The Killer Angels

The Killer Angels

The Killer Angels, written by Michael Shaara, is a gripping novel about the turning point in the Civil War. In this novel, Shaara, follows the Generals and Colonels of both the Union and Confederate armies from June 29, 1863 until July 3, 1863. The book discusses the strategy and logic used by each of the commanding officers of either army, along with the non-war side of each officer.

In this historical novel, based on the battle of Gettysburg, the characters and events are, for the most part, historically accurate, however Shaara, who was not actually present at Gettysburg, had to fictionalize what the character’s thoughts and conversations were. In “To The Reader”, Shaara writes “The interpretation of character is my own.” Sharra also states “I have therefore avoided historical opinions and primarily gone back to the words of the men themselves, their letters and other documents.” Shaara is stating that the character’s interactions were based on the letters and other documents that were written by those men that fought in the battle of Gettysburg. The difference between this and an actual historical account is simply the fact that Shaara wrote a book that has plot and a story line to it, and although it has an inevitable ending and the outcome of each battle is set in the history books, Shaara has put his own analysis on the battles. If he was to write a historical account he could not have used any fictionalized conversations or thoughts in the book. This would have limited him to writing the book without opinion and to sticking strictly to the facts. Shaara’s descriptions of the battle scenes are not entirely accurate because there was not adequate photography at that time, and he was not present, however they are very detailed. He also describes the men’s emotions vividly, but one can only assume that this must be based on letters and other documents, and partially fictionalized.

General Robert E. Lee was the commander of the Confederate Army and was a brilliant