At Gettysburg and Elsewhere (Expanded, Annotated)

Book excerpt: One of the most important figures of the American Civil War penned this fascinating and unique memoir. John Gibbon's recollections of his service at Gettysburg and other great battles is frank and personal. This is not an overview of great battles but a soldier's account of the trials and triumphs of four years of horrific conflict. Gibbon wrote plainly about the great men with whom he served, some of whom he greatly admired and some who were difficult. Here are anecdotes of Lincoln, Grant, Meade, Hancock, Hooker, Pope, and many others that you won't read anywhere else. Gibbon was a central figure at Gettysburg, with Pickett's Charge aimed right at the forces he commanded. Wounded on the third day of the battle, he supplemented his memoir with portions of the outstanding narrative of that day by his aide, Lieutenant Frank Haskell. Every memoir of the American Civil War provides us with another view of the catastrophe that changed the country forever.