Gettysburg: Day Three

Rating:
Summary: On the Field at Gettysburg
Review: After 30 years of reading books about the Civil War and about Gettysburg in particular, I recently have found very little to keep my interest. It was almost as if I had "read it all". I picked up Jeffert Wert's book "Gettysburg :Day Three" primarily because of his past books. I had read one on Longstreet and one on Custer. In the past I have found Wert to be highly readable yet consistly knowledgable on his chosen subject. I was not disappointed. Suddenly I was on the battlefield I had visited over 25 year ago. Seeing Culp's Hill,Spangler's Spring and the surrounding woods.I was reminded of standing at Hay's position at the stone wall and viewing Seminary Ridge and the Blue Ridge Mountain range behind it.When you read the section on the cannonade against the oncoming Confederates the distance takes on a completely new meaning.( If you've ever visited Gettysburg on a hot July day you have a greater appreciation of how suffocating it must have felt.)

Wert transports the reader to the field of battle. To read this book makes the reader feel the temor of the earth during the cannonade prior to the Confederate charge. You also sense the desperation in the fighting on both sides. The reader comes to, somewhat, understand the hesitation yet the fortitude of the men in gray as they rose to march against the postion so prominent and so formidable yet so far away. I found the book even handed and fair to both sides of the battle. I agree with the previous writer that more maps would have been better but I always complain about a lack of maps.

I highly recommend to those that have become jaded,as I had, to pick this book up and once again experince this battle in the only way left to us. You won't be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: The significant events within the Battle of Gettysburg
Review: Any serious student of the American Civil War knows the significance of the Battle of Gettysburg, a series of desperate battles that took place July1-3, 1863. Many, including myself, believe that it was the turning point for both the Union and Confederate causes. It was the beginning of the end.

Jeffry Wirt is a superb historian and very skillful writer. This is a highly readable and informative story of the third and final day of that battle when so many events that could have changed the outcome of the fighting and therefore possibly the war took place.

We all think we know about Pickett's Charge. But Wirt presents the case better than I have ever seen that 'Old Peter' Longstreet had been right but unheeded by Marse Robert who made the worst tactical mistake of his career. Fifteen thousand men, no matter how gallant or brave, could have taken Cemetery Hill that afternoon, especially following the bloody repulse at Culp's Hill. The Yanks had superiority of numbers, topography and artillery and, most of all, confidence gained over the first two days and that morning's fighting that they could stand toe to toe with Lee's veterans and win. And win they did.

The story of Gettysburg was the very series of events that took place in an uncoordinated manner. Lee never got everything going at once, the secret to taking the offensive in any battle. The Union could do what Lee often did so well. Operating on interior lines and on the defensive they could shift both men and their terribly effective artillery to the point of attack, when there was only one such point at a time.

This book also presents Stuart at his worst . . . 48 hours late, wandering around Pennsylvania with captured wagons, negating his primary weapons of speed and mobility, and failing to get behind Cemetery Ridge at the cavalry fight at Rummel's barn. The Knight of the Golden Spurs was too little, too late. The Union cavalry was coming into it's own, better horses, tougher troopers, and outstanding young generals: Buford, Gregg, Custer, Merritt and soon the best of them all, Phil Sheridan. The edge in firepower alone given by the Spencer repeater carbine was to prove significant to the ascendancy of the Union cavalry. The days when the Reb cavalry could intimidate their rivals were over. I'm not sure Stuart understood that up until the end at Yellow Tavern.

But what if Ewell had coordinated his attack with Pickett? What if Pickett had arrived earlier on the field? What if Stuart had gotten to Gettysburg a day or two earlier and had all of his cavalry, rested and ready to fight, at the same time as two coordinated attacks by Ewell and Longstreet? We'll never know but this wonderful book makes you wonder. It's an outstanding read!

Rating:
Summary: Uninspiring
Review: As anyone who made it to this page knows, books hundreds of pages long have been written on particular portions of the Gettysburg battlefield, from the railroad cut on Day 1 to McPherson's Woods etc. Plenty of large books have specifically discussed the individual days, but most books dealing with July 3 inevitably focus on Pickett's Charge. So when Wert, who's written biographies on Longstreet and Custer, attempted to write a book focusing on all of the action on Day Three, it was a very large undertaking. Inevitably, Wert comes up short.

Wert is largely uninspiring compared to the Pantheon of Gettysburg authors, like Pfanz and Coddington. And to justify writing a book about Gettysburg or July 3rd, topics that have been written about endlessly, there has to be some originality involved to give the narrative meaning. Wert simply does not accomplish this, except perhaps on the cavalry actions, and it isn't surprising when the book is only 300 pages long.

July 3rd's action begins near dawn on Culp's Hill. Pfanz covers this action infinitely better in his book on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill compared to Wert's book. Pfanz book has just as many interesting first hand accounts, and it's a more descriptive narrative concerning the military movements and combat on Culp's Hill.

Pickett's Charge is, of course, the highlight of the action on July 3. Wert's book has nothing groundbreaking regarding any aspect of the charge, from the action to the Confederate command chain before the offensive. That's not surprising, considering the Charge has been discussed to death. However, you'll find much more description on the action in both Sears' and Coddington's books, and those are books covering the entire campaign, not just Day Three.

The only thing that separates this Day Three study from the rest is the detail it gives to the 4 cavalry actions on July 3rd. Generally most only mention Custer's and Stuart's action southeast of the field and Kilpatrick's assault on the Confederate right. This book describes those actions in strong detail and analyzes two less significant cavalry skirmishes.

Still, for anyone who wants to read 300 pages worth of text on July 3 at Gettysburg, it would benefit you to read a more specific book on Pickett's Charge or the Culp's Hill chapters of the Pfanz book. Put simply, Wert's sum is not greater than Day Three's parts.

Rating:
Summary: Good Solid Work on the Crucial Third Day at Gettysburg
Review: From the drama of Meade's midnight conference to the gallant cavalry charge of Farnsworth south of the Round Tops, this book is a must for the Gettysburg enthusiast.

Granted, Wert may not be for the extreme purist ala Pfanz, but this very inexpensive work deserves a place on the shelf alongside Noah Andre Trudeau's comprehensive work, or the more recent works by James M. McPherson and Stephen Sears.

Wert gives good, solid narrative to the desperate clash on Culp's Hill, and hails the little-known George Sears Greene, the oldest General in the Union Army on the battlefield, as the unsung hero of the battle, as the failure of the Confederates to crack the right flank of the Union forces commanded by Greene at Culp's Hill (Gettysburg) seriously impacted Pickett's charge later that day.

The poignant aspects of the Culps Hill fight - the death of a scruffy little dog that charged with the Maryland Confederates against Maryland Unionist, and received a "Christian burial" from the heartbroken Union General who found him on the battlefield; the death of Wesley Culp, who was born nearby, went south to Virginia and joined the Rebels and died on his own property, and the horrible, suicidal charge of Charles Mudge's 2nd Massachusetts are part and parcel of Wert's narrative.

As a Cavalry enthusiast, I certainly have no complaints only complements for Wert's descriptive of the East Cavalry Battle, or the subsequent attempts by Merritt and Kilpatrick to get behind the battered Confederates by the Round Tops just after Pickett's charge. The reader will get a true feel of the ferocity and desperation of the Stuart-Custer fight, and of Kilpatrick's senseless order to Farnsworth to lead a mounted charge across the rocky and tree-filled landscape just south of the Round Tops.
Wert, to his credit, also writes of the little-known cavalry battle at Fairfield on the 3rd day between Merritt's Sixth U.S. Cavalry and Confederates led by "Grumble" Jones, a useless fight that resulted in a severe Union defeat (one of the captured Union cavalrymen was a Major George Cram, who was later commended by the Union Cavalry Chief Alfred Pleasanton in a document in this writer's possession).

By contrast, even the brilliant Gary Gallagher's series of essays in "The Third Day at Gettysburg and Beyond" doesn't even mention the cavalry fights!

Yes, the book is printed on rag paper, and yes, some of the maps described the wrong battles. For example the map depicting the fight on the South field (Round Tops)is actually the East Cavalry battle between Stuart and Custer, and vice versa. And yes, those were reasons why I gave this work a four-star review rather than the five-star which, with modifications and improvements it really deserves.

A good solid work on Gettysburg at an even better price!