Gettysburg [Hardcover]

Stephen W. Sears (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 24, 2003

The greatest of all Civil War campaigns, Gettysburg was the turning point of the turning point in our nation’s history. Volumes have been written about this momentous three-day battle, but recent histories have tended to focus on the particulars rather than the big picture: on the generals or on single days of battle — even on single charges — or on the daily lives of the soldiers. In Gettysburg Sears tells the whole story in a single volume. From the first gleam in Lee’s eye to the last Rebel hightailing it back across the Potomac, every moment of the battle is brought to life with the vivid narrative skill and impeccable scholarship that has made Stephen Sears’s other histories so successful. Based on years of research, this is the first book in a generation that brings everything together, sorts it all out, makes informed judgments, and takes stands. Even the most knowledgeable of Civil War buffs will find fascinating new material and new interpretations, and Sears’s famously accessible style will make the book just as appealing to the general reader. In short, this is the one book on Gettysburg that anyone interested in the Civil War should own.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An outstanding battle study by the author of Chancellorsville, this comprehensive narrative will lend extra impact to the 140th anniversary this July of the climactic battle of the Civil War. Sears casts his net wide, beginning with Lee's meeting with Davis in May 1863, where he argued in favor of marching north, to take pressure off both Vicksburg and Confederate logistics. It ends with the battered Army of Northern Virginia re-crossing the Potomac some two months later, a near-run on both sides as Meade was finally unwilling to drive his equally battered Army of the Potomac into a desperate pursuit. In between is the balanced, clear and detailed story of how 60,000 men became casualties, and how the winning of Confederate independence on the battlefield was put forever out of reach. The author generally is spare with scapegoating, although he has little use for Union men Dan Sickles (who advanced against orders on the second day) or Oliver Howard (whose Corps broke and was routed on the first day), or Richard Ewell of the Confederacy, who decided not to take Culp's Hill on the first night, when that might have been decisive. Sears also strongly urges the view that Lee was not fully in control of his army on the march or in the battle, a view borne out in his gripping narrative of Pickett's Charge, which makes many aspects of that nightmare much clearer than they have been before. This book is not the place to start a study of the campaign, but it is absolutely indispensable for the well-versed.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This authoritative history of the Battle of Gettysburg opens with a scene pertinent to what we imagine transpiring in the White House in recent weeks: a military-strategy planning session. In this case, the time was summer 1863, and the setting was Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital; putting their heads together were President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee, and the Confederate secretary of war. The Confederacy badly needed a victory because the stronghold at Vicksburg, Mississippi, was certain to fall to Union forces sometime soon. The plan that emerged from the session was to send the Army of Northern Virginia on an offensive across the Potomac River. The Confederate offensive abruptly failed, and Gettysburg represented the turning point of the war. Sears, author of a half-dozen Civil War books and a former editor of American Heritage magazine, leaves no stone unturned in his reconstruction of the battle, from preparation on both sides to the reasons for the Confederate loss. Readers thrilled by the minute details of battlefield maneuvers will be thoroughly engaged. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 623 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (June 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395867614
• ISBN-13: 978-0395867617
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #822,447 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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101 of 110 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sears's Gettysburg, August 2, 2003

By 

Robin Friedman (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gettysburg (Hardcover)

The Civil War, particularly the Battle of Gettysburg, retains its hold on the imagination of Americans. We seek to understand our country by studying the events of these terrible but formative years. The Civil War did indeed lead to a "new birth of freedom" in the United States. We still struggle to understand and to develop the implications of this "new birth".

Stephen Sears is a distinguished military historian of the Civil War who has written in this book an outstanding account of the pivotal battle of Gettysburg (July 1 -- July 3, 1863). This battle ended the Confederacy's second invasion of the Union (the first invasion ended with the Battle of Antietam in September, 1862). Coupled with the Confederacy's surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1863, Gettysburg ended the South's ability to wage an offensive war and probaby ended as well its chance of winning the war.

Sears gives a full account of the battle and of the events leading to Lee's second invasion of the North, beginning with Lee's victory over the Union Army at Chancellorsville in May, 1863. Sears explains well how the invasion was linked to the impending Confederate loss at Vicksburg. General Lee put forward the invasion to Jefferson Davis as a calculated gamble and a means to counteract this loss.

The book offers detailed pictures of the march into Pennsylvania of the preludes to the Battle of Gettysburg, of the battle itself, and of Lee's subsequent retreat into Virginia. There are excellent pictures of each of the three days of the battle, beginning with the two great armies stumbling on each other on day one, continuing with the ferocity of the Southern charge on the Union left (Little Round Top) on day two, and concluding climactically with General George Pickett's doomed charge at the center of the Union line on day three. I found the story of Pickett's charge dramiatically and poignantly told. The book describes Lee's retreat and Meade's pursuit into Virginia following the battle. Sears, in general, exonerates Meade from the charge that he failed to pursue Lee adequately following the battle, to destroy Lee's army, and to bring the War to an end.

At least as important as the factual development of the events of the campaign, Sears gives the reader an analysis of why events developed as they did. In particular, Sears views the battle as a result of Southern overconfidence and arrogance -- hubris -- resulting from the many victories attained by the Army of Northern Virginia in the early years of the War. General Lee felt contempt for the fighting spirit of the Union Army and for its leaders which led him to underestimate the spirit of the Federals, especially when they were called upon to defend their own land.

Sears also points out many failures in the Confederate High Command during the invasion. The primary failure, I believe, involved Lee and his cavalry commander Jeb Stuart. Stuart left the invading army at a critical time and as a result Lee was deprived of knowledge of the whereabouts of the Union Army, its size, and of the terrain at Gettysburg. The Union enjoyed an overwhelming field position during the second and third days of Gettysburg.

There is a great deal made in Sears's' book of Lee's relationships with his other generals, particularly General James Longstreet. Longstreet objected vigorously to Lee's plans of battle on the second and third days, even while carrying out faithfully and aggressively his duties as a subordinate officer when the decisions had been made.

Sears contrasts the Southern command with that of the Union commander, George Meade, who had assumed command only four days before the battle. Meade was cautious and thorough. He assumed personal command of the Union operations at Gettysburg (unlike Lee who delegated heavily), consulted with and listened to his subordinates, and performed both brilliantly and stolidly at the time of the Union's great need.

The writing style of this book is outstanding. It flows inexorably from one chapter to the next and from event to event. The reader can follow the story, from the complexities of the troop movements, to Sears's discussions and reflections on his story. It is a style suited to a prose epic, and it kept me riveted throughout.

This is an excellent treatment of the Battle of Gettysburg.

59 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sears does Gettysburg, July 1, 2003

By 

David W. Nicholas (Van Nuys, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gettysburg (Hardcover)

There are two Civil War writers who concentrate on the Eastern Theater of the war, and are prominent enough to garner attention outside their field. One is Stephen W. Sears, the other is Noah Andre Trudeau. Sears has concentrated on the first half of the war, mostly writing about the campaigns of George McClellan, while Trudeau has worked in the last half of the war, making a name for himself as the best-known chronicler of Grant's Overland Campaign in 1864. Last year, Trudeau presented us with Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage, a long and very good account of the battle and its consequences. It seems these two historians have met in the middle of the war, because we are now presented with Stephen W. Sears' simply titled Gettysburg.

Sears is a different writer than Trudeau, and he presents the battle in a different fashion, the book in a different manner. While Trudeau's book is long and dense (no illustrations, ca. 600 pages of text), Sears' book is considerably shorter, and more accessible. It has illustrations, either photographs of the participants or artwork done by participants or witnesses. Since they take up space on the page, and I would judge the font to be a point or two larger, my guess is this book is a good 25% shorter than Trudeau's. That makes it more accessible (as does the inclusion of illustrations, one shortcoming of Trudeau's book) and easier to read. It's not, however, a book for beginners.

Sears is of course interested in the battle and why it came out the way it did, not just recounting what happened during the fighting. He echoes many of Trudeau's judgements, differs with some others, but makes some of his own. Most of his verdict on the battle and the performance of the generals involved is nothing new to Civil War buffs, and won't make fans of R.E. Lee happy. Each of the generals who were active on the battlefield gets some treatment of his effect on the battle.

One illuminating section was on the Military Intelligence branch Hooker had set up, which Meade kept, called the Bureau of Military Information. The officers in charge of this kept track of intelligence, assimilated, evaluated, and sorted it, and presented it to Meade regularly during the campaign. Lee had no such organization, and of course Stuart, who performed some of the duties involved, was away riding around the Union army. This provided Meade with a considerable advantage: he knew which Confederate troops were on the battlefield, and was aware he would be facing an attack led by Pickett's division on the third day, because the B.M.I. hadn't interrogated any prisoners from that division yet. Lee, by contrast, fought the battle under the impression that only part of the Union army was on the battlefield, because the Confederates didn't do the same thing.

In direct comparison with Trudeau, Sears is perhaps a bit of a better writer, but Trudeau provides more detail. Sears' narrative is sorted conventionally, with the fighting on a particular part of the battlefield being dealt with before he moves on to the next portion. The author even puts the cavalry action to the east of Gettysburg, and Farnsworth's charge, into an after-the-battle chapter, recounting them after telling the story of Pickett's charge, even though the cavalry fight took place before. Trudeau spends a lot of time dealing with individual regimental colonels, and their fights: Sears largely confines himself to brigade commanders. Both books try to place the battle in the larger context of the Civil War and American history. Both books discuss, briefly, the Gettysburg Address.

So, which book do you buy? I would think buffs of the battle or the war will want both. If you're a general reader who wishes to read something on the battle itself, Sears' book is more accessible than Trudeau's because of length and illustrations, but that's the only real difference between the two.

47 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Starting Place, July 23, 2003

By 

Allan W. Goodall (Monroe, LA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gettysburg (Hardcover)

I'm not exactly sure why every book on Gettysburg "has" to plow new ground in order to be accepted. Perhaps its because the grognards feel they have to read everything written about the battle and are disappointed if they don't learn something new. Not everyone wants, or needs, to delve into new research. New research, after all, can be flawed. Unless you follow Civil War scholarship through the peer review process, you may take as gospel something that doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Sears' _Gettysburg_ doesn't have much in it that's new, but that's not necessarily a bad thing! Those of us who have studied the Civil War for some time tend to forget that every few years we _need_ an easy to read, single volume history of important battles that utilizes current research. _Gettysburg_ by Stephen Sears is such a book.

The first book I read about Gettysburg was _They Met at Gettysburg_ by Gen. Stackpole. It was a bit out of date even when I read it, and it was terribly slanted against certain historical figures, but at the same time it was engaging and very easy to read. That book started me on a 15 year discovery of the American Civil War. Reading _Gettysburg_, I was reminded of how I felt when I read Stackpole's book. I really wish that this book had been my first introduction to the battle. It may not be a must read for every Civil War enthusiast, and it is certainly _not_ as detailed as Pfanz or Hess' books (nor is it meant to be) but it's definitely an important contribution to the field. Someone coming at Gettysburg for the first time could do _much_ worse than this volume.

The book begins where _Chancellorsville_ leaves off, with Sears showing the opening moves of Lee and Hooker. Sears' view of Hooker is rather more positive than that of most writers, an off shoot of his argument in _Chancellorsville_ that Hooker has long been the victim of character assassination. (I see that at least one reviewer finds Sears' arguments in _Chancellorsville_ about Hooker hard to take. In a recent article in Military History Quarterly, Noah Andre Trudeau acknowledges the validity of Sears arguments. Apparently the peer review process is slowly coming around to the idea that the view of Hooker coming unglued at Chancellorsville needs to be reassessed.)

In just over 500 pages (not including the index, notes, or orders of battle) Sears discusses the campaign leading up to the battle, the battle itself, and a little about the battle's aftermath (which I felt could have been done in more detail). His writing style is perhaps the books best attribute. You won't get bogged down in the minutae of the battle, or fall asleep due to lifeless prose. Even having known most of what Sears had to say, I found the book engaging.

The maps by Greg Skoch are plentiful and clean. I was surprised, and pleased, to see a good overview map of the battle of Winchester, June 13 - 15, 1863. I've read other accounts of Gettysburg that mention this engagement, but usually they don't bother including a map. This was a pleasant surprise.

The illustrations and photographs are all from the period. The included sketches were all done by someone present at the battle. This is a very nice touch.

For anyone starting to look at the Civil War (and for many that begins with Gettysburg), I have no hesitation in pointing them to _Gettysburg_ by Stephen Sears. If they get into it in a serious manner, then I'll point them to Pfanz and Hess, but if they go no further than Sears they are still well served.