Journey to Armageddon

Book excerpt: Once again, the soldiers, officers, and commanders tell the story in this third volume of Kevin Campbell’s comprehensive work on the Gettysburg Campaign, Journey to Armageddon. The hardships, comradery, short rations, and the dance with the enemy’s bullets and shells are all here. Blistering sun, drenching rains, chocking dust, sticky mud, played out horses and men, and the high-level, often inharmoniousness communications between army commanders and their governments are presented in these pages. Fortunately, not all is despair and doom. Included are the sometimes-humorous interactions with the civilians met along their journey and the acrimony that frequently filled encounters between hungry soldiers and the administrators of the villages and towns they passed through. The tales told by these hardy men about the events of their existence are significant elements within the story of the Gettysburg Campaign, which author Kevin Campbell tells in a clear and concise prose. Most historians who write of the great crusade gloss over these events in favor of the more prominent proceedings in and around Gettysburg. These often-ignored events and much more are incorporated into his complete treatment of the Union and Confederate armies on their journey to Armageddon.