Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage

This is one of my favorite books about the Battle of Gettysburg. Although this is a rehashing of the battle (not very different than Edwin Coddington's "The Battle of Gettysburg, A Study in Command" or Stephen Sears "Gettysburg"....both of which are excellent books) the style in which Noah Andre Trudeau writes this book gives it a different flavor.

When Mr. Trudeau wrote this book, he put it in order according to the times. Does he know that the times he assigns to each action are correct? Of course, he doesn't. No one knows this....but he does it as accurately as possible. It makes it easy to sit and read the book and understand what was happening....what was going on at the same time...who was involved (not just the regiments, but he also quotes many privates and others up the ladder). Reading about the battle in this order makes it so much easier to understand the ebb and flo of the battle. I'm still not sure how the battles at Devil's Den, Little Round Top, The Wheatfield, and the Peach Orchard all fit together...but in reading this book, I have a much better understanding of the pieces....how they fit together....and what pieces I am missing (and believe me, no one or ten volume book could EVER put all the pieces together and make me understand).

A couple of years ago, my friend, Jackie and I sat out on the field where the 11th Corps' fighting took place. We sat and read directly from this book and then tried to "see" exactly what he was talking about. By doing a lot of pointing...we were able to almost pinpoint where these events took place....in a timeline which made sense. Studying the battle in this way, has made a really confusing event (for me anyway) easy to understand and even easier to discuss.

For those who are just starting to read about the battle, I would recommend a book like Stephen Sears "Gettysburg"...an easy read with a great overview of the battle. For those who know the battle a little bit...Mr. Trudeau's book is the one to read. If you happen to know a lot about the battle, then you definitely want to read the "packed full of information, but a very dry read" of Mr. Coddington's book.

I look at my ever-growing library of books on the Battle of Gettysburg and the Civil War, and I realize that there are just a couple of books that I keep finding myself going to over and over again, and this book happens to be one of them. This is definitely a must-read for students of the Battle of Gettysburg.