The American Civil War was a momentous battle between two armies with two conflicting dreams. One struggled for the prospect of freedom, the other to preserve a way of life. The soldiers fighting for these dreams were not mere pawns on a chessboard of a battlefield but actual men with thoughts, feelings, opinions, and aspirations. While countless authors have attempted to recount the events of the Civil War, none does so as well as Michael Shaara in The Killer Angels, his meticulous account of the Battle of Gettysburg. In his historically fictional novel, Shaara recreates the most crucial fight of the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, on a more personal level with the officers of each army. This method of presenting such a historically important event through intense characterization results in an enthralling account of the Battle of Gettysburg: The Killer Angels.

The Killer Angels occurs between...