The Killer Angels

Killer Angels- A Book Review

Though America was a nation with equality and rights, they have not always agreed with each other. One example was the Civil War which took place in the 1800’s. “Bang, bang, bang!!”, those were the only noises heard in the book, ‘Killer Angels’, by Michael Shaara. The Killer Angels is a classical novel of the Battle of Gettysburg, published in 1974, that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1975. It was the turning point of the war and the most bloodiest day of fighting.

They say that you cannot judge a book by its cover but the title and cover of this book itself tells us about violence and bloodshed. It gives us an idea that this book revolves about death. Many soldiers were injured and some died too. This is proved in the scene, when the Confederates were fighting the Unions at a peach orchard and when Chamberlain’s men came to help the Union, he was surrounded with dead bodies. Also, despite the fact that General Lee had a trouble with his heart and General Longstreet had his children died that winter due to fever, they kept on fighting, cheating death.

This book begins with the Confederate troops moving towards Gettysburg after the spy had informed the location of the Union troops near them. The fight began on June 30, 1863 and the Union forces were outnumbered at first by the Confederates but their reinforcements arrived just on time and they were forced to fight without their commander, General Reynolds. They retreat and Longstreet tries to force Lee to make the troops to cut off the Union forces from the capitol but he refuses. Lee ordered the troops to attack the Union forces in the hills but the Union forces had moved to an orchard. Meanwhile the Union forces had been asked to not retreat no matter what happens. They tried fighting the Confederates but in the end they ran out of ammunition and charged down the hill towards the Confederates with their bayonets.

The Union troops moved to the center of the Union line in the morning of July 3 and  Lee planned to attack the center of the Union line refusing to Longstreet’s plan. They were being hit with artillery from the Unions and many died. Very few made it to the Union line but in the end, they died too. Lee tried to tell his troops that it was his fault but they did not accept. The Confederates retreated. General Longstreet and General Lee decided that they could not win the war after this battle. Though Michael Shaara was not present during the battle of Gettysburg, he has written this book as though he was a participant in that battle and thus, bringing out the purpose of writing this book.

The author gives us an interesting insight into the battle of Gettysburg. You could call this book historically accurate because Michael Shaara has done a great job by providing us detailed information of the characters, weather, and what they were going through, exactly the same way as the battle of Gettysburg. The author has written this book in a narrative form mostly, along with conversations that were exactly in chronological order. The maps in the book give us a detailed account of the setting.