panzade wrote:Merry Andrew wrote:Stars in their Courses: The Gettysburg Campaign by Shelby Foote.
I visited the Gettysburg battlefield site on my very recent vacation trip of meandering along the East Coast and bought the book in their gift and souvenir shop. Riveting reading, particularly once you're familiar with the topography and have walked those positions on the ground. Foote has a gift for making the most complex stratagems easily understandable to the layman.
I found Foote on that great Civil War documentary on PBS...didn't he look and sound like a Southern general?.
Well, he's a Missisippian by birth and upbringing, Pan. If I have one criticism about the book I'm reading, it's that he tells the story largely from the Confederate point of view. It's fair and balanced, all right, but you get the feeling that all that Meade's Union forces were doing was reacting to the Confefederate threats as they became apparent. But, come to think of it, that's probably pretty accurate, historically. Meade had just taken command of the Army of the Potomac from Hooker and this was his first engagement as commander of so large a force. He did well, all things considered. But it was really Lee's battle to lose. And he lost it.
