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Post by Beth on Jan 22, 2017 2:49:07 GMT
I am going to need a recommendation for a good Gettysburg book, something between not too basic but not for someone with 50 years devoted to the exclusive study of Gettysburg. Bonus points if it is currently under publication and available as an ebook.
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Post by deadwoodgultch on Jan 22, 2017 12:40:06 GMT
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Post by deadwoodgultch on Jan 22, 2017 12:43:14 GMT
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Post by deadwoodgultch on Jan 22, 2017 13:02:30 GMT
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Post by dgfred on Jan 23, 2017 16:11:18 GMT
That one is a keeper in the favorites.
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dave
Brigadier General
Posts: 1,679 
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Post by dave on Jan 24, 2017 22:13:57 GMT
A great book is High Tide At Gettysburg: The Campaign In Pennsylvania by Glenn Tucker. It is a must for anyone's library. Kindle edition is $5.99.
Regards
Dave
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Post by rebcav on Jan 27, 2017 4:36:51 GMT
"Gettysburg" by Stephen W. Sears or "Last Chance for Victory" by Scott Bowden and Bill Ward are probably my favorites of the books I've read on those Three Days in July, 1863.
Respectfully Submitted,
Duane
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Post by quincannon on Jan 27, 2017 17:56:09 GMT
Sears writes very well. I do not have the one you mentioned Duane, but I do have his Chancellorsville and it is really good.
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Post by rebcav on Feb 1, 2017 6:05:26 GMT
Sears writes very well. I do not have the one you mentioned Duane, but I do have his Chancellorsville and it is really good. I agree with your assessment of Mr. Sears' writing ability. I've read, re-read, and re-re-read his "Chancellorsville" work countless times. If you want a GREAT read, check out his "To the Gates of Richmond- The Peninsula Campaign". That was pretty much my companion when I did my Geek-Fest on the Seven Days' Battles....I took 9 days to see all the sights.....And STILL didn't see everything on the list..... Respectfully, Duane |
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Post by BrevetorCoffin on Apr 21, 2017 12:06:07 GMT
Stars in Their Courses by Shelby Foote which is actually a chapter in his outstanding Trilogy on the Civil War. It has been separated out and sold separately.
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dave
Brigadier General
Posts: 1,679
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Post by dave on Apr 25, 2017 16:41:28 GMT
Beth
Did you check out High Tide At Gettysburg: The Campaign In Pennsylvania? It is a really good read that flows very well.
Regards
Dave
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Post by Beth on Apr 27, 2017 1:12:10 GMT
No, I have been unable to do much serious reading lately--it's like my brain isn't able to wrap itself around useful information so I have been reading soppy romance stories for the past couple of months. Just before I got got sick I purchased a couple Gettysburg books but haven't gotten to them and can't even remember their titles (they're on my kindle, I will just have to look)
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dave
Brigadier General
Posts: 1,679
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Post by dave on Apr 27, 2017 2:33:21 GMT
The problem with studying the Gettysburg campaign is that it occurred over such a vast area with so many components it is so hard to keep a mental picture of the event. I have been there several times and always find new areas that I have missed and/or overlooked. To read just one book is doom to failure because of the three days of such action with over 100,000 plus men going every which way.
The personal stories are so varied as to make me wonder if the participants were in the same regiment and on the same part of the field. The topography of Gettysburg itself is difficult to describe if one has not been on the field. The Devil's Den appears to be an alien world when compared with the Peach Orchard or Wheat Field just a couple of hundred yards away.
Just one idiot's thoughts on the greatest conflict to occur on US soil.
Regards
Dave
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Post by BrevetorCoffin on Apr 27, 2017 15:12:52 GMT
Worthwhile studying regardless. I have been twice (only a 5 hour drive from where I lived in NJ) and could easily enjoy a few more trips. I noticed on both occasions that the US Army conducted courses on premises for enlisted men which we were able to listen in on. Fascinating stuff!
1st Minnesota, 20th Maine, 15th Alabama, Pickett's undersized division, etc. Stars in their Courses and all that!
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Post by quincannon on Apr 27, 2017 15:51:26 GMT
There is no one book ever written that will give you a complete picture of the Gettysburg Campaign. Many have been written on the battle itself, but none on the campaign, the area of which encompasses several thousand square miles and starts as far south as Culpeper, Virginia, and goes as far north as Carlisle, Pennsylvania, west to the central portion of the Valley of Virginia, and eastward to Fairfax, covering a roughly thirty day period. The size of such a work would be at least ten volumes, each the size of "Gone With The Wind" or "War and Peace".
You cannot begin to fully understand the three days of battle, without first absorbing what went on before to bring them to that place, and what transpired afterward until the middle of July.
Choose your books carefully, but start with the positioning of the armies following Chancellorsville, then proceed onward. Don't stop until Lee again crosses the Potomac, heading southward.
The process will be something like attending the movies back in the 1950's when they would have serial features shown on Saturdays. If you miss one episode or come in in the middle, you cannot fully understand what is happening and why.
My dad was a big fan of the Gettysburg battle. He visited the place more than a hundred times over a fifty year period, even if it was only stopping there for lunch on the way back from my grandmothers home, and sneaking an hour or so on the battlefield. I remember well a discussion I had with him about the place just after I gradated from C&GS. He asked me if I was up to spending a few days at the battlefield. I told him I would as long as we started at Brandy Station. He looked a bit astonished, and said that is WAY out of the way. I asked him if he wanted to understand, or just wished to stick his finger in the hole in Jenny Wade's door. We made the trip starting at Brandy, spent five days, and did not even scratch the surface.
If you do not understand that Brandy was the place that the cat was out of the bag, then you can't understand how the hole came to be in Jenny Wade's door. |
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