The Killer Angels Sparknotes

The Killer Angels follows the three day long, decisive battle of Gettysburg during the United States Civil War. The book’s storytelling is purely chronological, as the story progresses our perspective is flip flopped between the Union and Confederate sides of the battle, however the story is consistently told in the 3rd person. Michael Shaara uses immense details when describing this battle and does an incredible job of describing every character and scene, making everything easy to visualize and allowing you to put yourself in the story. The story reveals to us the thought process of all the seemingly fearless military leaders, as they discuss battle strategies and how to outsmart their opponent. Many characters throughout the book explain

The first shots are fired when General Heth gets in over his head against the Union prior to the arrival of General Longstreet for his support. General Stuart has still not returned with his cavalry, leaving General Lee completely blind to what may be happening on the front. After recuperating General Lee gives the order for General Heth to launch attack and the Rebels invade hastily causing the Union to retreat, this is the first of their successes. At the close of the first day of battle, the Confederate army has successfully occupied Gettysburg, with the Union just South, ready for action behind a fortress of

He researched men such as Longstreet, Lee and Chamberlain with such detail he reports being “visited” by them. I thoroughly enjoyed his use of sources, however I also enjoyed his creative side adding imagined scenes to the story as well. Before the story begins, the book includes several quotes from letters and interviews directly from the men themselves which can be used as primary sources for insight prior to your reading. However throughout the reading there is no included sources which would have contributed to the authenticity of the story telling. There is no evident secondary sources of the