"The Killer Angels" is not without flaws. It begins with a "You Are There" portentousness and sometimes lingers too long on personality for its own sake, but Shaara's organization is clear and his prose flexible. Civil War buffs will probably argue with his concentration on Longstreet and dismissal of Meade. Others will condescend to "another historical novel."… [I believe] that even the best historical novel does not keep the reader within its bounds but sends him elsewhere—to history or another kind of fiction.

Thomas LeClair, "Fiction: 'The Killer Angels'," in The New York Times Book Review (© 1974 by The New York Times Company; reprinted by permission), October 20, 1974, p. 40.