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Title: The Gods and Generals: A Novel of the Civil War Author: Jeff Shaara LOC Call No.: PS3569.H18 G63 LOC Subjects: Jackson, Stonewall, 1824-1863 -- Fiction. United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction. Generals -- Southern States -- Fiction Source: owned Rating: If you enjoyed The Killer Angels, you will enjoy this prequel to it written by Michael Shaara's son. Well-written and engrossing. Readings: 2/8/97

I cannot speak to the historical accuracy of Jeff Shaara's portrayals, but they give a great deal of depth to the people we so often read about as abstractions. Here we meet Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Robert E. Lee, Winfield Scott Hancock, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. We follow them from the time just before the war started until just before Gettysburg. Like The Killer Angels, each chapter focuses on one man: what he was likely doing, saying, and feeling, and thinking. We are witness to the awful parting of Hancock and Armistead alluded to in The Killer Angels. We are shown the clumsiness (some would say idiocy) of the Union generalship at Fredricksburg. And we see how things may have been at Jackson's deathbed as he said, "Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees."

Page created 2/17/97.
Last updated 03/17/03 at 14:33.

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