Wheeler has studied period histories, letters, articles, diaries, etc., in order to compose this detailed, eyewitness version of the Battle of Gettysburg. The preparatory events by both civilians and soldiers, the skirmishes and marches, the agonizing three days of battle all are authentically reenacted. The realism generated by the quotations that Wheeler cohesively spins into his narrative is enhanced by period maps and illustrations adapted from sketches or photographs made at the time of the battle. Wheeler's technique has been effective in seven previous volumes, including Sword over Richmond: An Eyewitness History of McClellan's Peninsula Campaign (Booklist 82:848 F 15 86). Bibliography; to be indexed. DPD. 973.7'349 Gettysburg, Battle of, 1863 Personal narratives / Gettysburg, Battle of, 1863 [CIP] 86-46108

The three-day battle of Gettysburg, generally regarded as the turning point of the Civil War, is described in these pages largely in the words of participants. The confrontation between General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and the Union army under General Meade took place in and around the town itself, and its citizens were much involved (extraordinarily, the only civilian fatality was a woman hit by a stray bullet in her kitchen). Wheeler has collected vivid accounts not only from veterans who wrote about it but from male and female townspeople (and outside observers), and presents this with the narrative skill displayed in Sword Over Richmond. With a sure grasp of strategic nuances, he explains the overall campaign that began in the broadest sense when Lee talked Confederate President Davis into authorizing a second invasion of the North. The climactic battle itself is then described in a you-are-there way that renders this enormously complicated affair understandable to nonCivil War buffs. Illustrations. BOMC alternate. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved