The Killer Angels Book Report

The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara. Copyright 1974. Historical Novel. About the Civil War. The Killer Angels is a novel that tells a story about the Battle of Gettysburg. The book also intel’s the war between the Confederate Army and the Union Army during the American Civil war. The battle ended in a very bloody manner, over fifty-one thousand men were killed or injured nearly behind repair. The book goes into deep details to explain the battle. The books projection gives great insight regarding facts about how the events transpired. The book truly keeps you hardwired in, making you focus on what is going to happen next. Moreover, the writer of the book displays a wonderful mapping to further explain where and how things happen. He does this by giving both sides of the story from the North and the South. The writer also broke down the story telling into four days.

The North mainly fought this war so men in the South could have their freedom and not be slaves. Although we all know there is never only one side to a story. Next, there was a dispute over society and class. Thirdly courage, honor, and respect for the enemy. In the book, it states, “Honor without intelligence is a disaster. Honor could lose the war” (133). This helps paint a picture explaining that if they had so much honor into themselves it could cost them to lose the war. They couldn’t be too “cocky” and expect to win. Finally, the enemies had a lot of positive commonalities, like putting trust into their men fighting the battles and using good tactics. Also, the fact that both sides didn’t feel the need of this battle to happen, killing thousands for no reasons. Many soldiers had no clue on why they were fighting the