Cody+The+Killer+Angels

Michael Shaara was born on June 23, 1928 and died May 5, 1988. He grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey and graduated from Rutgers University in 1951. He married a woman named Helen, and together they had a son named Jeffrey and a daughter named Lila. In the mid 1950's, Shaara began teaching English, literature, and creative writing at Florida State University in Tallahassee. He was famous for his sports fiction, historical fiction, and science fiction. Many of his short stories were published in America's most popular magazines of the time, such as //Redbook// and //The Saturday Evening Post//. Shaara published five books. In 1968, he published //The Broken Place.// In 1974, he published //The Killer Angels.// In 1981, he published //The Noah Conspiracy.// In 1982, he published //Soldier Boy.// Finally, in 1991, //For Love of the Game// was published by Shaara's son, Jeffrey, 3 years after he died of a heart attack. There was not a large commercial interest for any of his books at the time, but his last book, //For Love of the Game//, was made into a movie in 1999 starring Kevin Costner and Kelly Preston.
 * __Michael Shaara__**

The Plot

//The Killer Angels// is about the four days of the battle of Gettysburg. The story starts with a Confederate spy named Harrison locating the Union armies. The Confederate Generals James Longstreet and Robert E. Lee are informed and the Confederates go into action, although it is difficult because General Stuart, who is supposed to be tracking the Union troops, is gone. Meanwhile, a Union Colonel named Joshua L. Chamberlain is receiving 114 new recruits for his regiment. Also, the Union General John Buford, the leader of the Union cavalry, arrives at Gettysburg to find a group of Confederate infantry. He also finds that there are many people in the village, all of whom are glad to see Union troops.

Longstreet suggests that the Confederates go on the defensive because of Stuarts absence, but Lee does not agree and the Confederates launch an attack. Buford's men hold off the Confederates until General John Reynolds arrives, who soon after dies. Buford's army retreats into the hills and go on the defensive. Lee is angry with General Ewell because he did not secure the hills that he was supposed to, which allowed the Union to retreat into safety. The day ends with Buford being blamed for the heavy casualties of the day.

On the next day, Chamberlain and his men begin moving north again. The Confederates decide to attack from the flanks on the hills where the Union troops are stationed, Little Round Top and Big Round Top. Longstreet attempts to convince them otherwise, but instead must go along with the original plan. The Confederates come to find out that the Union army has moved out of the hills down into the peach orchard near the bottom, but decide to attack anyway, resulting in heavy casualties for both armies.

Chamberlain finally arrives and is placed on Little Round Top and is told that they are not allowed to retreat for they are the last defense of the Union army. They defended the hill through many attacks until they ran out of ammo, which lead to Chamberlain ordering a bayonet charge. The Confederates retreated and the Union held the hill for the day.

The next day, Chamberlain is placed in the center of the Union forces, which is exactly where Lee and the Confederates plan to attack. Longstreet had tried to convince Lee yet again to move toward Washington, D.C. but Lee has refused again because he truly wanted to destroy the enemy, all offensive. They then move toward the Union center. Chamberlain, thinking that the center would have been safe from enemy attack, was surprised when his army was attack, but the held and survived. The Union had not taken much damage in the first attack however, then the Confederates began to move towards the Union troops, but as soon as they were within range, the Union began using cannons and gunning down the confederates, who in the end, retreated, resulting in the end of the battle with the Union victorious.

Recommendation

I recommend this book to any and all war story lovers. I am not even much of one myself, and I thought that this book was very good, full of suspense and action that kept me enthralled until the very end. I think that many people would very much enjoy reading this book and would get a lot out of it. In terms of rating, I give this book an 8.5 out of 10.

Why Outstanding?

I believe that this book is outstanding because of how well written it was. The whole time you are reading the book, you are kept in suspense by the authors word usage, and you never know what will happen next. Plus, it is based on a real event in history, so that helps give the story and true sense of what is really happening throughout the book. I am very glad I chose this book over others because it is extremely well written, and although it did not get much recognition when it was published, it definitely deserves it now, being able to withstand the test of time.