Customer Reviews

Pickett's Charge

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

 

 

The eyewitness accounts are quite informative and go to great lengths in describing the horrors of war. Both sides of the war are well represented without favoritism or slanted journalism. The book moves along at a nice pace and doesn't bog you down in over-detailed research.

The nice feature of this work is the addition of reference notes in the text; making it easy to find the original notation.

Richard Rollins has done a superb job in putting this book together.

The amount of eyewitness accounts to this charge in incredible. Rollins is very fair in his insight while introducing an individual's story. From the early stages of artillery placement, Union and Confederate positioning on Day #3, the cannonade, assault and repulse, this book covers it all. Letters and sections from biographies are presented from not just Generals and Colonels but all the way down to individual private soldier accounts. This book is a great tool for those trying to understand Pickett's charge and how soldiers involved told of their struggles. It is interesting to read their accounts written days or even years after the battle. On several accounts it is easier to get clarity in regards to a certain regiment or company movement. Though many stories are sometimes repititous as to the event, the commentary in regards to the action is unique! This book would compliment anyone interested in understanding the charge in a much more deeper view. For a beginner it may be hard to follow though for one who understands the charge or has had more time reading about it, I would recommend it highly!

The more that I read Civil War and WWII books, the more that I find that the most interesting books are those that contain firsthand accounts of what the soldiers went through. This is just such a book. It's a compilation of experiences from different soldiers, involving most of the units in the charge, both Union and Confederate. I find myself rereading parts of this book over and over. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Gettysburg.

They say: "You can't describe the horrors of war with words, it must be experienced." This book belies that admonition. I was no more than 50 pages into my reading of this book, when I was already recommending it to friends! I appreciate the insight provided by the writers of the material, their individual stories and perspectives. I did, however, find that the accounts of the artillery officers to be bogged down in endless details of the placements of their batteries that seemed to go on and on, and several of the accounts were repetitious. Also, disconcertingly, at least twice in the paperback edition two pages were mis-numbered, so that you had to skip a page and then go back to read the account properly (obviously, mistakes done in the editing or in the printing process). I firmly believe that, for the Confederacy, the Civil War was a "lost cause" from the start, and always find it interesting to read the southern soldiers viewpoints; they were unaware of this, appearently never having done the math. What differenciates this work from others however, is the manner of speaking that the writers have - this is the one thing that cannot be faked - we do not look at things or describe them in the same language today. For me, that made this book an interesting and an excellent read. I heartily recommend it.

Richard Rollins has put together a nice collection of eye witness reports to Pickett's Charge. For the serious Civil War buff, they will find the book a decent reference but the casual civil war reader may find the accounts a bit repetitive and dry at times.

Rollins starts out his book in a bad way with an introduction that is suppose to be a general overview of the battle but in reality is simply your good old fashion Lost Cause bashing of James Longstreet. To say he goes over the top would be an understatement. Rollins surprised me by his repeating of a number of lost cause myths and untruths including the myth of the dawn attack order and claiming that Lee stayed up half the night waiting for Longstreet to come to his headquarters after the battle on July 2nd. He claims there is ample evidence of there being an order for a dawn attack and then promptly provides no evidence what so ever. Neither assertion is true but Rollins' definately has a big ax to grind with Longstreet and swings away with a vengence.

Once past the introduction however we get to the good stuff and Rollins does seem to do a decent job of picking out some of the better accounts. He also does something that I wish more Civil War authors would do and that's have good maps of the battle. Each section of the book has it's own map with numbers on it. The numbers correspond with a specific account in the next section. This makes it very easy to understand the person's perspective as you can look at the map and quickly see where they were. I wish more Civil War authors would put as much effort into having good maps in their books like we see here.

His choice of accounts are well balanced. We see the battle from both sides, first the Confederates and then the Federals. We also have accounts all the way down the line in order of rank so in a section you will start off with an account by a general and finish with that of the common private. Some of the sections are more interesting than others. For example the Confederate accounts involving Armistead going over the wall are much more interesting than the ones describing the preparations for the cannonade.

There are only two drawbacks to this book. First you are reading accounts by people who aren't professional writers. Many of these accounts are from personal letters, reports or soldiers writing articles for home town newspapers so their writing style plus the change in language over the last 140 years makes for a little heavy going at times. It doesn't make their stories any less interesting, just a little less easy to read at a long stretch.

Second while you are reading many different accounts, they are accounts describing the same thing so it can get a bit repetitive. Rollins might have done a little better job in the accounts he chose to include in sections where they are describing the cannonade. They spend time describing how they set up their batteries and the shelling and it does tend to drag a bit there. Not that what they are saying isn't interesting but it's one thing to read a letter from a soldier describing a battle and it's another thing to read 10 letters in a row describing the same part of the battle.

Overall this is a book worth picking up as a reference piece if you know the battle well and are seriously into Gettysburg. If you are simply a casual reader on Gettysburg then this book likely won't be for you.

Read this before going to Gettysburg for a weekend with the Friends of Gettysburg Foundation where we go out on the field with a guide and this was part of my homework. We did Picket's charge on the left following Pettigrew and Trimble. Reading the soldier's accounts helped me to understand what I was seeing and at the next opportunity will finish the book. The Gettysburg Battlefield guides strongly recommend this book.

This compilation of eyewitnes accounts is the most valuable resource for studying this part of the battle. You read actual testimonies of actual participants from both sides. Everything else is commentary. The editor has provided a most valuable service.