The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

2017 Reading Challenge - Read a Book About War

I've had this book on my shelf for years.  I was intrigued by it for a number of reasons:  It is a Pulitzer Prize winner (Fiction - 1975), it was the basis for the 1993 movie Gettysburg and the author died in 1988 at age 59 - his son, Jeff Shaara, following up with a Civil War Trilogy by authoring the prequel (Gods and Generals in 1996) and the sequel (The Last Full Measure in 1998).

I've read a number of Civil War books - primarily historical fiction and primarily about plantation and slave live.  Some of them have touched briefly on the battles, but not to the extent this book did.  I wasn't sure I would enjoy it since I'm not a real battle buff, but I found myself engrossed and captivated by Shaara's writing.

After an introduction of the main characters (Generals and Officers) the book volleys back and forth between the North and the South giving the perspective of the men on each side of the battlefield. While politically I know which side I stand on, this book doesn't pick sides.  You garner empathy and respect for the men who sacrificed so much whether they wore blue or grey.  War in the 1800's was vastly different than the wars of today.  This book captures so much of that.  The communication between officers via messengers on horse or on foot, the erroneous maps, the food rations (or lack thereof), the literal hand-to-hand combat with no body protection (armor, helmets, etc.), the infield hospitals and doctors to attempt to treat the battle wounds.  While I respect the courage and sacrifice that all military personnel exhibit in volunteering, these men were fighting on our own soil, some of them fighting against long-time friends and family.  Even when things looked dire, even when they knew, without a doubt, they would die they did not falter.

At times I understand the necessity of war, but we must never forget the human lives that are sacrificed on both sides of the battlefield, so we must be sure we know what we are fighting for and if it is worth that ultimate sacrifice.

Quotes:  "Maine in the winter:  air is darker, the sky is a deeper dark.  A darkness comes with winter that these Southern people don't know.  Snow falls so much earlier and in the winter you can walk in a snowfield among bushes, and visitors don't know that the bushes are the tops of tall pines, and you are standing in thirty feet of snow."

"'We are never prepared for so many to die. So you understand?  No one is.  We expect some chosen few.  We expect an occasional empty chair, a toast to dear departed comrades. Victory celebrations for most of us, a hallowed death for a few.  But the war goes on.  And the men die.  The price gets ever higher.  Some officers...can pay no longer. We are prepared to lose some of us...But never all of us.  Surely not all of us.  But ...that is the trap.  You can hold nothing back when you attack. You must commit yourself totally. And yet, if they all die, a man must ask himself, will it have been worth it?'"

And check out my book/wine pairing:  I had visited a friend in Gettysburg and she gifted me a bottle of wine from the Gettysburg Winery - commemorating the 150th anniversary!