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Title: Beneath a Northern Sky: A Short History of the Gettysburg Campaign (The American Crisis Series, No. 12) by Steven E. Woodworth ISBN: 0-8420-2933-8 Publisher: SR Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.67 (3 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: No insight and no valid analysis
Comment: In my opinion, I believe that Woodworth's treatment of this great campaign is best described as "a book with no soul." There are some well-known facts, but, more importantly, there are omission of many, many other facts that would (not surprisingly) undermine the author's numerous "traditional" assertions.
Furthermore, the author's comments in the text and in the Bibliographical Essay that deal with trying to puff up his friends/colleagues while at the same time trying to discount/demean others not part of the author's "circle," are laughable and transparent. In the end, I believe that this book offers no furthering of knowledge and only reinforces some disproven myths about Gettysburg.
For a good general read on Gettysburg, I believe that Glenn Tucker's "High Tide at Gettysburg" is far, far superior to Woodworth's.
Rating: 5
Summary: good quick book
Comment: Woodworth's Beneath A Northern Sky is an excellent book that gets to the point quickly, but keeps you well informed of the strategies and tactics used during this campaign. For those of you who are sick of reading long, drawn out books on Gettysburg that just say the same thing over and over, Beneath a Northern Sky is an excellent book that is a short, but well written book on the Civil War battle that everyone and their mother knows about.
Rating: 2
Summary: Disappointing
Comment: Beneath a Northern Sky was disappointing. While it is certainly very hard to write anything new about the Gettysburg Campaign, this book seemed to go out of its way to repeat every "strange coincidence" or "old Chestnut" about the battle. Almost every story told in the book was one I had learned in 1965 when I became a very precocious expert on the Civil War. Ginny Wade being shot just after learning that her fiancee had been killed, Culp coming home to die on Culp Hill, Col O'Rourke's comments before helping to save little round top, the Church Service for the Irish Brigade, the old Chestnut that most of the Union Generals were incompetent... and so forth.
It also had other problems... brought about I suspect by a desire to keep the book short. For example, in the last few pages its lists many of the "arguments" raised for the South's problems as the "death" of Conf. General Pender. And in fact, Pender did die of his wounds several days after the battle. But you wouldn't know it from THIS book. It mentions that he was wounded, and then the next time he is mentioned is as "dead" in the assessment of the battle. It would have only taken a line or two to mention that Pender received wounds which resulted in his death on July 18th -- and it would have made things clearer.
I would recomend, instead, reading Noah Trudeau's Gettysburg: A Test of Courage, which I found to be more readable and with less omissions.
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