The reader gets to know them through their thoughts and conversations, also fictionalized, with other characters. Shaara says in the preface “The interpretation of character is my own.” While none of his interpretations will disturb readers of Civil War history, they help add insight and a personal touch to these soldiers. As Lee’s army moves into Southern Pennsylvania the climax will take place at Gettysburg during the first three days of July 1863. The Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania has suddenly a new threat to contend with. Meade, has moved quickly and is close behind the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The story begins with the mysterious spy Harrison who first tells Lee and Longstreet that the Union Army of the Potomac, now under its new commander George G. Written in the present tense and covering only five days from June 29, 1863, to July 3, the novel has a sense of urgency that is lacking in the prequel Gods and Generals and the sequel The Last Full Measure by Shaara’s son Jeff Shaara. Other characters are also featured, and side stories help fill out the cast. Lee and James Longstreet on the Confederate side, John Buford and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain on the Union side. The novel follows four main characters, two Confederate and two Union. The book was also the basis of director Ronald Maxwell’s 1993 movie Gettysburg.

Army officer programs as well as other military academies. The book has been republished many times and is on the reading list for many U.S. Michael Shaara’s novel about the Battle of Gettysburg, first published in 1974, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction the next year. Book Review- The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

Civil war the killer angels