The Third Day at Gettysburg & Beyond (Military Campaigns of the Civil War Series)
The third and final day at Gettysburg, climaxed by the valiant, futile charge of Pickett's division, is perhaps the most controversial and analyzed battle in U.S. military history. In this collection of revisionist essays, Gallagher and five other Civil War specialists provide fresh, intriguing perspectives on some of those controversies. Gallagher suggests that the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg was not the turning point in the war; rather, it was a discouraging but manageable setback. The loss of Vicksburg one day later is seen as a far more devastating loss. A. Wilson Greene convincingly exonerates Union general Meade of the charge of meekness for his failure to pursue the defeated Lee aggressively; given Meade's own organizational problems, his caution may have been quite prudent. Gallagher, editor ofCivil War America, has provided a minitreasure for Civil War specialists in this compilation of well-written and challenging theses.Jay Freeman