Alternate Gettysburgs [Hardcover]

Brian and Martin H. Greenberg (editors) Thomsen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2002

Gettysburg is one of the most crucial battles in American history. But what if it had turned out differently? In this collection, today's most popular writers of alternate history look at that question.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 342 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Books (2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739426427
• ISBN-13: 978-0739426425
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,157,063 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting collection of short stories, February 23, 2002

By 

David E. Levine (Peekskill , NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alternate Gettysburgs (Paperback)

This book of short stories explores Gettysburg from a fictional standpoint. For example, one story asks "what would have happened if Longstreet called off Picket's charge and then, sensing an opportunity, Union General Sedgewick mounted an attack?" The stories range from total flights of fancy to more subtle alternate outcomes. Interestingly, not all altenative outcomes are of a Confederate victory. There are some stories that examine what would have happened if the Union victory had been more decisive, i.e., if Meade had pursued the retreating Lee and destroyed Lee's army.

Two stories look at Lincoln's Gettysburg address. One of the stories looks at what would have been the implications if Lincoln had given a very different speech than the one he actually delivered and the other looks at the speech from the perspective of a Union victory so decisive that the war was virtualy ended.

There are a couple of futuristic stories. One takes place in the future in a South that is separate from the United States and has draconian racial codes. In this story a boxing bout takes place between a black fighter and a white one. The other futuristic story is about battle simulators, who, through incredibly realistic technology, do virtual recreations. The book concludes with an appendix of several essays. All in all, though somewaht uneven, this is an interesting book for Civil War enthusiasts

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What if the Confederates won the Battle of Gettysburg?, July 7, 2002

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Alternate Gettysburgs (Paperback)

It is not surprising that alternative history stories about the United States are intrigued by the possibilities offered by the Civil War, or that the Battle of Gettysburg is the focal point of such speculations, or that Pickett's charge is most often considered as the pivotal moment. I remember watching war gamers playing out the Battle of Gettysburg on an immense map, and, of course, those playing the Confederates immediately took the high group on Culps Hill, Cemetery Ridge, and the Round Tops and tried to slaughter the Army of the Potomac as it arrived upon the scene. "Alternate: Gettysburgs" is an uneven collection of short stories and essays focusing on various visions of what might have been with a key change here or there.

Actually, few of the stories deal with Pickett's charge, but it is clearly the pivotal event of the battle. Harold Coyle does a reversal by having the charge abandoned and having the Federals try "Sedgwick's Charge" instead. Doug Allyn's "Custer's First Stand" has the flamboyant cavalry officer making a foolish mistake in trying to stop Jeb Stuart from attacking the Union rear during the charge. Probably the oddest story in the collection, with its combination of history and science fiction, William H. Keith, Jr.'s "In the Bubble" takes wargaming to its ultimate level. "The High-Water Mark" by Brendan DuBois tweaks history a bit to turn the Civil War into a World War. Most of the stories include afterwords from the authors explaining their points of departure from history.

Two of the stories deal with the Gettysburg Address. "The Blood of the Fallen" by James M. Reasoner has Lincoln giving a different speech at the dedication of the National Cemetery because in this alternative world his son Tad dies from his fever. I especially liked Kristine Kathryn Rusch's "Well-Chosen Words," because as a rhetorician I appreciate her point that the Gettyburg Address might be Lincoln's most famous speech but he gave another one of equal importance (both of which, I should note, are etched in marble on opposite ends of the Lincoln Memorial).

Other stories are set in the alternative future of a world in which the Confederacy won the Civil War. Simon Hawke's "A Gun for Johnny Reb," is one of the few to try and ground the alterations in something beyond wishful hoping, offering a more realistic version of Turtledove's novel "The Guns of the South." Certainly there are hits and misses throughout the book, but surely there are enough intriguing tales to make reading this book worthwhile for Civil War buffs.

Ironically, the best part of the book for me was the closing essay by William R. Fortschen, "Lee's Victory at Gettysburg...And Then What?" which throws cold water on the idea that a Confederate victory then and there would have changed the outcome of the war. Fortschen argues that a Confederate victory on the second day would have been more probable (suggesting that a 15 minute break to fill empty canteens with water would have given the Rebels enough strength to take Little Round Top and turn the Union left), but then makes a totally convincing case that the Army of Northern Virginia would never have been able to take Washington, D.C. I must admit this appeals to me because I wrote a short story once about a white supremacist who had a time machine built and was going to go back and change things so the Confederacy won the Civil War. He could only take one trip and as he sits in the time machine ready to go he has to pick the moment, but nothing he can come up with would guarantee success and so he just sits there. So, yes, I am in total agreement with Fortschen's argument. Other essays in the appendix section of "Alternate Gettysburgs" provide an overview of the battle, a look at the politics of war, and the social convictions of both sides surrounding the battle.

Alternative histories, as a general rule, seem to suffer from what I want to call historical echoes. I mean this to signify that even as an author goes off in a decidedly different direction, "real" events manage to make their way back into the tales. Thus, for example, a general will die at Gettysburg the same way he did a year later, or a fictional presidential assassination will be eerily similar to a historical one. Ironically, then, the best alternative histories are those that are able to truly break free of what really happened and indulge themselves in fanciful flights of "what if."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's a collection and like all collections..., September 19, 2005

By 

DWD "DWD's Reviews" (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Alternate Gettysburgs (Paperback)

...it suffers from the fact that it was written by a dozen different authors. Some are very good, most are decent. Two are awful.

The gimmick in this alternative history is, of course, 'What if the Battle of Gettysburg had turned out differently?' It is inspired by this Faulkner quote:

'For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two oclock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is stll time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armstead and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose and all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble...'

Is it worth reading? If you're a Civil War buff and don't mind 'slumming' by reading an alternative history rather than a normal history book - yes it is worth your time. Personally, I don't think of it is as slumming - I think of it as nice little foray into what-may-have-been. However, alternative histories are often looked down on by more than a few serious readers of history.

I would recommend if you are not very familiar with the facts of the Civil War and general and the Battle of Gettysburg in particular that you read the Appendix (the last section) first - included are the 'Gettysburg Address', three good short histories of the war and the battle and one interesting essay(controversial, but also my favortite) that tells you why the Confederacy never could have won anyway, no matter the outcome of the battle.