35 Days to Gettysburg: The Campaign Diaries of Two American Enemies

Rating:
Summary: An up-close and personal a view of America's deadliest war
Review: 35 Days To Gettysburg: The Campaign Diaries Of Two American Enemies by Civil War enthusiast Mark Nesbitt features the daily journal entries of two ordinary soldiers caught up in the American Civil War: Thomas Lewis Ware, a Confederate from rural Georgia; and Franklin Horner, a Union soldier from Pennsylvania coal land. Their various perspectives and recorded experiences (sometimes conflicting, sometimes all too parallel), lead up to one of the bloodiest battles in the entire four year conflict, are vividly recounted with meticulous notes and a comprehensive index in this truly fascinating compilation. 35 Days To Gettysburg is a superbly presented primary source offering an up-close and personal a view of America's deadliest war, and a truly welcome and much appreciated contribution to the growing library of American Civil War studies.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting insight by Nesbitt
Review: Being a fan of Mark Nesbitt's Ghost of Gettysburg book series I was sold on the idea of reading his new book that told of two soldiers of opposing armies brought together at Gettysburg. Nesbitt's approach to telling the diaries of two soldiers written on similar dates was a great idea though I found that the Union story of Private Horner lacked the details compared to his opposition Confederate Private Ware. Ware's details seem to blur Horner's quick and rather limited writing. Both soldiers certainly write about the marching and battle while Nesbitt tries to balance army movements with historical backing and concepts. I found the maps helpful but often hard to follow because they were photos of very detailed maps that made things hard to read in black and white. Had they been less of detail or re-drawn for the book as other history books it would have been much easier to comprehend. As much as I am a fan of Nesbitt's work I found myself reading this book and wanting more detail as the book is a very quick read. I would have liked to give this book 3.5 Stars though Amazon's rating system doesn't allow for halves.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting insight by Nesbitt
Review: Being a fan of Mark Nesbitt's Ghost of Gettysburg book series I was sold on the idea of reading his new book that told of two soldiers of opposing armies brought together at Gettysburg. Nesbitt's approach to telling the diaries of two soldiers written on similar dates was a great idea though I found that the Union story of Private Horner lacked the details compared to his opposition Confederate Private Ware. Ware's details seem to blur Horner's quick and rather limited writing. Both soldiers certainly write about the marching and battle while Nesbitt tries to balance army movements with historical backing and concepts. I found the maps helpful but often hard to follow because they were photos of very detailed maps that made things hard to read in black and white. Had they been less of detail or re-drawn for the book as other history books it would have been much easier to comprehend. As much as I am a fan of Nesbitt's work I found myself reading this book and wanting more detail as the book is a very quick read. I would have liked to give this book 3.5 Stars though Amazon's rating system doesn't allow for halves.

Rating:
Summary: 35 Days to Gettysburg
Review: I really liked this book. This book is great for people who like history. This book is about two men and their diaries. The book is also about the battle of Gettysburg.

Rating:
Summary: 35 Days to Gettysburg
Review: Mark Nesbit had a very interesting idea for a Civil War book. He found two soldiers, Franklin Horner (USA) and Thomas Ware (CSA), who faced each other across a few dangerous yards at Gettysburg. He retraced their routes of march to the battle through their diary entries (over 35 days - hence the title).

Both enlisted men got to the battlefield the old fashioned way: walking. Unfortunately, their writing is not similarly matched. Whereas the Ware diary entries are often vivid and descriptive, the author's Union traveler records at best three or four lines of not very illuminating fragments on the same days. The result is leads to a somewhat unbalanced first person description of the route to Gettysburg. I can imagine finding two surviving diaries from adversaries who faced each other in opposing regiments was difficult, and the author is to be recognized for a very good idea. One wishes his task could have been better fulfilled with two prodigious diarists.

Each of the 35 chapters starts off with the opposing diary entries. The author then explains the section of march (if they were marching that day) each soldier traveled. The author also spends significant time describing camp life, service in general and the trials of marching experienced by civil war soldiers in general. I was somewhat surprised that the author spent the bulk of the book on general descriptions and backgrounds instead of the march to Gettysburg (as one could have supposed from the title). However, it must be acknowledged that this background is a good introduction to soldierly travails in that war.

The section on their units meeting at the foot of Little Round Top is the best part of the book. Nesbitt fleshes out these chapters with unit commanders' action reports -- the result is a more vivid and full description of the last of the 35 days.

All in all an interesting book, but I wished it could have been more fully focused on the actual march and had a better Union diarist as a story teller.