Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage

by Noah Andre Trudeau

Book Overview

America's Civil War raged for more than four years, but it is the three days of fighting in the Pennsylvania countryside in July 1863 that continues to fascinate, appall, and inspire new generations... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060193638
• ISBN13: 9780060193638
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 720 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Gettysburg received as described.

A book with historical information in it. Fast shipping. I would recommend this read.

Reading this is like visiting Gettysburg ....

Reading this is like visiting Gettysburg .... it makes the hair on the nape of your neck stand up.

Brilliant narrative of the 3 days at Gettysburg...

Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage is a "tour de force" of Civil War history...at once powerful in it's narrative comprehensiveness while maintaining an incredibly sublime human tone that should make this the apex of Noah Trudeau's Civil War accounts. Compulsively readable and extensively researched, Trudeau has conveyed an incredibly complex battle into a magnificent one-volume account that could eclipse most of the almost overwhelming inventory of contemporary Gettysburg histories. This book begins with the disarrayed Union forces under "Fighting" Joe Hooker again encamped north of Fredericksburg following their critical loss at Chancellorsville. Conversely, Lee's Confederate forces are primed to invade the North again (fully recovering from the incredible standoff at Antietam) and Trudeau offers an extremely plausible explanation of Lee's rationale for the invasion and his almost desperate requests for additional troops (incredibly denied by Jefferson Davis as too costly to Richmond's defense). The bumbling Federal efforts at interpretation of Lee's movements ultimately leads to Hooker's dismissal as commander and implants George Meade (notwithstanding his reluctance to do so) as Lincoln's latest in the ever-growing list of Union commanding generals.The Confederate invasion is allowed to proceed into Pennsylvania (almost to Harrisburg) before an amazing confluence of circumstances leads both armies to the small hamlet of Gettysburg. Trudeau describes the first day's battle correctly as a partial cavalry and partial infantry engagement, dispelling the age-old myth that Buford's Union cavalry alone interdicted the larger Confederate force. In fact, the strength of this penetrating narrative (in my opinion) is Trudeau's ability to use contemporary research to dispel many of the afore-mentioned Gettysburg myths (the Joshua Chamberlain "closing gate" maneuver at Little Round Top, Lee's reaction to J.E.B. Stuart as he complete's his "flanking" ride around the Union forces, Pickett's 3rd day charge...etc) and telling the un-embellished story.The 2nd day's carnage is ever present as Trudeau eloquently describes it from both the soldier's viewpoint as well as the local civilian's. As Lee attacks the Union left-flank, the well known battles on the Round Tops, the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard and Devil's Den are covered in comprehensive while at the same time amazingly readable detail. The action on the Union right is not given sort-shrift either as the engagements at Culp's Hill and Cemetary Hill are deftly covered. Trudeau also does not hesitate to indict Lee for his failures at planning and leadership on this day and, to me, this is a refreshing twist missing from many contemporary accounts.The actions on both the Union and Confederate side leading into the decisive 3rd day's battle cover most of the last quarter of the book and the engagement itself is wonderfully re-counted with "Pickett's Charge" and the action at the Cemetary Ridge "Angle" and "Cop

Exceptional lucid military history for all levels of readers

I have spent a large part of this summer reading a number of the histories of the battle of Gettysburg that have appeared over the past decade, and I have to say that I have read none that even approaches this wonderful book in quality, clarity, and comprehensiveness. Unlike many books that focus on a single battle or campaign, this one never bogs down in details, yet it provides a sufficient level of descriptive information to give the reader a true feeling of first-hand experience. Trudeau demonstrates a fine command of not just military details but also the English language. Unlike many military histories, this book also provides important insights into the civilian experience during the battle--for after all, through most of those three days in July 1863, Gettsburg was truly a town under enemy occupation. In addition, it presents the experience of all levels of soldier partipants--from the lowliest enlisted man to the high command. His obvious familiarity with and skillful use of contemporary material make the narrative seem all the more realistic, too.The book offers a wealth of superior battlefield maps, charting all but the most minor incidents, and thus gives the reader a constant reminder of where the action is taking place and the "lay of the land." Trudeau also does a laudable job of relating what was happening at the same time on different parts of this extensive battlefield, by interspersing short contemporaneous passages on events from all over the area. He presents the battle in context, too--commencing the narrative just after Robert E. Lee's signal victory at Chancellorsville and carrying on to Lincoln's address at the commemoration of the national cemetery.This is a book which should appeal to both the general reader, with minimal background on Civil War history or Gettysburg in particular, as well as the more informed reader, since it offers new perspectives on a number of the key controversies surrounding the battle. Trudeau seems to speculate that this was Lee's battle to lose--and his loose battlefield supervision and reluctant corps commanders lost it because Lee delegated leadership too extensively. He also gives a convincing explanation of why George Meade did not pursue Lee closely after the battle. The book offers a balanced portrayal of events from both Union and Confederate perspectives, too.I have only one minor criticism of the book. It is rich in maps, but offers no photographs or other illustrations, despite the fact that there is a wealth of such material available. The dust jacket of the book has a formal grouping of random portraits of contemporary soldiers from the George Eastman House, but there is no indication that any of these men fought at Gettysburg. I almost hesitate to offer this criticism, but the general reader is going to miss this dimension of the battle in this otherwise excellent history.

Gettysburg not for the faint of heart

The battle of Gettysburg is probably better chronicled than any event in American military history, if not the world's. Writers have gotten tired of telling the history of the battle completely, and moved on to write "microhistories" of one part or another of the battle. The present book is billed as the first attempt at a complete detailed history of the battle since Coddington's The Gettysburg Campaign, a wonderful book published, if memory serves correctly, in 1968. Trudeau has a good reputation, and so I was looking forward to this, the first of his books I have read. I wasn't disappointed.There is a considerable amount of information here, and it's quite well presented. The author writes clearly and concisely, and the action is explained well and is easy (at least for someone who's well-versed in Civil War history) to follow. Some of the other reviews criticize the maps, either for their format or the physical size. What they don't realize is that most publishers would be willing (even eager) to publish a book like this with perhaps three or four maps, thinking that sufficient. There are, instead, a plethora of them here (there's no list, but there must be three dozen) with details of unit positions and directions of movement. A key on the daily comprehensive maps showing which of the smaller ones covered what part of the battlefield might have helped a bit, though I had no problem. Then again, I'm pretty good with maps, and have read a lot on Gettysburg. One annoyance is that the maps are uncredited, which means we can't castigate or praise the cartographer.The author has a writing style which apparently irritated some people. He writes in short passages, some only a paragraph long, some several pages, and they are arranged chronologically. This means that you read about the action on one flank, then move to the other, then to the middle of the battlefield, then back to where you started, a lot. I suppose if you aren't a Civil War buff, and well-read on the battle already, this could get a bit dizzying. I didn't have any problem, followed it easily, and enjoyed it. I spent the afternoon reading the last 130 pages without a break, enjoyed it, and will now go look up some of the author's other books.A further thing to note is the author's care in debunking myths, and sorting facts out from the post-war posturing that pollutes so much of what was written about Gettysburg by the participants. The Confederate spy Harrison was apparently named Henry, not James as has been previously written (I just looked at a book where his name is Edward: perhaps we'll never really know). Ewell's decision not to attack Cemetery Hill or Culp's Hill is looked at from a different perspective, and Sickles' advance on the second day is dissected carefully. We learn that the Army of Northern Virginia encountered a considerable amount of sniping when it moved into Pennsylvania, as the Union army did when it campaigned in Virginia, and that they gathered up blacks and

A Significant Addition to the Literature

This is a clearly written and comprehensive one-volume account of the major battle of the Civil War. In my view it is the best such account since Coddington"s Gettysburg: A Study in Command in the 1980s. The focus is on the commanders below the Army and Corps levels. This provides both fresh insights and new perspectives on old information. The extended lead in to the campaign itself is a very valuable review of that parallel set of stumblings. The reviewer who regrets that the emphasis was not on the commanders is accurate factually, but there are a dozen books that do that (and, worse, spend their time second guessing in some instances). This book is not one of those and that is its virtue.One quibble others have noted. The mapos are annoying often. Sometimes they are quite small and often they do not cover the action you are reading about. A suggestion that worked for me is to take the rather comprehensive map on page 142 and copy it and fold that into the back of the book for quick reference. The publisher might do well to use this mao for endpapers in later editions. It will save a lot of complaints.