novel about what might or should have been an alternative Gettysburg history. From the very beginning everything makes perfect sense, with Robert E. Lee taking personal charge of the final events of the first day's battle (which he should have done anyway after a reorganization of the ANV)and forces the final assault on Cemetery Hill. Even today historian disagree as to whether it would or would not have been successful.

In this account the assault fails and Lee realizes that Gettysburg is not the place to fight. But instead of following Longstreet's suggestion of a flanking assault around the Round Tops, Lee thinks like the bold strategist history has painted him and executes a wide flanking maneuver forcing the Army of the Potomac to fight on Lee's terms and is a position of Lee's choosing.

Everything makes perfect sense in retrospect for a grand tactical maneuver worthy of Lee. The problem comes in, in that the authors do not quite know how to stage the final battle of Union Mills (Pipe Creek). It seems unlikely that Meade and his generals would have been so rash as to their final plan of action.

The novel is interesting and follows the day by day thoughts of the principal characters, Lee, Longstreet, Meade and Hunt. Choosing to view events thorough Hunts eyes is a bit odd as he is not what you would call a pivotal character of the historic Gettysburg. Hancock would have been a better choice as he did figure more prominately in events. There are other minor characters on the Confederate side that simple take up reading space and have no real bearing on events.

That said this is a perfectly logical development of the way the Gettysburg Campaign should have, or could have played out and is an enjoyable read and worthy of having in the collection of the Gettysburg historian.

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A what-if version of a famous battle

This is a what-if version of the battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. The year is 1863. General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia invade the North and looks for a decisive battle that could annihilate the Army of the Potomac, thus to be able to claim the victory that would end the brutal war.

Gettysburg is only a small part of General Lee's plan. He launches a battle of maneuver. The Army of Northern Virginia march and flank the Union Army. They cut the Union Army line of supply and thread to attack Washington. The Union Army is then forced to fight in the territory chosen by Lee and his generals.

A very interesting what-if version of a famous battle. Highly recommended!

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