Kirkus Review

Shaara, Michael. Killer Angels. MacKay Publications, 1974.

Michael Shaara’s Killer Angels is a gripping novel about the Battle of Gettysburg.  The novel gives a panoramic view of the battle as it unfolds. 

The novel follows Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Joshua Chamberlain, and John Buford throughout this crucial battle in the American Civil War. Shaara shows how each soldier profiled in the novel had an important impact on the battle’s outcome. Throughout the work, Shaara details how the venerable, Robert E. Lee is seeking this victory in Northern territory to propel the Union into peace talks. The author also gives a great insight into a man from Maine named Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

 The author illustrates the battle with maps of the battle lines throughout the three days of battle. The Confederacy had great success on the first day.  However on the second day, the honorable, Colonel Joshua Chamberlain’s heroic action on Little Round Top thwarts any chance of a quick victory for the Confederacy.  The climax of the book comes on the third day with Robert E. Lee’s decision to charge the Union center line which culminates in the infamous Pickett’s Charge. Shaara goes into great detail into the charge and the repulse of it. He captures the raw emotion of the charge and characters participating in this deadly charge. The novel captures the raw emotion of the characters in battle and outside of battle.

The book deals with the emotional strain of battle and the reasons for fighting for the Union or Confederacy in the Civil War. This novel is an action-packed work that is a must read by any history or military enthusiast.