Brigades Of Gettysburg: The Union And Confederate Brigades At The Battle Of Gettysburg [Hardcover]

Bradley M. Gottfried (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 24, 2002

While the battle of Gettysburg is certainly the most-studied battle in American history, a comprehensive treatment of the part played by each unit has been ignored. Brigades of Gettysburg fills this void by presenting a complete account of every brigade unit at Gettysburg and providing a fresh perspective of the battle.Using the words of enlisted men and officers, the author-well-known Civil War historian Bradley Gottfried-weaves a fascinating narrative of the role played by every brigade at the famous three-day battle, as well as a detailed description of each brigade unit. Organized by order of battle, each brigade is covered in complete and exhaustive detail: where it fought, who commanded, what constituted the unit, and how it performed in battle. Innovative in its approach and comprehensive in its coverage, Brigades of Gettysburg is certain to be a classic and indispensable reference for the battle of Gettysburg for years to come.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gottfried (Roads to Gettysburg) paints a fine-grained portrait of the decisive battle of the Civil War in this exhaustive, engrossing study. In vividly written narratives that draw heavily on first-hand accounts of the fighting, he recounts every brigade's training and prior history in combat, profiles its commanders and chronicles its experiences in the course of the battle. The conflict emerges less as a coherent whole than as a series of small, disjointed brigade-level actions-a perspective close to that of the soldiers, who had no grand overview to help them make sense of the unfolding battle. The result is a human-scale view of the varied experiences of the participants: the grueling marches, the effects of heat and exhaustion, which sometimes felled more soldiers than enemy bullets did, the occasionally prickly relations between officers and men, the tedium and anxiety as soldiers waited to go into action and the panic and elation when they did. Gottfried's treatment has its limitations: it is hard to follow the main "plot" of the battle, since no brigade witnessed more than a fragment of it, and the fine maps of individual battlefield sectors should have been supplemented with an overall map to orient readers. Those unfamiliar with the battle will need to consult a conventional history, but Civil War buffs will delight in this gripping addition to the literature of Gettysburg.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Bradley M. Gottfried is president of Sussex County Community College in New Jersey. He is the author of three books on the Civil War and is a frequent contributor to Gettysburg Magazine and Civil War Times Illustrated. He has made regular appearances on the History Channel's shows about the Civil War.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 704 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (December 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306811758
• ISBN-13: 978-0306811753
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #971,498 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Contribution, February 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Brigades Of Gettysburg: The Union And Confederate Brigades At The Battle Of Gettysburg (Hardcover)

This is a fascinating book wrapped around a fresh presentation. The author has essentially presented the history of each division and brigade that served in the campaign, and does so with a smooth and fast-paced style. We learn about the commander(s), the units involved, actions, marches, significant events, and so forth. Division histories are presented in standard format, while each brigade entry is double-columned--a slick idea (it is an oversize book, so it works well). Each entry is followed with a useful series of end notes / bibliography that makes it easy to find more information about each unit. A complete bibliography is also included at the end of the book. The maps included in the front are standard George Skoch fare, but excellent. Although I did not see anything new or striking, that is not the purpose of this book.

This book, coupled with Larry Tagg's The Generals of Gettysburg, which came out a few years ago, compliment eachother nicely. I highly recommend both. This current title is a must for all Gettysburg students.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perception from a brigade level., April 11, 2004

By 

lordhoot "lordhoot" (Anchorage, Alaska USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brigades Of Gettysburg: The Union And Confederate Brigades At The Battle Of Gettysburg (Hardcover)

This well researched and nicely written book traces the combat activities of every single infantry brigade that fought at the Battle of Gettysburg. Each entree got a brief background of how the brigade developed prior to the battle and then go into considerable detail in what the brigade did during the Battle of Gettysburg. It also reflected on how much they lost and how they performed.

The book was written to supplement Larry Tagg's Generals of Gettysburg and it does the job well. The book covers only infantry units, artillery and cavalry units were not included, maybe it might be for later volumes.

The book, although written with certain level of clarity, was not really written for the casual reader. Anyone who read this book should have a very firm understanding of Battle of Gettysburg or else, they would have problem following the narrative. But for serious student, this book provides in-depth reviews of brigade level command which would be useful in understanding the battle.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful Brigade Level Analysis of Gettysburg, November 4, 2006

By 

Steven A. Peterson (Hershey, PA (Born in Kewanee, IL)) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Brigades Of Gettysburg: The Union And Confederate Brigades At The Battle Of Gettysburg (Hardcover)

Bradley Gottfried's book, Brigades of Gettysburg, would be a nice addition to a person's Civil War Library. This would be especially interesting for those who want to know about key battles in more detail than one would get in a standard rendering of the battle. This book is kin to Larry Tagg's The Generals of Gettysburg, a volume that discusses the role of general officers at Gettysburg, including Army leaders down to generals/colonels heading the Brigade level. As a result, there is much brigade level information.

However, Gottfried's book provides more detail (it is almost twice as long as Tagg's useful volume). While some brigade level histories exist and spell out actions of units at Gettysburg in some detail (e.g., Wert's A Brotherhood of Valor, Nolan's The Iron Brigade, Parsons' Put the Vermonters Ahead), coverage of many brigades is very brief in the standard works on Gettysburg (Coddington, Sears, Trudeau, for example).

Thus, this volume provides useful coverage of the various brigades involved at the battle, even those not heavily engaged. For instance, Sedgwick's large VIth Corps was much less hotly engaged than the other Union Corps. Nonetheless, this volume lays out what the components of this Corps actually did during the battle.

The coverage of both Confederate and Union units is nicely done and the interested reader will be well rewarded for perusing this book.