THE GETTYSBURG CAMPAIGN

by Edwin B. Coddington ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1968

The Gettysburg Campaign of June-July, 1863, has exercised an endless fascination for historians, amateur and professional alike, not only because it was the decisive battle, the turning point of the Civil War, but because the campaign itself was regarded for almost a century as the ""classic"" battle of modern times. As such, the campaign has produced a deluge of books over the last hundred years, ranging from the puerile efforts of the Count of Paris to the solid popularizations of Bruce Catton to the unabashedly scholarly works of such men as Andrew Brown, Robert Beechman and--more recently--of James Bellah, N. A. Meligakes, and Glenn Tucker. To the latter category must now be added, and perhaps preeminently, Mr. Coddington's Gettysburg Campaign, which surpasses frequently, and equals consistently, other available works on the subject, from the standpoint of thoroughness, of treatment, exhaustiveness of research, depth of analysis, and because of the author's concentration on the Campaign as a ""study in command,"" which affords a comprehensive view not only of Gettysburg itself but of the personalities on the scene--Lee, Ewell, Long-street, Hill, Stuart, Heth, and Pickett on the one side, and Meade, Reynolds, Buford, Hancock and Gregg on the other. Such considerable qualities so far outweigh the author's prosodic opaqueness as to warrant the opinion that The Gettysburg Campaign may well come to be regarded as the ""standard work"" on the subject.

Pub Date: March 1, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribners

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION