Steven E. Woodworth - Beneath a Northern Sky: A Short History of the Gettysburg Campaign

With countless books existing on the battle of Gettysburg, I can hardly undertake a comprehensive discussion of Gettysburg literature. Rather, I will mention only a classic or two and a handful of the newest and most interesting books. There are many other good ones, and students of the battle should seek them out. Much of the best cutting-edge research on the Gettysburg campaign has been published in the various issues of North & South magazine, from 1998 to the present.

The classic lengthy study is Edwin B. Coddingtons The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1968). Though somewhat dated and highly sympathetic to General George Meade, Coddingtons work remains the standard treatment of the campaign. To counterbalance, after a fashion, Coddingtons admiration of Meade comes a recent book, Last Chance for Victory: Robert E. Lee and the Gettysburg Campaign, by Scott Bowden and Bill Ward (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2001), a highly argumentative and controversial defense of Lees actions. In many ways this book is the epitome and, one would think, culmination of the school of thought, popular among Southern adherents of the Lost Cause, that holds that in truth and in essence Lee really won the battleit just did not turn out that way in actual events because all his subordinates let him down. This view, in turn, may be counterbalanced by an even more recent book, A. M. Gambones Lee at Gettysburg: Commentary on Defeat (Baltimore: Butternut & Blue, 2002). So eager is Gambone to combat the exaggerated defenses of Lees role that he goes to the opposite extreme, leaving the reader with the impression that Lee was the only Confederate general who turned in a less-than-sterling performance in Pennsylvania. By all odds the clearest and most thoughtful examination of the Confederate high command at Gettysburg is Brooks D. Simpsons If Properly Led: Command Relationships at Gettysburg, in Civil War Generals in Defeat, ed. Steven E. Woodworth (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999).

A recent and innovative take on the battle is Tom Carharts Lost Triumph: Lees Real Plan at Gettysburgand Why It Failed (New York: G. P. Putnams Sons, 2005). Carhart examines Lees plans particularly for the third day and the Napoleonic nature of his design. He shows the significance of Stuarts attempt strike at the Union rear and of George A. Custers action in blunting it.

Over the past decade and a half, Harry W. Pfanz has set the pace in Gettysburg studies with his three in-depth looks at different phases and sectors of the battle. His first book, Gettysburg: The Second Day (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987), investigates in painstaking detail every facet of the July 2, 1863, struggle for Little Round Top, Devils Den, Houck Ridge, the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard, and Cemetery Ridge. Pfanz followed this magisterial work with Gettysburg: Culps Hill and Cemetery Hill (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993), in which he deals in similar depth with operations on the less-studied end of the battlefieldfrom the decision of Union Major General Oliver O. Howard to establish a position on Cemetery Hill and that of Confederate Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell not to attack that position on the evening of July 1 through the fighting on Culps Hill and Cemetery Hill on the evening of July 2 and the morning of July 3. Pfanzs most recent product is GettysburgThe First Day (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001). Slightly shorter and less detailed than his previous books, this one is nevertheless satisfyingly thorough and surpasses Pfanzs already high standard of skillful writing. All three works are characterized by exhaustive research and judicious analysis.

Other recent scholars have also addressed the various sectors and phases of the battle. David G. Martins Gettysburg, July 1 (Conshohocken, PA: Combined Books, 1995) is a comprehensive account of the fighting on the first day and by far the most detailed account of that portion of the engagement. Richard S. Shues Morning at Willoughby Run: July 1, 1863 (Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications, 1995) is another recent book on the first days fighting. Gary W. Gallaghers edited sequence of essay collections deals with various aspects of the three days in succession: The First Day at Gettysburg: Essays on Confederate and Union Leadership (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1992), The Second Day at Gettysburg: Essays on Confederate and Union Leadership (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1993), and The Third Day at Gettysburg and Beyond (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994).

The third days fighting, and especially Picketts Charge, has become the subject of much recent scholarship, some of which demonstrates that excellent and careful historians can disagree about matters of detail in a story as complicated as that of Gettysburg. Three recent and excellent books are John Michael Priests Into the Fight: Picketts Charge at Gettysburg (Shippensburg, PA: White Mane Books, 1998), Jeffry D. Werts Gettysburg: Day Three (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), and Earl J. Hesss Picketts Charge: The Last Attack at Gettysburg, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001). Another excellent but very different study is Picketts Charge in History and Memory by Carol Reardon (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), an examination of how that dramatic event has lived on (and evolved) in song and story over the century since the battle.

Another type of Gettysburg book focuses on the actions of a single unit. William Thomas Venners The 19th Indiana Infantry at Gettysburg: Hoosiers Courage (Shippensburg, PA: Burd Street Press, 1998) is a detailed and dramatic account of a regiment in the hard-hit Iron Brigade. Warren Wilkinson and Steven E. Woodworths A Scythe of Fire: The Civil War Story of the Eighth Georgia Regiment (New York: HarperCollins, 2002) devotes a long chapter to that units participation in the Gettysburg campaign, including its bloody fight in Roses Woods, along the west branch of Plum Run, and in the Wheatfield. Rod Graggs Covered with Glory: The 26th North Carolina Infantry at Gettysburg. (New York: HarperCollins, 2000) tells the story of that hard-hit regiment. Howard Coffins Nine Months to Gettysburg: Stannards Vermonters and the Repulse of Picketts Charge (Woodstock, VT: Countryman Press, 1997) recounts the tale of Stannards Vermont brigade. The Last Full Measure: The Life and Death of the First Minnesota Volunteers by Richard Moe (New York: Henry Holt, 1993) relates the deeds of that heroic regiment both at Gettysburg and before.

A couple of the recent and notable books on individuals are Kent Masterson Browns Cushing of Gettysburg: The Story of a Union Artillery Commander (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1993) and Mark H. Dunkelmans Gettysburgs Unknown Soldier: The Life, Death, and Celebrity of Amos Humiston (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999). Biographies exist for all of the high-ranking generals.