Witness to Gettysburg: Inside the Battle That Changed the Course of the Civil War (Stackpole Military History Series)

From the events that led to the clash at Gettysburg in July 1863 to the retreat of Robert E. Lee's defeated Confederates, Richard Wheeler uses the words of participants--both Northern and Southern--to bring one of the Civil War's bloodiest, most pivotal battles to life. The epic battle that turned the tide of the Civil War is vividly recounted in the words of soldiers and civilians who experienced it. The Battle of Gettysburg is perhaps the most famous conflicts of the American Civil War. Over the course of three brutal and bloody days in July of 1863, Confederate General Robert E. Lee attempted an invasion of the north, which was in the end successfully repelled by Major General George Meade’s Army of the Potomac. Though this epic battle has been minutely studied, Witness to Gettysburg offers a new perspective. Historian Richard Wheeler tells the story in both historical and human terms, almost entirely through the words of participants, both soldier and civilian, male and female. The technical statements in these firsthand accounts have been checked against official records and the personal stories have been verified as credible. Through this process, Wheeler has produced a war narrative that is both immediate and authoritative. In the summer of 1863, the gray tide of Robert E. Lee's Confederate army swept north in a grand offensive to end the war. Union forces under new commander George Meade pursued, and amid the rolling hills and green fields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the two sides clashed in one of the Civil War's most pivotal battles.