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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still the Essential Account of the Gettysburg Campaign, June 14, 2004
Edwin Coddington's (1905-1963) "The Gettysburg Campaign" (1963) remains not only the seminal account of the Battle of Gettysburg but also a model of Civil War and historical writing. The book is an inspiring example of scholarship at its best. Coddington writes in a clear, eloquent, yet non-polemical style as he explores his subject. He does not back away from offering opinions and conclusions, which flow clearly from his narrative account. The reader can understand the basis of the judgments which Coddington offers. The account is detailed and yet selective. Coddington focuses on the broad picture of the Gettysburg story without getting bogged down in the minutae and legends that mar some otherwise excellent treatments of this battle. Coddington focuses on "why" things happened as well as "what" happened. The reader is given a context for the Gettysburg campaign and is seldom at a loss over the reason the author is discussing and devoting time to an issue. The book is thoroughly documented and the footnotes include much essential material.Coddington begins with a lengthy consideration of the factors that led Robert E. Lee to propose an invasion of the North following the Battle of Chancellorsville. He concludes with a discussion of the Confederate retreat from Gettysburg, culminating in the return to Virginia on July 14, 1863. He discusses well the Union pursuit and considers judiciously whether Meade should have been more aggressive in trying to cut off the fleeing foe. I found the factual account comprehensive on the major points of the Battle and careful and circumspect in its conclusions. Coddington allows the reader to see the deficiencies in the Confederate command structure (lack of coordination) and the overconfidence of the Southern forces at virtually every level as contributing factors to the defeat at Gettysburg. He is more critical of General Longstreet's role in the Battle than are many more recent accounts. On the Union side of the line, Coddington is highly critical of Third Corps General Sickles and his salient on July 2, which came close to costing the Union the Battle. The longest critical section of the book consists of an examination of the dispute between Meade and Sickles and his supporters following the battle regarding the wisdom, or lack of it, in Sickles's movement of the Third Corps. Coddington has high, but careful praise for Commanding General Meade, for Hancock, Reynolds, Buford,Howard, and Slocum. He shows how the Army of the Potomac, for all its awkward structure (seven Corps at Gettysburg compared to the Confederate three) and for all the rivalries between its leaders was able to function as a coordinated unit when it needed to do so and hold the Union position at Gettysburg. Coddington has high praise for the valor of the fighting troops on both sides of the line. Sometimes implicitly and sometimes explicitly, Coddington's book comes to grips with many competing accounts of the Battle of Gettysburg. He points to the tendence of many students to view the battle as a series of speculative "ifs" -- if General Early, Longstreet, what have you had done this at the time, the result would have been different. Most such analyses, Coddington argues, are fruitless, Furthermore, they tend to ignore, or downplay, the mistakes that, hindsight suggests, occurred in the Battle of the other side of the line. Coddington shows the reader what happened, marshalls the evidence about why it happened, and allows the reader to think the matter through. This is a detailed, close and thorough account of the Battle of Gettysburg that is probably best approached by a reader who has a basic familiarity with the Civil War and a general understanding of the action at Gettysburg. It is not the only account of this endlessly fascinating battle, but it remains the standard work which needs to be considered in understanding the events of the Gettysburg campaign.
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