Customer Reviews

The Gettysburg Nobody Knows (Gettysburg Civil War Institute Books)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You won't hear anywhere else about what happened to Joshua Chamberlain after the war, about what on earth JEB Stuart was doing (and why, to some degree), about the effects of Stonewall Jackson's absence, and more troumendously interesting subjects. This book WILL give you a different perspective on the battle. The book is full of minute details that may only be interesting to the Civil War buff. But, I can't imagine why not everybody in the world is a Civil War buff. This book also has a very good chapter on the Northern perspective of Pickett's Charge. Required reading for a Civil War buff, I emphasize. The authors are all splendid historians. They include Harry W. Phanz, Richard M. McMurry, Carol Reardon, and others.

I particularly enjoyed this book in which several essays are presented on different aspects of the battle because it addresses the issue that battles are fought in real time and cannot be changed by historians years later. Richard B. McMurray in his essay entitled "The Pennsylvania Gambit and the Gettysburg Splash" hit home with me because I have felt for a long time that Gettysburg did not win or lose the war for either side. McMurrays belief and I concur is that the war was won in the west by the western armies and his essay addresses the invasion of Pennsylvania in light of the siege of Vicksburg and other operations in the west in 1863. I am glad to have purchased this book for my Gettysburg collection.

The Battle of Gettysburg was fought from July 1-13, 1863 and ended the Confederacy's second invasion of the North. It was the bloodiest battle fought in North America. (The Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest single day.) Although there are many outstanding narrative accounts of the battle, the literature which carefully examines aspects of the battle and their significance is less extensive. Gabor Boritt's collection "The Gettyburg Nobody Knows" (1997) consists of nine essays by outstanding scholars which elucidate the battle and its consequences.

Each essay is accompanied by notes and by comments by each author suggesting further reading. The book derives from presentations at the annual summer Civil War Institute in Gettysburg. Professor Boritt is the Director of the Institute. There is a wonderful tone of scholarship and of the desire to learn that pervades this volume. One of the authors reflects that all the participants in the seminars -- and the readers as well -- are students trying to learn rather than experts with all the answers. This attitude is one that could well be emulated in scholarship and intellectual activity of all kinds. It is a joy to have it presented in this book.

The essays cover a great variety of topics. The first essay by Joseph Glatthaar discusses the role of the common soldier in the Gettysburg campaign and points out how the Confederate Army may have been at once tired, overconfident, and undisciplined in its movement to the North. Glenn LaFantasie follows this essay with a discussion of Joshua Chamberlain, the hero of Little Round Top which endeavors to separate the facts from the myths that have grown around Chamberlain. To my reading, Chamberlain still emerges from the essay as a highly impressive figure.

Harry Pfanz has written three extensive narratives on the Battle of Gettysburg. In this volume, he contributes a slim but succinct essay on the Confederate General Richard Ewell. Pfanz largely exonerates Ewell from the criticism he has suffered in many quarters for failing to advance on Cemetery and Culps Hills on the first day of the battle.

Kent Gramm's essay on the First Minnesota is an outstanding meditation on the hazards and chances of war and of the role of individual responsibility and action. It also has a great deal worthwhile to say about the Generalship of Lee, Meade, Longstreet, and Sickles. This is highly reflective, thoughtful historical writing.

Emory Thomas's essay examines the role of JEB Stuart's cavalry in the battle and the impact of his absence. Unlike many studies, it focuses on the fighting on East Cavalry on the third day and his some insightful thoughts about the importance of that action and why it turned out the way it did.

There are three essays which focus in different ways on the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg and its significance. Carol Reardon is a highly-regarded student of Pickett's Charge. Her essay focuses on the Union side of the line and on the difficulty of separating fact from myth in considering this legendary charge. Matthew Gallman and Susan Baker present an interesting essay on the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg upon the town -- focusing upon the social structure of the town and of the heroic efforts made by many to take care of the sick and wounded. Amy Kinsel's essay is also a meditation upon a history and considers how the image of the Battle of Gettysburg has changed over the years as Americans rethink the Civil War and its significance.

Finally, there is an outstanding essay by Richard McMurry which considers the military significance of the Battle of Gettysburg. McMurry presents a strong case that the Union won the Civil War in the West, in the battles of Fort Donelson and Shiloh and in the subsequent capitulation of Vicksburg, which occurred at the same time as the Battle of Gettysburg. Thus he tends to downplay the military importance of Gettysburg. His essay is well-argued and provocative but does not fully address the hold Gettysburg retains on the American imagination.

This is an excellent book for people who have read about the Battle of Gettysburg and want to expand their thinking. New readers may be moved to explore the Battle in detail. Altogether the book offers an excellent illustration of how to approach and address historical and cultural questions of moment.

The Gettysburg Nobody Knows by Gabor S. Doritt, describes the story of the battle of Gettysburg from many different points of view. This book tells the views and opinions on what actually happened at Gettysburg from journal writings and historic interpretations. The Gettysburg Nobody Knows gives the reader insight into the minds of the Generals behind the scenes, the commanders in the field and how the common soldiers viewed the battle of Gettysburg. Journal entries from Generals such as the Confederate General Longstreet and the Union General Sickles, show why they made some of the decisions they did and how they felt after. Sickles, for example, has been a source of controversy among historians for years. His decision to move his armies from the hieghts of Cemetary Hill to the peach orchard and the wheat field below has been viewed as both an the cause of unessessary Union casualties and a complete military failure on his part. There are those in this book who both support this view, and those who argue against it such as Richard Nelson. He believes that such loses were enevitable and Sickles decision was neither right or wrong. The Gettysburg Nobody Knows is a wonderful book for historical reference as well as entertainment. It gives a great background on the battle as well as the significants of small skirmishes and every soldiers effort. The Gettysburg Nobody Knows is truly a great telling of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Excellent portrayal of new facts to the Battle of Gettysburg. The best essays were about the "real" Chamberlain, how JEB Stuart's cavalry really impacted the battle, & whether Longstreet and Sickles really messed up. Contrary to the 1st reviewer below, the writer does believe that Sickles made a mistake moving to the peach orchard. The best essay was about the common soldier. The essay writers make the characters come alive...not dull history writing at all!

Here is yet another fantastic piece from Dr. Gabor Boritt, arguably one of the greatest Lincoln historians of our time. This time around, Dr. Boritt has chosen as his focus Gettysburg - the location of the battle which many view as the turning point in the Civil War. This work draws from many different historians, and paints a marvelously interesting portrait of the battle. The writings Dr. Boritt has complied also gives the reader viewpoints of various aspects of the battle which have been hitherto overlooked. A recommended read for anyone seriously interested in the Batttle of Gettysburg.

Myths about the Battle of Gettysburg persist, but this fresh examination allows a deeper understanding of the events which took place those hot July days back in 1863. The book clarifies myths about Ewell, Chamberlain, Pickett and Lee. It's informative and quite fun.

This book certainly took a different stance than I had ever seen about Gettysburg and what happened there and why. I don't agree with a lot of what it says, but it is certainly a must-have for anyone who is really interested in finding out about Gettysburg.

This book does some share interesting view points of the struggles that ocurred in early July in and around Gettysburg. The amount of facts and different events shared tries to nail some of the popular questions surrounding the battle and it's aftermath. Questionable moves by JEB Stuart, Chamberlain at Little Round Top are next to questions raised by soldier accounts of Pickett's Charge. What happened? What were the stories they had? How many?, etc.. As much as I appreciated this book for the attempts made in clarifying actual events that happened it also arose further questions and doubt about which story to actually believe. Yes, history has been altered by personal accounts and movies, but none of the authors seem to stand on one idea. As much as this book is written well, I didn't enjoy reading about the battle in general. Sometimes a general overview of the battle was written in that for myself seemed great for the first-time visitor or reader. I was completely bored reading about the basic events of the battle over again that this book liked to cover. I would suspect that this book was written for those who had a higher knowledge of the battle, though at times it gets very generalized in detail for the novice reader. This book is something that people just learning about Gettysburg would probably not buy anyway because they would have been looking for a rounded view of the battle not details about certain events. Mixing the over generalized information in with this book would have cut it's content down in half. I appreciate what the author was attempting with this book and would have preferred more in depth content therefore I reasoned a 3 Star rating.

This volume is a collection of essays by nine "leading authorities" on unanswered, or previously unasked, questions surrounding the battle of Gettysburg. Some of the contributions were marginally interesting, inasmuch as the actions of several of the battle's more famous, or infamous, commanders - Chamberlain, Sickles, Ewell, Stuart - were examined from new perspectives. I was particularly interested in the somewhat revisionist view of Joshua Chamberlain, an erstwhile personal hero of mine, taken by Glenn LaFantasie. Maybe, just maybe, the savior of Little Round Top wasn't quite the paragon of honor and integrity I thought him to be. (Oh well, another bubble burst. At 51, I should expect such disillusionment.) A couple more of the essays fell into the category of "Who Cares?", e.g. the one by J. Matthew Gallman on the effect of the battle on the town of Gettysburg itself. Yawn. Finally, a couple more were nothing more than windy exercises by "experts" who probably like seeing their views in print regardless of content. Since I don't wish to be accused of the same, I'll stop here. My advice, don't bother buying unless you're really obsessed with the subject.