Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels

The book I chose for my report is The Killer Angels, a civil war novel by Michael Shaara. Shaara graduated from Rutgers University in 1951 and published many fictional short stories along with a few other novels. He won the Pulitzer Prize For Fiction for this book in 1975. At the start of The Killer Angels Shaara includes an intro titled “To the Reader”. In it he explains that there are many versions told about what happened at Gettysburg and so in writing his book he stayed away from sources with opinions and went all the way back to the letters and documents of the men who fought there. He also includes that he condensed some action for clarity and at times had to choose between conflicting sources. I believe that overall Shaara is credible and that the facts are genuine. The Killer Angels is about the battle of Gettysburg. Shaara writes from the viewpoint of the key leaders from each side including Robert E Lee, Longstreet, Buford, Chamberlain, and more. At Gettysburg two armies fought for more than just slavery but a way of life. The first day of battle ended with union forces

Firstly, he failed to include a bibliography. He didn’t know all that information on his own, in fact he said in the introduction that he used letters and documents of the soldiers, but they’re not sourced anywhere in the book. He also failed to include a source for the maps he included throughout the book. Lastly, this book included many terms that I was unfamiliar with pertaining to war. Mostly my confusion was with which ranks were higher than others, how big each grouping of soldiers is (regiment, corps, etc.), and the different types of soldiers (infantry, cavalry, etc.). I would have found it extremely helpful to have a glossary of these terms to refer to throughout the story. Other than these minor details there were very few flaws that I could find in this