Gettysburg The tide turns

The Battle of Gettysburg was a dramatic combination of pathos and absurdity, according to this remarkable selection of primary sources from historian Chadwick (The Cannons Roar). In the summer of 1863, Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee invaded Pennsylvania, intent on compelling the Union into peace talks by cutting off the state's fertile agricultural land. But Union forces led by George Meade--who was only 72 hours into his command--inadvertently collided with Lee's advanced guard on the outskirts of Gettysburg. This all-too-human factor of war--whereby mistakes, disagreements, and muddled thinking impact the course of events--is Chadwick's focus throughout his oral history of the battle that followed. For example, he highlights the friction between Lee and his second-in-command James Longstreet, and between Meade and Lincoln, who sent the triumphant commander (feted by everyone else) an unaccountably "scathing" post-battle reprimand for not pursuing the retreating enemy. In between snippets from soldiers' letters and journalists' on-the-ground reporting--some of which are just a sentence long, creating rapidly shifting and panoramic views of the battle's most famous moments--Chadwick provides cheeky commentary ("Pickett was angry at everybody for Pickett's Charge"; "McClellan... wrote that the people saw him as some kind of a God on a horse"). By turns amusing and bleak, it's a stellar look at the folly, valor, and happenstance of war. (Feb.)

Firsthand accounts from those who witnessed war. There is no shortage of Gettysburg histories, so Chadwick, author ofThe Cannons Roar: Fort Sumter and the Start of the Civil War--An Oral History (2023), takes a different tack that will captivate the general reader. His book is an oral history of the 1863 battle in the sense that it describes events and individuals through the words of contemporaries--far more often written than spoken. This works better with events than individuals. His sources deliver conventional portraits of the major players. Everyone worships Robert E. Lee, George Meade (the Union commander) is hardworking and competent, Abraham Lincoln wise and sad. Chadwick follows the usual oral history format, introducing a subject, then quoting observers. Historical figures deliver their impressions, as do military officers and bureaucrats. He relies heavily on journalists who apparently roamed the battlefield freely; the British sent a large contingent, mostly to Confederate armies, where they fell under Lee's spell. This being the first major war in an era of widespread literacy, common soldiers and Gettysburg citizens wrote letters and kept diaries. An entertaining collection of primary sources. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.