The Killer Angels Michael Shaara

James McPherson the author of What They Fought For 1861-1865, thesis states that the soldiers from both the North and South fought for a large extent for ideology, and not exclusively as brothers in war with other soldiers, for principles of strength or courage, and for the nations of honor and duty. McPherson uses hundreds of letters and diaries from soldiers from both the Union and Confederate troops to show their experience. He tries to focus on a variety of attitudes and motives from the volunteer soldiers. These young men coped with fear, stress, exhaustion, pain, and death everyday while out there fighting. “A final theme that will receive attention is ideology,” (McPherson 1) this is what the soldiers supposed they were fighting for during the Civil War.

Meanwhile, at Gettysburg, General Lee once again disagrees with General Longstreet's assessment that the best way to fight would to be to avoid Gettysburg and cut the Union off from D.C. General Lee, with the guidance of his other generals, Ewell and Early, decides to attack the Unions flanks as he believes they were weakened by the previous day. Once again, General Lee is wrong. The Union forces have moved towards the bottom of the hill, and General Lee decides he has no choice but to attack anyway. Colonel Chamberlain and his men finally arrive and are told that they are the extreme left flank, which means they can never retreat. After holding several Confederate attacks back, Colonel Chamberlain's group runs out of bullets and are forced to lead a bayonet charge.

The killer angels is a world acclaimed novel that was written by an author known as Michael Shaara. In the year 1975, it was granted the Pulitzer Prize for creative writing. It gives us in details the occurrences of the four days in the Battle of Gettysburg. This was during the American Civil War that occurred in the year 1863. At this time, troops that comprised of both the Union and Confederacy were at war in town called Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. This is a piece of story that is driven by disposition and narrated from the point of view of various heroes (Hartwig, 1996).

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

The book The Killer Angels was published in 1975 by the Ballatine Booksand was written by Michael Shaara. The Killer Angels is a historic novel about the time of the American Civil War, more specifically The Battle of Gettysburg. Shaara wrote this historical masterpiece with the sole purpose of letting the reader know exactly how the war was for the men actually putting their lives on the line to get this great country of America to the stature it is today. In order to accomplish his goal of creating the ultimate historic journal of The Battle of Gettysburg, he went straight to the source. He went back and retrieved letters and documents written by the men themselves, who were I the war. What better way to tell a story about one of the most significant battles of American history, then getting the information straight from the warriors who were fighting in the tranches? The book is written from the viewpoints of Robert Edward Lee, James Longstreet, and a couple of other men who were in the war. Robert E. Lee was fifty-seven at the time of the war. He was a highly respected general of the Confederate Army. He was an honest, God following man who had great morals which made a great leader (Killer Angles XVI). He didn’t drink or smoke and would stay away from reading novels and plays because he felt it would make him weak minded for battle (Killer Angles XVI). This is what made him such a great leader, the fact that he lead by example of how a true gentleman and general should

During one such moment, Chamberlain is reminded of a Shakespearean speech: “What a piece of work man is…in action how like an angel!” (page 126). Upon hearing this, Chamberlain’s father commented, “Well, boy, if he’s an angel, he’s sure a murderin’ angel.” (page 126). From this interaction, Chamberlain came up with “Man: the Killer Angels”, a thought he often revisited over the course of the Battle of Gettysburg, and from which the book acquires its title. Chamberlain acted with the intention of getting something positive out of the war. He never treated the Confederates as though they were less than him: “ Chamberlain put out a hand. ‘Sir’ he said. The Alabama man nodded slightly. His voice was so low Chamberlain could hardly hear it. ‘Do you have some water?’ ‘Certainly.’ Chamberlain offered his own canteen.” (page 243). It is even known that he had his troops salute the surrendering South at Appomattox.

The Killer Angels displays many of the important themes that occurred during the Battle of Gettysburg, some of which including bravery, leadership, and, most of all, friendship. This theme of friendship is represented in many of the characters of this book, and some of these friendships were divided by ranks and, in the case of Armistead and Hancock, by countries. But even with the fighting, true friendship is able to come out of the mess. Two pairs of men that show this friendship are Chamberlain and Kilrain along with Lee and Longstreet.

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

Intro: Depending on if you lived in the north or in the south, the reason for fighting the war differed. The primary reason that the South was fighting the war was to protect their labor-based economy. In order to do that, they had to ensure that their slaves did not get confiscated or freed. The North, however, fought the war to reconnect the South with the rest of the Union, and to abolish slavery throughout the entire Union. The pressure of abolitionists and radical republicans led to an increase in Lincoln’s support of the slaves;

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 first side that gets addressed is the Confederate side. While there are many different reasons that the soldiers fought in this civil war, the one of the main causes was for the use of slavery. Many soldiers had the mindset to fight for “a free white man’s government instead of living under a black republican government” (53). This will to uphold the racial inequality was seen in the way the South fought with passion and hatred against the change of their lives (19). Confederate soldiers were mostly bought into the war, due to the plantation owners sending someone else in their names. Soldiers

The Civil War is a harsh part of American history but the life of the soldiers was a real struggle. Most people know that the soldiers had a miserable life but it was far worse than people assume. Weapons weren’t easy to use, training was like starting from scratch and the camp life was miserable. Whether is was the North or the South, life wasn’t easy. Therefore, during the Civil War, the soldiers continued the courageous and daring fight in spite of poorly constructed weapons, labored training, and dreadful living conditions.

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

“Death created the modern American union, not just by ensuring national survival, but by shaping enduring national structures and commitments. The work of death was Civil War America 's most fundamental and most demanding undertaking”— Drew Gilpin Faust. Death in the Civil War was indeed a principle in creating the America we know and love today. This was the bloodiest war in United States military history. Within the war was the Battle of Gettysburg, a battle that was engulfed in massive suffering and loss of life. July first through the third 1863, A rural town in the eastern United States, Gettysburg Pennsylvania, is host to the largest, most fierce, battle ever to occur on American soil. At the start, Rumors were circulating that Lee was marching his army over the Potomac river and into southern Pennsylvania. Eventually, solid military intelligence confirmed this, and with an equally sized army, under the command of Gen. George G. Meade, the Union began on a collision course with the confederate army, and so began the Battle of Gettysburg. Gettysburg was a turning point because, the south’s morale declined while the north’s increased; northern casualties were lower than the south’s; and the north gained a geographical advantage from the battle.

The soldier’s perspectives on the length of the war were influenced by the motivation to protect their way of life. In describing the sentiments of Union and Confederate soldiers we can use some examples that are in letters sent home by the soldiers. One Kentucky confederate wrote, “I choose to fight for southern rights and southern liberty against the vandals of the North who were determined to destroy slavery”[vi]. Another opinion by a Wisconsin Union soldier states his reasons for fighting in the war, “ I have no heart in this war if the slaves cannot go free”[vii]Both the North and the South believed to be fighting to preserve the society that was prevalent in the respective regions of the United States. The South was trying to protect the institution of slavery and their society. The North, at the start of the war, only had the intention to overcome the succession, but they later realized that it could only do this by destroying slavery[viii].