Michael Shaara, the author, was born in 1928 in Jersey City, his writing career began in the early 1950s, and wrote numerous short stories he published “The Killer Angels” in 1974. Shaara also taught Creative Writing and Literature at Florida State University, he died in 1988 at age 59. This review will be discussing the novel titled “The Killer Angels”, Shaara does an exemplary job of telling the story of the Battle of Gettysburg from the soldier’s perspective on both fronts. This novel depicts, one of the most historically important events in American history, as being the bloodiest battles to ever happen to the United States.
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When a spy named Harrison travels to general Longstreet’s headquarters in Virginia to report back of Union …show more content…
An attack in which the defending forces are distracted by a minor attack on one flank that they don’t realize a larger force attacking from the opposite flank. General Longstreet had been charged with a minor attack on the right flank while General Early attacked from the left flank with a larger force. However, the attack almost immediately takes a sharp turn left and leaves both of the opposing regiments with nearly half of their men dead. General Early does not even attack on his flank out of fear of meaninglessly losing the lives of his men. So the confederate forces were forced to retreat back to Lee’s headquarters. Once there Longstreet hears word that General Stuart had been found, and had apparently just been out raiding caravans of supplies because he was bored of keeping an eye on the opposing forces. Many of the other Generals, Longstreet included, wanted to see Stuart court martialed for leaving the army blind because, if it wasn’t for Longstreet’s spy, the confederate army would have been decimated. However, Lee believes that they would gain nothing by it and instead shames Stuart for ignoring direct orders to be the eyes for his