The Killer Angels By Michael Shaara

Last week I attended the Forum on Government and Public Policy featuring Chuck Raasch, author of Imperfect Union: A Father’s Search for His Son in the Aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg that was held at the Lewis Auditorium. I enjoyed listening to his lecture about his book and his passion for history. Raasch believes that in his mind, the Battle of Gettysburg is the biggest human made disaster, and he explained he felt the need to write his book because he wanted readers to understand the eternal aftermath of war. Imperfect Union revolves around a father, Sam Wilkeson, who lost his son, Bayard, on his first day of battle in the Battle of Gettysburg. After his son’s death, Sam Wilkeson wrote one of the most impactful reports in U.S. history

Finally, how you ever seen how the world reacted after an attack? The sorrow, the grief, but most importantly the resilience of the people, who promise to fight against a common cause. Specifically, an example of this was Lincoln’s assassination. Booth planned his attack against Lincoln in hope that he will cause enough mayhem, enough chaos that it will give time for the Confederate Army to restart their war, and win. As the book reads on page 88, “... exposed a Confederate plot to kill the leaders of the national government in an attempt to reverse the results of the Civil War.” As seen, the motive of the attack was clearly seen as try to change what had already happened. The plot was made in order to stop a more equal world from emerging.

In The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara, stories of the events leading up to the Civil War’s Battle of Gettysburg, as well as the battle itself, are told from both the Northern and Southern perspectives. During the Civil War men fought for various reasons. Shaara uses the thoughts and actions of his characters to identify each person’s purpose for fighting. There were many factors that led men to fight in the Civil War. While soldiers had many reasons to fight, Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels, brings focus to three major factors and characters: Robert E. Lee fought for his homeland, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain fought for an ideal and Jeb Stuart fought for the glory.

The book I chose to read over the summer was the book The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara. The Killer Angels tells the story of the Battle of Gettysburg. On July 1, 1863, the Confederate army, and the Union army, fought the largest battle of the American Civil War. When the battle ended, fifty one thousand men were KIA (Killed In Action), wounded, or MIA (Missing in Action). All the characters in this book are based on real figures that fought in this great battle. The characters include General Robert Lee, commander of the Confederate army; General James Longstreet, Lee’s second in command; and Union Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, who fought in one of the most famous parts of the Battle of Gettysburg, the fighting on Little Round Top.

Anthony Tirone Mr. Campbell AP U.S. History 20 October 2014 Book Review: Killer Angels The novel Killer Angels by Michael Shaara portrays the battle of Gettysburg in all of its glory from the perspective of both the Union and the Confederate soldiers.

Shaara made the battle of Gettysburg into vivid pictures through the actions of several generals and the events. In this book, Shaara’s way of writing pointed out that the outcome of the war was not an answer to determine who is good or evil. It is about how each character feel it and deal with the circumstance. Good people like Robert Lee could have made bad decisions based on his belief of honor; Harrison, an actor became a paid spy, was the one that was not supposed to be trustworthy performed heroically. These characters separated with their wives and kids, fighting against people from their own

Just about everybody knows the story of the Battle of Gettysburg. Michael Shaara puts a little different spin on it in his book The Killer Angels. The book is a work of fiction, but based on facts and experiences from people that were there. Michael Shaara gives us all an inside look at the multiple points of views about the cause of the war. He tells the battle from the perspective of the Union, Confederates, and even a couple of people from other countries.

When an author writes a book he has a message that he is trying to get across to the reader. This message is called a theme. In The Killer Angels Shaara's theme was freedom for the slaves. The Northerners truly believed that the slaves deserved to be free, and their desire to set slaves free was the cause of the Civil War. Just before the Battle of Gettysburg, Colonel Lawrence Chamberlain of the 20th Maine gave a speech to a group of mutineers. He told them that the war in which they were fighting was unlike any war in history. The war in which they were fighting was not for money, property or power. It was a war to set other men free. After the battle began, Sergeant Tom Chamberlain asked a group of prisoners why they

The Killer Angels is a stunning recollection of the telltale battle of the Civil War: the Battle of Gettysburg. Set from June 29 to July 3, 1863 and told from the vantage points of several soldiers and commanding officers from both sides, including Lee, Longstreet, and Chamberlain, Michael Shaara effectively paints a picture of the war that divided America, from the tactical planning to the emotional hardships

War is a complex event. Many different aspect go into the complicated planning of a war from amount of troops or supplies, layout of land and more. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara gives a unquestionable vivid image of the Battle of Gettysburg. In this novel it took place in the span of three days and gives us the points of views from both the Union and Confederate armies. Mr. Shaara’s historical accuracy is spot on from the innermost thoughts of the characters to the geographical location and weather descriptions to allow the readers to get a taste of the novel's to the real life events. Passages like “It rained all that night. The next day was Saturday, the Fourth of July.”( ) really can help put yourself right into the perspective of

Throughout the course of the Civil War around 620,000 lives were lost, of these thousands upon thousands killed, about 51,000 died in the Battle of Gettysburg. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara documents the events during the Battle of Gettysburg from the perspectives of 7 different men, on both sides, who fought through the bloodiest battle in the Civil War. The central theme of The Killer Angels centers around the concept that some decisions are difficult to make because they are neither wrong nor right, as exemplified through Generals who make difficult decisions on the battlefield, question the theology and morals of warfare, and are forced to make decisions with an unknown outcome.

Wars have been fought for many different reasons through the years, and that holds true for the American Civil War (1861-1865). In Michael Shaara's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Killer Angels, the reasons for fighting the war are brought about through the officers and soldiers at a famous battle site of the Civil War, Gettysburg. Gettysburg was one of the most documented battles of the whole war. It took place over a span of three days and can be viewed as a turning point from Confederate prominence to Confederate demise. As in any conflict, there are two sides to the story. The Union and the Confederacy each had their own views as to why they were fighting the war. Victors write the history so too often only the Union side is

The Battle of Gettysburg was amongst one the most important turning points during the Civil War. It was a three-day bloody battle between the Union and Confederate forces which would ultimately lead up to the victory of the Union. In The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara shows a depiction of the battle through the eyes of the officers and tries to give the reader a first-hand look into the daily struggles that they had to deal with when it came to distinguishing between what’s best for their men and chances of success in the battle. In the book, we are introduced with two important officers: Colonel Chamberlain of the Union force, and General Lee of the Confederate force. Throughout the book, we witness different leadership strategies and philosophies between both officers which ultimately serve as their road to success or failure in the battle. Focusing on General Lee’s philosophy on leadership, “To be a good soldier, you must love the army. But to be a good officer you must be willing to order the death of the thing you love.”, it reinforces the idea that in order to fully succeed at battle, you must set aside and sacrifice your sense of sympathy towards your soldiers as a way to avoid making emotional decisions.

The Battle of Gettysburg brought the dueling North and South together to the small town of Gettysburg and on the threshold of splitting the Union. Gettysburg was as close as the United States got to Armageddon and The Killer Angels gives the full day-to-day account of the battle that shaped America’s future. Michael Shaara tells the story of the Battle of Gettysburg through the eyes of the generals and men involved in the action of the battle. The historical account of the Battle of Gettysburg gives the reader a chance to experience the battle personally and not the history book manner taught in schools. A historical novel gives the facts straightforward and provides no commentary by the people involved in history. The

The battle of Gettysburg is seen today as the turning point of the war, and after the analysis of these historical documents its clear why the bloodshed at Gettysburg was as significant as it was being able to turn the tides of the war. Two sources that are going to be used in this are a website article from History.com: “Battle of Gettysburg” and a website article from the NeW World Encyclopedia: “Battle of gettysburg”. These sources will be analyzed by their origin, purpose, content, value and limitation in relation to this investigation.