THE LONG ROAD TO GETTYSBURG

Relying heavily on firsthand accounts plus uncredited (but apparently contemporary) photos, prints and sketches, Murphy opens and closes with the battlefield dedication ceremony, in which Edward Everett delivered a long, eloquent speech and President Lincoln was tentatively invited to give ""a few appropriate remarks"" (quoted in full); in between, the author analyzes Lee's strategy; points out the many ironies of timing and position that affected the battle's outcome; and, using brief extracts from the journals of a Union corporal and a Confederate lieutenant, captures a soldier's-eye view of the exhausting marches, frantic firefights, and weary, poignant aftermath. Readers will get a good sense of what generals and privates, countryside and hattie looked like from the many b&w illustrations, and a general idea of troop movements from a set of sketchy maps. A realistic alternative to Nell Johnson's Battle of Gettysburg (1989), which is illustrated only with photos of a modern reenactment. Capacious bibliography; index.