Additional information
by Charles River (Author)
*Covers the entire careers of all three in one entertaining and educational narrative.
*Includes pictures of Meade, Hancock, Chamberlain, and important people, places, and events in their lives.
*Includes a Bibliography of each man for further reading.
Despite the fact that the Civil War began over 150 years ago, it remains one of the most widely discussed topics in America today, with Americans arguing over its causes, reenacting its famous battles, and debating which general was better than others. Americans continue to be fascinated by the Civil War icons who made the difference between victory and defeat in the war's great battles.
Naturally, as the most famous and biggest battle of the Civil War, Gettysburg has been studied intensely for nearly 150 years, as every decision by the battle's generals has been dissected over and over again. With that, the men most responsible for the Union victory there have been immortalized.
Ironically, one of the generals who often escapes the attention of Civil War fans who compile the lists of best generals is the man who won the war's most famous battle, George G. Meade (1815-1872). During the first half of the war, Meade rose from command of a brigade to command of a division and finally command of the entire Army of the Potomac just days before the Battle of Gettysburg. Naturally, he is best known for defeating Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Gettysburg in July 1863, although he's not nearly as well remembered as his Confederate counterpart.
After the Battle of Chancellorsville, Winfield Scott Hancock fortuitously became the new II Corps commander in the Army of the Potomac, just in time to deliver his greatest performance of all. At Gettysburg, Hancock was the commanding general in the field on Day 1, as Meade and the rest of the Union army arrived later that night. On Day 2, Hancock's men assisted Sickles' III Corps when Sickles disobeyed orders and moved it forward, creating a gap in the Union lines. And on Day 3, Hancock's greatest day of the war, he was seriously injured and nearly bled to death while leading his men in their decisive repulse of Pickett's Charge.
Chamberlain had a respectable Civil War career and life, but he had been largely forgotten in the decades after the Civil War, with the focus on more influential commanding generals and their principal subordinates. Then a remarkable thing happened with the 1974 publication of Michael Sharaa's The Killer Angels, a Pulitzer Prize winning historical fiction that focuses on the Battle of Gettysburg and its influential generals and leaders. In one fell swoop, Michael Sharaa breathed life back into the reputations of men like John Buford and Joshua Chamberlain, cast as the Union heroes of Day 1 and Day 2 respectively that made victory at Gettysburg possible. In the novel, Chamberlain's regiment holds the high ground against a series of desperate Confederate charges, and when they ran out of gunpowder, Chamberlain ordered a brave bayonet charge that drove the Confederates in their front from the fight. With that, the Union's left flank was saved.
The Heroes of Gettysburg comprehensively covers the leadership of all three at Gettysburg, but it also chronicles their entire lives and careers, humanizing the stoic Chamberlain, physically intimidating Hancock, and the surly but modest Meade. Along with bibliographies and pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Heroes of Gettysburg like you never have before.
