Customer Reviews

The Attack and Defense of Little Round Top, Gettysburg, July 2, 1863

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Author was present at the battle as an aide to a Union officer. He has assembled in great detail battle reports by participants, and does not hesitate to offer corrections where he sees fit. He wrote the book toward the end of the century. It is reasonably well organized, but fairly poorly illustrated (good period photos, but minimal maps). Slow reading, but ok for those fascinated by the detail of Day 2 battle at the southern end of the field.

Many times, a book by a participant involved on the winning side in a battle is very much obscured by bias towards being the winner. However, in this case, Norton has taken the many reports written by the regimental commanders and presented them as is, some with his own added comments. This presents a less biased view. Again, however, reports written days or even weeks after a battle may tend to overlook serious mistakes by leaders, dead or living at the time. But the reading is interesting to the serious student of the Civil War and should be in your library.

This is a great resource for historians or history buffs who want more detail than what is offered in half-hour battlefield talks or books that give broad overviews of battles, campaigns, or even entire wars. It is well-written and easy to follow, as well as strikingly interesting. Highly recommend.

This book was originally written and published in 1913 by Civil War veteran and author Oliver Norton. Norton takes a look at both sides of the battle for Little Round Top and tries to give a fair and accurate account of what really happened. Instead of offering his complete insight, he paraphrases from popular figures of those involved in the confict such as Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, Colonel Strong Vincent, Colonel Oates, General Law, General Sykes, General Barnes and a host of others. This book is basically a collage of personal accounts summarized and paraphrased into almost a confusing format. Norton doesn't follow a easy format to his book and often left me confused on whether or not he was talking about the battle himself or another person was. Besides the confusing style, I would have to say that the book did offer some interesting insight as to what happened from a variety of key people. It was interesting to read about what one Confederate colonel wrote about a particular movement while comparing that to what a Union colonel wrote. Norton had a great idea with this book but it really left me confused because nothing flowed or connected in the writing at times. I couldn't recommend this book to many unless they wanted a quick source of paraphrased personal accounts. I was disappointed in not getting more information on Colonel Chamberlain or his opinions of what really happened.