"This is a Borzoi book"--Title page verso

Part 1. The march up. People who will not give in -- There were never such men in an army before -- This campaign is going to end this show -- A perfectly surplus body of men -- Victory will inevitably attend out arms -- A goggle-eyed old snapping turtle -- A universal panic prevails -- You will have to fight like the devil to hold your own -- Part 2. The first day. The devil's to pay -- You stand along, between the Rebel Army and your homes! -- The dutch run and leave us to fight -- Go in, South Carolina -- If the enemy is there to-morrow, we must attack them -- Part 3. The second day. One of the bigger bubbles of the scum -- You are to hold this ground at all costs -- I have never been in a hotter place -- The supreme moment of the war had come -- Remember Harper's Ferry -- We are the Louisiana Tigers! -- Let us have no more retreats -- Part 4. The third day. The general plan of attack is unchanged -- Are you going to do your duty today? -- The shadow of a cloud across a sunny field -- As clear a defeat as our army ever met with -- There is bad faith somewhere -- To sweep and plunder the battle grounds

From the acclaimed Civil War historian, a new history--the most intimate and richly readable account we have had--of the climactic three-day battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863), which draws the reader into the heat, smoke, and grime of Gettysburg alongside the ordinary soldier, and depicts the combination of personalities and circumstances that produced one of the greatest battles in human history. No previous book on Gettysburg dives down so closely to the experience of the individual soldier, or looks so closely at the sway of politics over military decisions, or places the battle so firmly in the context of nineteenth-century military practice.--From publisher description