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Title: Lee's Real Plan at Gettysburg by Troy D. Harman ISBN: 0-8117-0054-2 Publisher: Stackpole Books Pub. Date: August, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Intellgent and very readable
Comment: Excellent! This a well thought out idea that "fits" within the accepted story of the battle. In place of Lee blundering into battle and willing to trying anything in the hopes that something would work. In place of Lee being controlled by Ewell or unable to move Longstreet. In place of a sick desperate Lee willing to throw away the lives of his men. In place of fixing the "blame" for losing Gettysburg on Longstreet or Ewell or Stuart. In place of missing cannons, lack of water or the thousands of other "reasons" why the South lost at Gettysburg this small book presents a logical overall plan that Lee had and kept to from the afternoon of the July First to the end of the battle. Excellent maps and photos illustrate the why and how of the central idea. In addition, the author defines what happened to cause Lee's master plan to fail. This is not an introduction to the Battle of Gettysburg and without a good working knowledge of the battle the reader will quickly become lost. For students of the battle this will be a "must have" book that will be referenced and augured over as long as people talk about the Battle of Gettysburg.
Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting but isn't it bit obvious??
Comment: I found this book to be pretty interesting but I wondered if the author was really stating the obvious here. Cemetary Hill according to the author, was the real objective of Robert E. Lee's plans during the three days at Gettysburg. I don't think that itself was any great discovery on it own. Anyone with any knowledge of the battle would know this as I did for a super long time since it don't take much to read a map of the battle. Why is this so? Well, as the author clearly pointed out, Cemetary Hill is one of the major keys to the Union position. Capture of it would be a key to winning the battle. No great mystery here.
The book goes on to describe how Lee planned this battle to support this thesis. While I do not debate the central concept, I think the author overstates his case when he focus too narrowly on Cemetary Hill. After all, Lee's deployments and movements during the battle tells us that while he was aiming for Cemetary Hill as his ultimate target, he had other ways of getting there. The author dismissal of Little Round Top appears too casual. Of course he says this because he wondered how the Confederates can benefit from capturing Little Round Top with Union Sixth Corps so closed by. Of course, Lee didn't know that but the author does. This sound bit self-serving. The author often dismissed many accounts because they were made in hindsight after the fact, he too make too much assumptions of his own based on hindsight after the fact. Not only that, I don't think author's idea that Longstreet on the second day would advanced toward Cemetary Hill from his starting position to be very practical even if Union III Corps stay where it was supposed to be.
The book is not very strong when it deals with Pickett's charge. There seem to a lot of guessing and conjectures here over where the charge was to hit home. The idea that once the Confederate forces broke the Union lines, it will roll up the Union lines toward Cemetary Hill sound bit like a fantasy scenario considering all the reserves Union army had which will prevent such manuvers.
As any commander would say, any plan is worthless once contact is made with the enemy. I think what may defeat this book in the end will be the actual deployment, movements and attacks of the Army of Northern Virginia which historians will see as Lee's actual plans at work.
Rating: 5
Summary: Very well done
Comment: Harman's book is a breath of fresh air in Gettysburg scholarship. Too often (and I include myself here) students of the battle have focused upon the micro-history, what 2d Platoon, G Company, 73d Ohio was doing at 7:13pm on 2 July. And this is not a critique of that type of scholarship.
But what Troy has done is to step back from micro-historiography and returned to a bigger picture. For this he deserves great credit.
It is really pleasurable to read something that shows an intelligent analysis of the ground, of command and control, above the divisional level.
In terms of the essential theses of Troy's book, I have little to add that other reviewers have not commented upon. other than to say that it is high time someone credited Sickles' move (however brash or unauthorized) with the impact it had upon Longstreet's attack. The III Corps may have ended up being a speed bump, but that speed bump was essential to what transpired (and did not).
Well done!!!!!
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Title: The Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War by Brent Nosworthy ISBN: 0786711477 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Gettysburg by Stephen W. Sears ISBN: 0395867614 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 24 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: The Stand of the U.S. Army at Gettysburg by Jeffrey C. Hall ISBN: 0253342589 Publisher: Indiana University Press Pub. Date: July, 2003 List Price(USD): $49.95 |
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Title: Hallowed Ground : A Walk at Gettysburg by James M. McPherson ISBN: 0609610236 Publisher: Crown Pub. Date: 13 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Gettysburg's Bloody Wheatfield by Jay Jorgensen ISBN: 1572492538 Publisher: White Mane Publishing Co. Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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