The Gettysburg Nobody Knows

Gabor Boritt, the director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College, has invited nine leading authorities to shed new light on the greatest battle in our history. Following the example of Richard Nelson Current's acclaimed history The Lincoln Nobody Knows, the contributors focus in particular on the unknown, the controversial, and what might have been. Readers learn, for instance, that though Jeb Stuart's cavalry provided no intelligence to the rebel army for several key days, Lee knew from other sources the location of the Army of the Potomac and he was able to concentrate his army before General Meade arrived at the battlefield in strength. Readers are treated to a fresh account of "the most celebrated forty minutes in all of American military history" – Pickett's Charge – watching that famed encounter from a perspective rarely described the point of view of Union soldiers. There are careful analyses of the battlefield actions of General Ewell (whose failure to attack Cemetery Hill has been blamed for the Confederacy's loss at Gettysburg) and of General Daniel Sickles (whose dangerous repositioning of troops on July 2nd has been credited with stopping Longstreet's advance): Ewell is exonerated here, Sickles criticized for probably causing more Union losses than necessary. And throughout the volume, there is much vivid writing, such as a stirring account of the moment when General Winfield Scott Hancock ordered the First Minnesota to "take those colors, " sending the Minnesotans into a desperate struggle that would cost most of them their lives but would help save the day for the Union.