The Killer Angels

The novel provides us with the Battle of Gettysburg from multiple perspectives, those of Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain (Union) and Generals Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet, both for the Confederacy. Through actual correspondence and a number of historical documents, Shaara reveals the realities of combat at Gettysburg. Along the way the novel provides the reader with the feelings and thoughts of Chamberlain, Lee and Longstreet. This aspect of the novel is fiction, but through these different perspectives we come to a greater appreciation of the Battle and its participants. By providing multiple perspectives on the Civil War, Shaara does an excellent job of illustrating the human factor involved in AmericaÆs war of brother against brother.

The authorÆs effort to show us the human factor behind the conflicts of the Civil War is greatly aided by his use of multiple perspectives. The book alternates our look at the w

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ayed as a General who fights the war because he likes to achieve victory in combat not as someone with deep moral convictions about it. We see this by being privy to more fabricated thoughts attributed to him by Shaara (1996), ô[Longstreet] did not think much of the Cause. He was a professional: the Cause was Victoryö (68). While one of the primary causes of the Civil War was the secession of the Southern States from the Union, ShaaraÆs (1996) account portrays the conflict as being one fought over freedom and equality versus slavery and aristocratic (i.e. Southern) class distinctions. While Shaara tries not to glorify the cause of either the North or South, his fictional accounts of the thoughts of significant participants on both sides does appear to bias the perception. For example, after PickettÆs Charge is recognized as a failure by the Southern forces, General Lee is portrayed as someone, like Longstreet, with no particular personal agenda for conducting the war. As he ôtellsö Longstreet, ôYou and I we have no Cause. We have only the Armyö (Shaara 1996, 3612). Likewise, in a letter to his brother, Tom Chamberlain mocks a Confederate prisonerÆs confusion over why he is fighting in the Civil War, ôThen after that I ask
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Approximate Word count = 1235
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)