My Enemy, My Brother: Men and Days of Gettysburg

Excellent telling of the three day battle of Gettysburg mainly from the diaries, letters and reminiscences of the participants from privates to the officers. In the second edition introduction the author notes thanks from high school and university teachers who have used the book in class. I would agree that it would make a superb teaching tool and noted compelling passages that I would utilize were I a history teacher. Passages that put me in the thick of it with descriptions of gunsmoke, rebel yells, screams and cries of the dying and wounded, and the thunder of Confederate artillery. 176 guns fired simultaneously into the Union ranks on Cemetary Ridge and answered by 103 Union cannon. It is one thing to visualize or try to visualize a battle but a more difficult matter to imagine the sound of cannon and rifles. Even harder (fortunately) to capture the stench of death from men and horses, garbage and latrines. Persico has written descriptions of it all. I am now impelled to read one of his sources, Bruce Catton's Gettysburg: The Final Fury. It is a war and battle that you can't shake off. There is always more to read. With a book like this that gets you down and dirty into the action I read wondering how did they do it? Time after time how did the men from north and south throw themselves into direct assaults. Rather like reading about the Normandy invasion. How did the Allies take the beaches against withering German fire? How do men face this? Stephen Ambrose says espirit de corps. I guess. Truly amazing though. Well organized, researched and an eloquent read. 2nd edition is a trade paperback. Probably put this review in the wrong place.

An excellent, blockbuster of a book. There is more history crammed into its 246 pages than I ever imagined could be accomplished in so short a span. Well written, fast moving and riveting, the author examines The Battle of Gettysburg from the participants' view: military and civilian, high and low ranking, male and female, Union and Confederate. Extreamly well done.

What a great way to get an overview of the Battle of Gettysburg. No dry, humourless tome, this one. Rather, a very readable book that looks more at the views of the common soldiers than the moves and countermoves of the generals. The format of following many different participants and viewers of the battle (all real-life) makes for a story that reads more like a thriller. How accurate it is, I cannot say, not being an expert on the battle. However, I do note that Persico does not have what is now accepted as the true story behind the very famous photo of the dead sharpshooter at Devil's Den (it is now believed that the photographer moved and arranged the body to set up the photo). He instead believes the photographer's story that that was how he found the body. Overall, I found this an enjoyable read, and I found it easily put into place for me (for the first time in any Civil war book I have read) all the intracacies of that conflict. Just a note: I only became interested in this battle as a result of receiving the new computer game "Sid Meier's Gettysburg!" as a gift recently ... I would also thoroughly recommend that game! Especially if it leads players to want to research more about the battle and times it portrays!