The Killer Angels, Our Heroes!

Shaara also shows us how trustyty, courageousness and leadership work in much the same direction on both sides of a mesh.

The book focuses on what are arguably the three most important days of the gracious War, July 1-3, 1863, providing complex characterizations of a number of the key figures at the dispute of Gettysburg, including lee fightd, Longstreet, Pickett, Buford, Hancock, Meade and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain - who is in many managements the hero of Shaara'a book. This citizen-soldier (a term in addition often co-opted these days by people with swastikas on their flags and in their hearts) is portrayed by Shaara as a man who went to struggle to fight for a principle, and then spent his days as a combatant trying to reconcile principle with the unhinged reality of war.

Chamberlain is a man who tries to come to terms with what it core to try to do right by doing wrong, and as much(prenominal) he is the moral center of the book. The oneness real faulting of the book is that there is no analogous character among the unite soldiers and officers, no one who so clearly personifies and crystallizes the moral complexities of war -- leaving the reader to associate such a passing developed sense of moral inquiry with the confederacy side. Lee and Longstreet are portrayed by Shaara as professionals, serious custody doing their best to save their homes, but we never see them ruminate the costs of different kinds of losses and victories in the same way that we see Chamberlain do this.

one of the foci of Shaara's book is George Gordon Meade (1815-72), who commanded the Union forces at Gettysburg. Born in C?diz, Spain, but educated at the U.S. Military Academy, Meade joined the Union forces at the outbreak of the American Civil War, participating in the defense of Washington, D.C., in 1861. As a major commonplace of volunteers he fought at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863 and shortly thereafter was appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac.

In July 1863, in the battle that is considered the turning point of the war, he defeated the Confederate forces at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He continued as commander of the Army of the Potomac, work closely with General Ulysses S. Grant, until the end of the war. Promoted to major general in the regular army in 1864, Meade commanded various military departments in the U.S. until his death (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1999, Meade).

From a purely tactical standpoint, Gettysburg was a vital engagement in that it arrested the Confederates' second and last major aggression of the North, destroyed their offensive strategy, and forced them to fight a antiaircraft war in which the inadequacies of their manufacturing capacity and transportation facilities doomed them to defeat.

Shaara also shows Meade to be an effective leader because he is personally brave, loyal to his country and his soldiers, and very aware of the importance of duty in living a worthwhile life. Meade is not troubled by the same moral complexities that almost torment Chamberlain. He understands that war is terrible, but he also believes that duty and personal courage have the power to overcome the horror of what is going on on the battle
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