The Cavalry Battle That Saved the Union: Custer Vs. Stuart at Gettysburg

Rating:
Summary: Is this fiction or non-fiction???
Review: After finishing this book, I wasn't sure if I'd read one that was intended to be fact, or a novel. Despite its title, only one small chapter is devoted to the cavalry fight on Gettysburg's East Cavalry Field. The balance of the book, mostly devoted to the Gettysburg Campaign itself, is full of so many errors it's laughable. John Buford's fight the morning of July 1, the first day, is completely screwed up. It appears as though the author has never been within 1000 miles of Gettysburg. Throughout the book, the author presents easily DISPROVEN myths about Gettysburg as though they were facts. Anyone reading this book is going to get a completely incorrect idea of not only Gettysburg but much of America's Civil War in general. I collect books on the Civil War (with some 2000), the cavalry specifically, and I have just thrown this book in the trash. I will NOT permit this "work" to have a place on my shelves, and I completely regret purchasing it. The sources are scanty, and the author relied mostly on secondary resources. If the author had simply done the minimum required research in primary resources, and just cracked open the Official Records just once, he would have had to completely re-write his manuscript. DO NOT waste your money. Go to McDonald's and have a Happy Meal. It would be money much better spent. Hopefully this book will go out of print and disappear VERY soon.

Rating:
Summary: I want my $18.95 back
Review: Amazon needs to update its rating system to include minus stars for books like this. How this stinker ever got published is a mystery to me. Walker cobbles his narrative together from a handful of secondary sources (Bruce Catton, D. S. Freeman, Gregory Urwin), has apparently never heard of the "Official Records" or regimental histories or "Gettysburg Magazine", spends 11 pages in a confused and and mostly wrong retelling of his "subject", and sets up this chapter with 125 pages of an irrelevant (and often wrong) summary of Lee's command of the Army of Northern Virginia. He knows just about nothing of the Civil War and detracts, rather than adds to the literature of the conflict. As a retired Army officer and professional historian I symbolically throw my hands skywards in dispair.

Rating:
Summary: What a Joke
Review: This is the absolute worst book I've ever read. Not just the worst Civil War book, the worst book, period. The author devotes 11 measley pages to the actual engagement referred to in the title. The editing is so sloppy, every few pages are typos. The maps offered in the book are useless. No orientations to North, no scales, lacking in all detail. The most upsetting thing is the lack of documentation. It was almost as if this guy saw the movie and used that as the outline of his book. He offered very little in the way of proof to any of his assertations. The worst thing is, this guy was an officer in the Army. As an officer myself, I'm extremely disappointed in my peer. Do not waste your time with this book.

Rating:
Summary: What a Joke
Review: This is the absolute worst book I've ever read. Not just the worst Civil War book, the worst book, period. The author devotes 11 measley pages to the actual engagement referred to in the title. The editing is so sloppy, every few pages are typos. The maps offered in the book are useless. No orientations to North, no scales, lacking in all detail. The most upsetting thing is the lack of documentation. It was almost as if this guy saw the movie and used that as the outline of his book. He offered very little in the way of proof to any of his assertations. The worst thing is, this guy was an officer in the Army. As an officer myself, I'm extremely disappointed in my peer. Do not waste your time with this book.