Spoon River Valley CUSD #4

Gettysburg, the pivotal battle of the Civil War, by R.K. Beecham

eng

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Gettysburg

30157734

by R.K. Beecham

the pivotal battle of the Civil War

"It is 1899. While the rest of the country enjoys the 'happy days of peace' ... R.K. Beecham returns to the site of the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, reliving the violence that colored the front-line and remembering the courageous men who fought there ... Beecham relates the three-day battle from several perspectives: a young soldier caught in the tumult of war; an aged veteran recalling the day's glory and tragedy; and a concerned civilian who, nearly after three decades of war, reflects on how the events at Gettysburg permanently altered the nation. Beecham's own eyewitness account and testimony of other Northerns and Southerns who fought at Gettysburg places the reader in the midst of the unfolding battle"--Jacket

The veteran's mecca -- The war and its slow progress -- A glance at the campaigns leading up to Gettysburg -- Comparative strengths of the armies -- A peculiar feature of the battle -- The order of going into battle -- The meeting of the ways -- July First, 1863 -- Howard in command -- What we saw from Seminary Ridge -- Lee and his mistakes -- Reynolds -- Meade's strategy -- Lines which were and lines which were not formed -- Sickles' salient -- Peach orchard -- The whirlpool of battle -- Little Round Top, and the bloody sunset hour -- Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill -- The night and the council -- Slocum's battle and Stuart's defeat -- The great cannonade -- Pickett's charge -- Gettysburg to Appomattox -- The Umbrella Grove and the First Minnesota -- The "bloody angle" and the "high tide."