The Killer Angels

The Killer Angels

Michael Shaara

Random House Publishing Group

Copyright 2003

355 pages

This book takes place over four days; Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. For each section of the book, the battle scenes change. The first one is when the armies establish the position on Monday. At this time, the Union has a good hold over the town. By the end of the next section, Wednesday, the Confederacy is in most control and forced the Union troops to go back to the Hills of Gettysburg. But by the end of the Thursday section, the Union is the best after it resisted Lee’s attack.

Since the book mostly goes back and fourth, it really makes you wonder what’s going to happen in the final section. Obviously, you already know that the Union will resist Pickett’s charge. But how the author does the back and forth technique, it makes it seem the Union is about to be victorious, the Confederacy, then the Union again. It kind of makes it suspenseful. In the final section, Friday, you find out about the Union victory.

The Spy

On Monday, June 29, 1863, a spy named Harrison, hired by Longstreet, finds a nearby union troop and goes back the Confederate camp to report it. His information is that the Union army is trying to get the Confederate forces into Pennsylvania. Harrison goes to the Confederate camp to give Longstreet the report. When he receives it, he isn’t sure if the spy is telling the truth of not. At that time he didn’t have his Calvary, so he didn’t have much a choice. He decides that he must trust the spy. Harrison takes them to Lee. Now that Lee knows his options, he orders his army to march to Gettysburg and hopes to destroy the Union forces.

Chamberlain

While Chamberlain is marching with his men to Gettysburg to help the Union position, he gets sick with a sunstroke. Tom, his younger brother, and Kilrain, and fatherly figure to him, try to help him get well.

Soon after, Chamberlain is in a situation: the army left his 120 men from Maine with him and he has the orders to kill anyone who refuses to fight. The men don’t want to fight because they accidentally sighed up for the three year enlistment. The other men, that choose the two year enlistment were already gone, and the rest of the men want to go home to and refuse to fight. Chamberlain, who was a professor, convinces the men to fight with a speech he made…. “this is a different kind of army. If you look at history you’ll see men fight for pay, or women, or some other kind of looy, They fight for land, or because a kind makes them, or just because they like killing, But we’re here for something new. I don’t . . . this hasn’t happened much in the history for the world. We’re an army going out to set other men free.”

Buford

Longstreet hears how General Hill is planning on marching to Gettysburg and not caring what the spy said. At that time a Pickett comes to town with three brigade commanders: Armistead, Garnett, and Kemper. Longstreet introduces the four of them to Fremantle, a comical English soldier. Longstreet and Fremantle go and sit down to discuss the new trench strategies, Hancock, and General Lee. When they were finished talking, they returned to the other men, who were sitting around a camp fire. Some men were explaining why the war was happening. “Sorrel asserts that government derives its powers from the consent of the governed and that the South simply does not consent the Union.”

Wednesday, July 1, 1863

The Confederate victory over the Union defenses was just north of town with new defenses. Lee waned to know if he should attack the Union or go around between the enemy and Washington. Lee receives Ewell and an explanation to let the Federals retreat to the south of town. Then Buford gets in the dispute between Hancock and Howard, on his way to deliver the orders that his cavalry was destroyed. That day Chamberlain’s men march through the night to reach Gettysburg.

Lee

Lee and Longstreet are notified how no help is going to be coming from Europe. They meet up to talk about that and how to deal with Stuart, why and how General Hill’s plan to march up to Gettysburg is going to go, and what to do when the Meade’s army approaches. Lee wasn’t to hit the new Union Commander when they meet up, but Longstreet wants to” swing around between him and Washington and get astride some nice thick rocks and make him come to us.” While they were having their conversation, they were disrupted by guns being fired