The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara, is not simply a historical novel that recounts the facts of the Battle at Gettysburg, but rather gives a dramatized account of history using real people and events. I truly enjoyed reading this book, as it supplemented the reading I had done in the text book. I discovered how complex Gettysburg was along with tactics involved, numerous people, and graphic nature of the battle. Shaara gives this dramatized version as it prevents the book from becoming overwhelming with facts and rather draws the reader in to the plot. This is one of the most positive aspects of the text in a literary sense, this sort of dramatization and making the generals seem like the mortal human beings that they were and that they made mistakes. One incident in particular was Picket's Charge, in which, Longstreet knew the frontal assault order by Lee would result in disaster. T
The characterization of the Confederate high-ranking officials, in my opinion, is a remarkable aspect of this book. Sharra portrays Lee as a brilliant strategist, as he truly was, but does not to fail to point out his cumbersome flaw, which was his old fashioned tactics. A brilliant contrast is made with Lee's second in command, Longstreet. Longstreet is realistic and recognizes the necessity of the Confederacy to continually modernize their weapons and especially their tactics. Lee sees no harm in fighting in the open with honorable charges on the Union flanks, that have seemed to been effective. Longstreet prefers to "dig inaE? and counter the Union with trench warfare. Though Lee's brilliant tactics do work in the beginning of Gettysburg, his arrogance and lack of realism cost him the battle with the order for Picket's charge.
he fact that Longstreet knew, but failed to warn Lee
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