Summary Of The Killer Angels By Michael Shaara

The novel that I chose to read was The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. The Killer Angels is a historical fiction novel based on the Civil War. The setting of the book starts in June in 1863 on the 29th and goes through July 3rd. The story starts in Pennsylvania with the Confederate army moving towards Gettysburg in the span of the first few days. The main characters are General Robert E. Lee who was the commander of the Confederate army, Lee’s number two, General James Longstreet and Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain from the Union side. These characters included in the novel are based on actual historical figures that were very large influences in America’s history. Also, in the beginning of the book, there is a Confederate spy, Harrison hired

Michael Shaara introduced the characters as who they were in real life. Robert E. Lee from the Confederate army and Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain from the union army were the people who they were in real life. The battles that Shaara had mentioned and talked about throughout the book were true events that had indeed taken place. He had also mentioned the true places like Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where a battle had taken place and the army had stayed. The thing that was most accurate was the battle of Gettysburg. Shaara has written true facts about the battle of Gettysburg.Although not all statements were accurate. In his writing he had talked about Pickett’s Charge but, what he had written was not the true depiction of facts. He had written that Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain was directly in the middle of the Union line during the charge done by Pickett. In reality when this event in history had occurred Colonel Chamberlain was nowhere near where the charge was taking place. There were some events that were written that had truly held my interest being Pickett’s Charge as it was depicted in the book. Michael Shaara has shown what had happened truthfully but, with some of his own twists of what had happened to entertain his readers. I had also, found it interesting that Longstreet’s suggestions to General Robert E. Lee might have helped the Confederate army with their plans to secede. Lee did not want to use the

It was a very well written and interesting book in my opinion. I believe almost anyone would be able to sit down and read it even if they do not truly enjoy history. For someone who enjoys history, it would be extremely enjoyable to them. This book included many true events and people such as Robert E. Lee the real commander of the Confederate army. Also, the battles that were included as a part of this book were all true battles that had took place during the early 1860s. The way that Michael Shaara has written this novel shows how truly wonderful he was as an entertaining writer. There was one thing that I did not like about it and that was the pace. I would have liked if the author would have written before the date of June 29th, and explained a little more of what was happening. Another little critique I would make would be to not drag on the days so intensely. Michael Shaara added much detail where I didn’t think it should’ve been placed. If he would have written in more days to talk about and less detail it would have been