Rating: 
Summary: Up Close and Personal at Gettysburg
Review: This book is a MUST for all Civil War buffs and particularly for those whose understanding of the three days of the battle that raged in and around this Pennsylvania town may be lost in a personal "fog of war". Trudeau masterfully sets forth the complex maneuvering prior to and during this monumental struggle. While accomplishing this feat quite nicely, he also is able to add all of the human vignettes that give the reader the sense of "being there". While Pfanz may give much more detailed military unit information, as well as minute details within units on the field, Trudeau ties it all together with a concern for the soldier, the harried commander, and the involved civilians which rivals any other description of the many facets of war I have read.The ebb and flow of the action is all there before you, painted in vivid and living colors as never before. If you are not a Civil War devotee, this book could easily make you into one!
Rating: 
Summary: Curl up with a vivid retelling of this famous campaign
Review: This book would satisfy anyone familiar with the broad arc of this famous campaign, but who want a vivid and fresh retelling. Using rich historical detail Trudeau explains the motivations of the Union and Confederate leaders in embarking on the campaign. He explains the maneuvering of the armies in the field prior to their collision at Gettysburg. You realize how this battle escaped Lee's control almost from the very beginning, how Lee's corps and division commanders failed him by planning and executing poorly, and how Lee failed them with discretionary orders.
Trudeau uses lively and colorful prose to reveal the real-time fog of war when the armies fatefully meet. He makes good use of written accounts and anecdotes left by participants. His writing style makes the reader a witness to unfolding events on both sides and he uses effective communication tools such as maps and clocks that place actions within a chronological context. If you aren't somewhat familiar with the battle, this style might be challenging. One of Trudeau's effective devices is relating before-action vignettes on each side that sketch out the fate of regiments, informed by hindsight. He also provides the times and places of individual actions that warranted receipt of Congressional Medals of Honor.
Weaknesses are few. Photographs would have helped. The many maps are welcome, but often are too small to easily read and they can be hard to place within the larger area. The conventions Trudeau uses to show the beginning and end positions of individual corps during the maneuvering before the battle are confusing.
Trudeau's unique contribution to the Gettysburg literature, however, is his chronologically layered detail that communicates the sense of how this battle unfolded into a series of regimental and brigade actions dependent in time and place on unique elements of chance. He also pays attention to how the idiosyncratic aspects of topography, woods, tree lines, buildings, and fences affect the struggles of individual regiments involved in desperate fighting. You peel into detail that shows this great battle as small units involved in separate firefights on small swaths of ground. It is a story full of irony, ego, weakness, courage, and fallibility that Trudeau recounts with the eye of a good storyteller.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book on the Gettysburg Battle
Review: This is an excellent book on the Gettysburg battle. The only other book on this battle that compares favorably to this one is Sears book which was published at the same time. I like this book for the following reasons. (1) It is very well organized. The book is structured based upon time of day. Past books on Gettysburg, e.g. Coddington and Pfanz, don't do anywhere near as good a job, in my opinion in organizing what was essentially a very confusing battle. The battle was especially confusing on the second day, July 2nd, and Trudeau handles this very well by presenting the different geographical regions on time of day basis. Also, this is supported with excellent maps that also show the time of the day. So, at 5:45pm, at one point you'll be on Little Round Top with the 20th Maine, then he'll move to the west side of Little Round Top with 140th New York and then he'll move to the Wheatfield with Irish Brigade. It gave me a sense of being there seeing it all transpire at the same time. Well organized. Of course, some may find this to be a jumbled approach. But, I find it to be a very interesting way of sharing what happened on a minute by minute basis all over a very confusing battlefield. (2) This book gets down to the brigade and regiment level and does an excellent job of it. There is probably too much slant to the Union side (Sears is more balanced) but there is coverage of all the units, not just the 20th Maine, the 1st Minnesota and a couple of other popular units (e.g. 2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin of the Iron Brigade).
So, if you want a well organized book, organizing the battle on a time of day basis, with excellent maps, and going down to the regiment level, this is it. I find myself going back to this book for just these reasons time and time again, as an excellent reference. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best one-volume treatment of Gettysburg
Review: Trudeau has finally given the reader personal connection to this paramount battle of the Civil War. He manages to drill down from the Army level, to individual soldiers in describing the flow of battle from the very first day. I especially appreciated the wealth of primary sources used in recounting the campaign. The reader comes to feel he is there in person.
This is a must read for any Civil War buff.
Rating: 
Summary: Well researched but a somewhat dry writing style
Review: When looking for a one book study of the Gettysburg Campaign one in general has three choices, Trudeau, Sears and of course Coddington. If I had to put the three in order I would put Coddington first, Sears and then Trudeau. There is no question that Trudeau is a fine scholor. His book is well researched and presented in a unique fashion. Instead of long chapters about different sections of the battle he writes shorter sections and jumps all over the battlefield so as to give the reader a feeling of what was going on at different parts of the field at the same time. It's an interesting way to approach writing about the battle and for the most part it works. The main problem with this book is simply that Trudeau is not as good a writer as Coddington and Sears. To be truthful his writing is a bit on the dry side. If you are new to Gettysburg and simply looking for one book to learn about the battle then I strongly suggest you pick up Coddington or Sears. Both are fine books and will do the job. Like I said, this book isn't a bad book but simply a bit dry and While I think the book belongs on the shelf of anyone seriously studying Gettysburg, I don't recommend it for those looking for their first book on the battle.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive, Refreshing Look At "Gettysburg"
Review: With the history shelves of bookstores groaning under the weight of books on Gettysburg, one might ask, "Why write another book on the most studied battle of the Civil War?"
Author Noah Andre Trudeau asked himself this question, and answered it by writing his impressive new book, Gettysburg - A Testing of Courage (HarperCollins, 2002).
Trudeau looked at the vast list of publications on Gettysburg, and decided that the time was right for a new, comprehensive history of the July 1863 battle. Several new books on Gettysburg are published every year, but few study the battle in its entirety. There are books on the officers and soldiers who fought at Gettysburg, the "ghosts" of Gettysburg, the "what ifs?" of Gettysburg, even the horses of Gettysburg, but rare is the book that studies the battle as a whole.
Trudeau's book puts the battle within a context of events that transpired in the summer of 1863. The fight at Gettysburg did not happen in a vacuum, and Trudeau's account enables the reader to understand the impact of the battle on both the Union and Confederate war efforts.
Trudeau's most notable accomplishment in A Testing of Courage is his vivid, hour-by-hour account of the combat on the battlefield. Accompanied by several maps, the narrative of the battle weaves personal accounts from fighting men with historical evidence unearthed by generations of historians into a brisk story of men at war.
Trudeau's depictions of the key players in this grand drama are balanced and enlightening. Robert E. Lee, George G. Meade, James Longstreet, Daniel Sickles, George Pickett, Winfield Scott Hancock, and all the generals made famous by more than a century of scholarship on Gettysburg come to life once again in Trudeau's book. The author uses the recorded words of these men to give readers a sense of what they were thinking, and feeling, during the momentous struggle.
Trudeau incorporates aspects of the fighting that are often overlooked in accounts of the battle, even on guided tours of the battlefield. Especially informative is the author's treatment of the many cavalry actions at Gettysburg. Trudeau's hour-by-hour format enables the reader to understand what the horse soldiers were doing - and why they were doing it - as the infantry and artillery fought for the high ground.
A Testing of Courage is not entirely flawless. There are a few misspellings, mistakes in word usage, and at least one misidentification of an officer. These mistakes do not in any way distract the reader from the flow of the action, and do not seriously impede the understanding of events at Gettysburg.
Trudeau does make an interesting and perhaps even controversial argument about the legendary "Pickett's Charge," the great Confederate infantry assault that cost Lee thousands of men and effectively ended his invasion of Pennsylvania. Based on his examination of the evidence, Trudeau believes that Lee intended his frontal assault against the Union position on Cemetery Ridge to be followed by a "second wave" of Confederate infantry. The second wave never moved forward, however, because the tactical commander of the attack - Longstreet - believed the first attack was hopeless and did not order the second wave forward. Historians and students of the battle will no doubt discuss Trudeau's conclusions about Pickett's Charge at great length.
Gettysburg- A Testing of Courage is a welcome addition to the great pantheon of literature on the largest battle ever fought in North America. Author Trudeau deserves acclaim for taking up such a daunting challenge, and achieving such an impressive success.
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