Most Southern Americans, as do most Americans today, had an expectation that they would be rich someday, the eternal optimists.

The filmmaker Ken Burns has mentioned the influence of the book in developing his interest in the Civil War and his subsequent production of the PBS series on the subject.With high-charged, emotive prose, lush descriptions and fully-fleshed characters, he transforms the The Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest engagement of the Civil War, into a gorgeously rendered and deeply personal story populated by flawed, ordinary men caught in an extraordinary concatenation of circumstances by the machinations of Fate. Chamberlain’s defense of Little Round Top on the second day of the battle of Gettysburg is excellent writing, and will keep the reader completely in the moment. Written from the shifting perspective of the main players in the battle and drawn from the personal correspondence of these men as well as the historic record and Shaara's own embellishments and best guesses, this book explains the nuances of the battle and of the war more clearly than I've read before. Whether or not they are correct, Shaara's novel shows the human drama of the battle in the way a narrative history generally cannot.

Grant—complicated, heroic, and deeply troubled men—through to its riveting conclusion at Appomattox. That’s the best word I can use to describe The Killer Angels, both in the sense of instinctive or elemental emotions and in the sense of internal organs and guts. In a novel short of female characters, the remembered bonds between Hancock and Armistead provide the love story. The Last Full Measure , written by Shaara's son, Jeffrey, takes the reader to the surrender of Lee, continuing in the same style as the original author.During this read, I fell, simultaneously, in love with the North's Joshua Chamberlain and the South's James Longstreet, and realized, for the first time, how profoundly the Civil War damaged our nation's landmarks and natural beauty. This Pulitzer-Prize winning historical novel - which inspired Ken Burns' Civil War documentary and served as the basis for the film "Gettysburg" - stands with All Quiet on the Western Front in delineating the horrors and costs of war on the human spirit even when the cause is just. And then there is Armistead, who gets only one chapter, during Pickett’s Charge, but remains perhaps the most powerful creation, a doomed romantic, mourning his broken friendship with Union General Winfield Hancock. It finally dawned on me that what the feller meant was their ‘rights,’ only, the way they talk, it came out ‘rats. The book violates a common perception of historical writing which says readers of war novels are more interested in the common soldiers' experiences rather than the generals who live in the lofty atmosphere of rear headquarters, moving armies around like chess pieces.

In an twist of fate, the movie adaptation Gettysburg that came out five years later would put the book on the best seller list almost twenty years after it was originally published. After the war, he would win multiple terms as Maine’s governor as well as eventually becoming president of his old college. It was the first book to give the reader the chance to hear the story of the war from the actual participants. Shaara also credits the forgotten Buford with being a major reason as to why the Union was able to seize the high ground. I believe this book may have most accurately depicted the total and complete division, not only between families and soldiers, but between the leaders, who had forged tight bonds in school and in previous battles, where they had fought on the same side.Lee; Josiah Chamberlain, who was lieutenant colonel of the 20th Maine regiment; cavalry commander John Buford; and Confederate General James Longstreet. There are descriptions of battles so elegantly told that the horror is somewhat mitigated by the eloquence of Shaara’s writing. It was interesting to get to know more about Grant -- I'm curious now to see if I can get my hands on his memoirs.

Yet, it is also a poignant reminder of the humanity in us all as this author brings his characters to life. Reynolds is killed and the Union troops are pushed back, but at nightfall they entrench on high ground while the Confederates celebrate what appears to them to be another in a long line of victories for General Lee. The trilogy even touched on the years before the war how some soldiers who were friends found themselves as enemies with devestating results such as the tragic friendship between Winfield Scott Hancock and Lew Armistead who avoid facing each other until the fateful battle of Gettysburg. He was taller than Lee, head like a boulder, full-bearded, long-haired, always a bit sloppy, gloomy, shocked his staff by going into battle once wearing carpet slippers. This isn't just for civil war buffs, it isn't just for military fiction aficionados, it's for anyone who ever wondered what it would have been like.It has elements of romance, chivalry, honor, gentility mixed in with the horrible stench of a modern, brutal war.