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Ralph Peters

Cain at Gettysburg: A Novel (The Battle Hymn Cycle, 1) Hardcover – February 28, 2012

by Ralph Peters (Author)

528 ratings

Book 1 of 5: The Battle Hymn Cycle

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Winner of the American Library Association's W. Y. Boyd Award for Excellence in Military Fiction

Two mighty armies blunder toward each other, one led by confident, beloved Robert E. Lee and the other by dour George Meade. They'll meet in a Pennsylvania crossroads town where no one planned to fight.

In this sweeping, savagely realistic novel, the greatest battle ever fought on American soil explodes into life at Gettysburg. As generals squabble, staffs err. Tragedy unfolds for immigrants in blue and barefoot Rebels alike. The fate of our nation will be decided in a few square miles of fields.

Following a tough Confederate sergeant from the Blue Ridge, a bitter Irish survivor of the Great Famine, a German political refugee, and gun crews in blue and gray, Cain at Gettysburg is as grand in scale as its depictions of combat are unflinching.

For three days, battle rages. Through it all, James Longstreet is haunted by a vision of war that leads to a fateful feud with Robert E. Lee. Scheming Dan Sickles nearly destroys his own army. Gallant John Reynolds and obstreperous Win Hancock, fiery William Barksdale and dashing James Johnston Pettigrew, gallop toward their fates….

There are no marble statues on this battlefield, only men of flesh and blood, imperfect and courageous. From New York Times bestselling author and former U.S. Army officer Ralph Peters, Cain at Gettysburg is bound to become a classic of men at war.

Print length

432 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Forge Books
Publication date

February 28, 2012
Dimensions

6.46 x 1.41 x 9.57 inches
ISBN-10

0765330474
ISBN-13

978-0765330475
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A classic novel of warfare that will be read for years to come.” ―W.Y. Boyd Literary Novel Award

“Surpasses Michael Shaara's classic The Killer Angels...a brilliant portrayal of how the Confederate infantry felt...In fact, brilliant is an adjective one is tempted to wear out in describing this book...” ―Booklist (starred review)

“[A] compelling tale of men at war...Peters's colorful descriptions of harsh army life and the utter chaos of battle are accurate and convincing...” ―Publishers Weekly

“Action-packed...vigorous, decisive...Peters is both historically accurate and a well-practiced storyteller [with] a good sense of the language and culture of the time. Among the many strong points of Peters' version is his attention to the immigrant players on the battlefield.” ―Kirkus Reviews

“Ralph Peters has given us a great treasure! You'll want to keep Cain at Gettysburg long after you've read through it the first time. Visit with the ragged, but proud, veterans of Lee's army; listen to them as they prepare for the fight ahead. You will marvel at this superbly crafted portrait of General George Meade's soldiers in dusty blue, whose courage matched that of their commander. This wonderful saga pulls you right into the ranks of men marching to meet their destiny.” ―John W. Mountcastle, Brigadier General, U.S. Army (ret.), former Army Chief of Military History

“A captivating novel that combines the accuracy of the historian with the gripping prose of a gifted storyteller...spellbinding...” ―Dr. James S. Pula, author of The Sigel Regiment: A History of the 26th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry: 1862-1865 on Cain at Gettysburg

“Ralph Peters has done the seemingly impossible. He has found a new way to tell the story of Gettysburg and simultaneously restore a great general to his rightful place in our minds and hearts.” ―Thomas Fleming, New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Trial of Robert E. Lee on Cain at Gettysburg

“A great retelling of the Battle of Gettysburg, Cain had my complete attention. Ralph Peters challenges the notion that everything that can be written about this battle has been. His approach is fresh, original, and outstanding in every respect.” ―General Sid Shachnow, U.S. Army Special Forces (ret.)

About the Author

Ralph Peters is a retired Army lieutenant colonel and former enlisted man, a controversial strategist and veteran of the intelligence world; a bestselling, prize-winning novelist; a journalist who has covered multiple conflicts and appears frequently in the broadcast media; and a lifelong traveler with experience in over seventy countries on six continents. A widely read columnist, Ralph Peters' journalism has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines and web-zines, including The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Washington Post, Newsweek, Harpers, and Armchair General Magazine. His books include The Officers’ Club, The War After Armageddon, Endless War, and Red Army. Peters grew up in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, and studied writing at Pennsylvania State University. He lives and writes in the Washington, D.C. area.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Forge Books; First edition (February 28, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0765330474
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0765330475
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.35 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.46 x 1.41 x 9.57 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,161,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,910 in Biographical Historical Fiction
- #4,655 in Military Historical Fiction
- #11,568 in War Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
528 ratings

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Ralph Peters

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Ralph Peters is a prize-winning, bestselling novelist and the author of innovative works on strategy and security. A retired U.S. Army officer and former enlisted soldier, his unusual career took him from Moscow to Mandalay and from the Middle East to Latin America. After leaving the military, he also worked as a columnist, a popular media commentator and a "strategic scout" in the developing world. Early works, such as "Red Army" and "The War in 2020," had contemporary military themes, but after leaving uniformed service he concentrated largely on the American Civil War. Under the pen-name "Owen Parry," he wrote six award-winning mystery novels set during the Civil War, as well as two collections of Christmas tales for adults. Then, under his own name, he embarked upon what became the five-book Battle Hymn Cycle, works he describes as "dramatized history, but, above all, accurate, honest history." The books take the reader from Gettysburg to Appomattox, capturing the brutal reality and high drama of the war in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The first three volumes in the cycle, "Cain at Gettysburg," "Hell or Richmond," and "Valley of the Shadow," each won the American Library Association's Boyd Award, and volumes in the critically acclaimed series have won various other prizes. A prequel to the cycle, "Darkness at Chancellorsville," will appear in May, 2019. A secret until recently, Peters quietly wrote a novel about playing rock music in the late 1960s, which he published under the pen-name "Robert Paston." In recent years, he was inducted into the U.S. Army's Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame and received the Goodpaster Award as an outstanding American soldier-scholar. After more than two decades in the military and a further two decades of media work and research, he now concentrates on writing and pursues his long-time hobbies of travel, languages, classic literature, history and fitness.

Customer reviews

5 star		72%
4 star		20%
3 star		4%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

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Kindle Customer

An Explosive, Well Written Novel - Yet Well Researched History

Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2019

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I have been a Civil War Buff since 1961, when my History class in Jr. High used the Centennial issues of Life magazine to study this era of history. In the meantime, I have read a large number of weighty tomes about this battle. I have visited, and hiked the battlefield at Gettysburg, so I am familiar with the topography of this place. On this basis, I am telling you, Col Peters gets it right.
In the same vein, I have read just about every novel set during this battle. That includes what I consider to be the best example of this genre. Jeff Shaara’s “Killer Angels.” This novel presents a perfect compliment to Shaara’s work. It is constructed to the same pattern. Namely , up close and intimate characterization of individual Officers, Units, and enlisted men. This is not a criticism, but rather a word of praise.
Peters emphasizes General Meade slightly over General Lee and his staff. Instead of Col. Chamberlain, and the 20th Maine. He emphasizes the Germans of the 26th Wisconsin, and the rest of the ill regarded 11th Corps of O. O. Howard. He also chooses to follow in detail Union Chief of Artillery Hunt. An interesting character, and more of a key figure than I previously thought.
Peters also emphasizes different parts of the battle. He writes well and expressively about the Union retreat through the town of Gettysburg, and the establishment of the Union lines on Cemetery Ridge. Instead of the struggle for Little Round Top, he writes of the Peach Orchard and the Wheatfield, a tragedy brought on by the vanity and political ambitions of General Sickles.
The piece de resistance-pun intended-of the book and of the battle is Pickett’s Charge, and the epic defense at the Stone Wall, and The Copse of Trees. The center of the Union line. The author introduces the 69th Pennsylvania Infantry at this point. They were an Irish Regiment, part of “The Philadelphia Brigade”. A group instrumental in this vital defensive stand. Also he turns a well deserved spotlight on the heroism of Lt. Alonso Cushing, commanding Battery A, US Artillery, who gave the last full measure of his devotion, for which he was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor in 2014.
This book is a much needed reminder that war may be necessary at times, but it is not romantic, nor always glorious. Bravo Col. Peters. Got to go now and find the second volume of this trilogy.

5 people found this helpful

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P. A. Panozzo

A COMPELLING WORK BY A BRILLIANT AUTHOR!

Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2020

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I first read Ralph Peters book "Darkness At Chancellorsville" and almost immediately purchased the entire series of books! I have never read anything as compelling, as enlightening, or as engrossing as this author's works! I have had a lifelong fascination with America's Civil War and Gettysburg was an incredible battle! I have read Michael Shaara's "Killer Angels" and Jeff Shaara's books as well and they are quite good but in my opinion, Peters books offer a visceral, grittier portrayal of the men and battles. You get into the minds of the generals and soldiers; your senses experience the war; you ride in the saddle; you feel the bullets pass by your head, you hear the cries of the wounded; you live through the battle! Peters is a refreshing and brilliant author! I highly recommend his books to anyone that enjoys reading about the Civil War!

3 people found this helpful

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Gritty

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2020

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“… in the end, fighting was one thing a hurt man could believe in. For all the filth and horror, it was pure.” – from CAIN AT GETTYSBURG

“… hatred filled the belly better than love, oh, didn’t it, though?” – from CAIN AT GETTYSBURG

“Killing made it clear that a man existed.” – from CAIN AT GETTYSBURG

“The killers quickened God’s interest, not the innocent, since the innocent could never know His power. His clemency was not for the pure of heart. Why give, when there was no need?” – from CAIN AT GETTYSBURG

More than half a lifetime ago I read THE KILLER ANGELS by Michael Shaara and then saw (more than once) the 1993 film GETTYSBURG based on the book.

Here in CAIN AT GETTYSBURG by Ralph Peters, the Union’s Army of the Potomac under its reluctant, new commander George Meade confronts Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia on the same battlefield as that of THE KILLER ANGELS, but the novelized narrative is told from different viewpoints.

On Day 1 (July 1, 1863) of the battle, the story is told from the perspective of several enlisted members of the 26th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, part of General Pettigrew’s brigade attached to the Confederate 3rd Corps, as it attacked the town of Gettysburg from the west, and from the perspective of several enlisted members of the 26th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, part of General Krzyzanowski’s Brigade attached to the Union XI Corps, as it defended Gettysburg from an attack from the north by Confederate General Ewell’s 2nd Corps. Day 1 ultimately proved to be a Union defeat as the Federal survivors retreated through the town to entrench on Cemetery Hill and Ridge.

Day 2 (July 2) focuses on the attack by elements of Confederate General Longstreet’s 1st Corps on the left of the Union line along Cemetery Ridge, an attack insisted upon by General Lee and opposed by Longstreet almost to the point of insubordination. At this point in the 3-day battle, KILLER ANGELS emphasized the crucial stand on the far left end of the Union line by Joshua Chamberlain’s 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment on Little Round Top. In CAIN AT GETTYSBURG, the author rather focuses on Union General Dan Sickles who, against orders, advanced his III Corps into an indefensible salient centered on the Peach Orchard and forward of the rest of the Federal lines. III Corps was ultimately destroyed by Longstreet’s attack, and it’s from the perspective of General Barksdale and his Mississippi Brigade that the assault is told. Barksdale’s troops actually reached the crest of Cemetery Ridge before being repulsed by elements of the Union II Corps rushed in to fill the breach caused by III Corp’s collapse. Day 2 was won by the Army of the Potomac, barely.

Day 3 (July 3) is, of course, that one saw Pickett’s Charge on the center of the Federal entrenchments on Cemetery Ridge, an attack that was again opposed by Longstreet. But Lee’s dander was up and he insisted. Since the artillery arms of both armies played such a critical role in the day’s events, the perspectives on that day’s actions are those of Longstreet’s Chief of Artillery Porter Alexander and his Union counterpart under Meade, General Henry Hunt. The perspective of the infantry is that of the 26th North Carolina, weakened by Day 1’s action but still game, and that of the 69th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment which was outflanked but held its position at the stone wall in front of the Copse of Trees, the landscape aiming point of Pickett’s Charge.

Peters takes great pains to emphasize the national origins of some of the Federal units. The 26th Wisconsin was comprised of German immigrants, and the 69th Pennsylvania of Irish.

For each day of battle, the author includes a better than average map of the day’s troop positions and movements.

The last chapter, an Epilogue, is particularly interesting in that it’s from the perspective of Lt. Colonel Arthur James Lyon Fremantle of Her Majesty’s Coldstream Guards (in civies) who was present on the Confederate side as an unofficial observer for the British army. One is perhaps best left with his take on the battle:

“As an officer, he had nothing to learn from these American amateurs. No English general would ever order his infantry to attack en masse across open fields in the face of entrenched modern weapons. It just wasn’t done.”

CAIN AT GETTYSBURG is a riveting read and perhaps as good as any account you’ll find on what it was like to fight an infantry action in the Civil War in the face of determined defenders and massed guns.

One person found this helpful

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Barry W

Drain with Cain

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 25, 2012

Verified Purchase

"Cain at Gettysburg" is a draining read. It knocks the heart right out of the reader with its exhausting account of this famous battle. It places some of the pieces left uncovered by "The Killer Angels," by concentrating on a different set of the important personalities in this battle. Sickles, for instance, plays a major part, with a detailed account of his actions. It must be wonderful to have his self-confidence, to be so sure that he was right and everyone else was wrong. As a person with a long interest in General Longstreet, I found his anguish and soul-searching to be just as I imagined. General Lee was unwell at Gettysburg and this was portrayed sympathetically. He was said to have suffered everything from migraine to mild heart attacks at the scene. The stress these people felt is unimaginable, but Ralph Peters does well in putting across these names from history as real men.
This is a terrific book and I thank Amazon for making so many books on this subject available in England.

3 people found this helpful

P. J. Pullen

VERY POOR. THE DISC

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 31, 2018

Verified Purchase

THE PACKING WAS VERY, VERY POOR. THE DISC . CONTAINER ARRIVED VERY BADLY BROKEN IN TWO PLACES BUT THE DISCS APPEAR TO BE OK.
HOWEVER I HAD REQUESTED A REPLACEMENT CONTAINER FOR THE DISCS BUT MY REQUES HAS SO FAR BEEN DISREGARDED.

PLEASE SEND ME A REPLACEMENT CASE FOR THE DISCS.

Conn Crowley

Consistently good

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 19, 2018

Verified Purchase

Another excellent book from Ralph Peters. I never get tired of reading this man's books

Oribeth

Historically accurate

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 31, 2013

Verified Purchase

I bought this for my husband, and he has thoroughly enjoyed the book. 90% of the characters in it are historically correct, and he was very impressed with the whole book.

P. Barratt

A Wonderful Read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 3, 2015

Verified Purchase

Like 'Hell or Richmond' this is yet another superb novel from Mr Peters. Rich in historical detail and accurarcy it really puts you back in 1863. If there is a better modern Civil War novelist I will gladly 'March Through Georgia' to meet him!!

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