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A Highly Detailed Work on Pickett's Charge

11/9/2015

4 Comments

 
Picture
​Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg: A Guide to the Most Famous Attack in American History
James A. Hessler, Wayne E. Motts, and Cartographer Steven A. Stanley
Savas Beatie, 2015, 310 pp., #37,95
ISBN: 978-1-61121-200-6
Image courtesy of amazon.com
 
Ever since the Battle of Gettysburg came to a close, one of the most popular areas of the battlefield to write about was Pickett’s Charge.  Numerous books have brought forth information about this crucial event and some have even attempted to change thoughts about this attack.  With so many works on the market about Pickett’s Charge, what makes Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg stand out from all of the others?  Do we need yet another work about Pickett’s Charge?  I think it is safe to say that this book is unlike any other that deals with the subject of this attack.  James A. Hessler, Wayne E. Motts, and Steven A. Stanley have brought something different, but it’s not what you might think.
                James A. Hessler is a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg and is most famously known for his work Sickles at Gettysburg.  It was that book that won him the Batcheldar-Coddington Award and the Gettysburg Civil War Round Table’s Distinguished Book Award as the most outstanding work on the Gettysburg Campaign.  Wayne E. Mott is also a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg and has been for close to thirty years.  He is the chief executive officer of The National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  Steven A. Stanley is the cartographer for this work and is one the most celebrated Civil War cartographers.  He co-authored, and was the cartographer, for The Complete Gettysburg Guide along with J.D. Petruzzi.  He is the winner of the U.S. Army Historical Foundation’s 2009 Distinguished Writing Award.
                One of the things I am always on the lookout for in a new Civil War book is, what is different in this work that I cannot find anywhere else?  Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg is not only a book which has a historical narrative, it is a guide book to the areas of the battlefield which surround the large scope of Pickett’s Charge.  Throughout the work, there are four separate tours which bring you around the areas of the field: the Confederate Battle Line, Trimble Charge, Pickett’s Charge, and the Union Battle Line.  The tours are fueled by historical narrative aided by the gorgeous maps of Stanley.  The maps are also labeled with stops which you should make as one touring the field.  What was one of the more interesting parts of the narrative was the attention which was made to Trimble’s Charge which I think is one of the more ignored parts of the Pickett’s Charge story.  There is also great attention to the detail of Bliss Farm and the attacks made around it.  There is the myth that no fighting happened on the fields of Pickett’s Charge until the cannonade started, but the action at Bliss Farm was quite heated on the morning of July 3rd.  Thankfully, this book gives attention to that detail and also gives a great tour of where the farmhouse stood.  Overall, if there is a section of the Pickett’s Charge fields you wanted information on, this book has covered it in great detail, more so than other works on Pickett’s Charge.
                I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Battle of Gettysburg.  The work of James A. Hessler, Wayne Motts, and Steven A. Stanley shines in this work and their grasp of knowledge of the subject is second to none.  This book brings a new look into Pickett’s Charge in the realm that this is not only a historical work, but a guide book that should be brought on the battlefield every time anyone travels there.  All three of these historians should be held in the highest regard of Civil War academia and I look forward to works they will present in the future.

4 Comments
Michele Sams link
11/9/2015 08:23:10 am

Thank you for the review on "​Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg" by Jim Hessler, Wayne Motts, and Steve Stanley. We appreciate the review and are glad to hear you enjoyed the book! Those interested in checking out this book can read more at the Savas Beatie website here: http://tinyurl.com/np7nl5e

Reply
James Hessler link
11/9/2015 05:28:54 pm

Matthew,

Thank you for the excellent review of "Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg." We are very proud of our book and are glad that you enjoyed it!

The question we are most often asked is, "How is this book different from 'other' Pickett's Charge books?" The answer is, of course, that there are NO other tour guide books on this topic. Wayne and I, as long-time Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guides, put all of our guiding skills to work in creating this book. However, readers don't need to be walking the charge to appreciate the book. Steve's maps, full-color photos, and GPS coordinates will bring readers onto the field no matter where they are reading from.

Most of all, we are proud of the many individual stories that we told in this book. Some stories are well known, and we give them our own interpretation, but many of the stories in this book have been seldom or never told before.

Readers can order signed copies at my website: www.sicklesatgettysburg.com.


Regards,
James Hessler

Reply
Theodore Savas link
11/9/2015 06:18:16 pm

Thanks for the kind review. I would like to add that the entire book is full color, over-sized at 7 x 10, and printed on thick matte-art coated paper, with a sewn binding for permanency.

We knew it was something special when Hessler and Co. pitched it to us, and are excited to have published it.

Reply
kmkm
4/27/2016 06:34:45 am

knkj

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