During the heyday of Lost Cause mythology General Longstreet was blamed for petulantly messing around with Lee’s timetable for attacks, resulting in these attacks’ utter failure. Until the last couple decades, books on the battle have always focused on the South’s high command, trying to see what went wrong with Lee’s planning. In fact, the greatest insights this book provides is how the North won at Gettysburg. Sears is also very complimentary of George Gordon Meade’s leadership. Sears believes this plan would have worked, as Lee would have abandoned his invasion to come to Richmond’s aid, but not in time. Sears spent much of Chancellorsville salvaging Hooker’s reputation and still treats him with respect here, mentioning a plan he had to strike at Richmond while Lee was going north. If he had lasted just another week the battle might have gone differently (not necessarily better or worse, just differently). Often overlooked is the fact that until three days before Gettysburg General Joseph Hooker was still in charge of the Union army. Then Sears gets into the campaign preceding the main battle. The first couple chapters show where the Confederate and Union armies are at following the battle of Chancellorsville.
Covering not just the three-day battle, but the campaign as a whole, Sears understandably has written a whopping 500-page book.
Prior to Gettysburg, Sears did a great job tackling the Peninsular Campaign, Antietam, and Chancellorsville, the last of these being considered the definitive account of that battle.
So the question is, what’s a good single book on the battle to check out? One answer is Stephen Sears’ simply titled Gettysburg. On the more extreme end there is literally a documentary about horses at Gettysburg and there are full-length books on small sections of the battle like the Railroad Cut. Some books only cover one of the three days of the battle, some books will focus on just one general or unit’s participation. The most well-known battle of the American Civil War, and seen as one of the great turning points, historians and history buffs cannot stop writing about it, and keep finding new sub-topics to the point of excess. At least hundreds of them have been focused on Gettysburg. There are plenty of books on the Civil War.
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