The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, examines the approach to that decisive battle and the battle itself through the eyes of several participants on both sides, but especially through those of General James Longstreet of the Confederacy and Colonel Lawrence Chamberlain of the Union. This book illustrates the horrors of fighting and the brutality of this devastating war in the summer of 1863 that left 50,000 Americans dead. Many people believed that the Civil War was not completely based on slavery, but in reality it really was. Just before the Battle of Gettysburg, Colonel Lawrence Chamberlain of the 20th Maine gave a speech to a group of mutineers. He told them that the war in which they were fighting was unlike any war in history. The war in which they were fighting was not for money, property or power. It was a war to set other men free. "We are fighting for freedom from the rule of what is to us a foreign government" (p.65-66). But it is also clear that the Confederates are fighting for their sense of freedom. Before the battle of Gettysberg, the South had won most of the battles. The north gained its first victory at Gettysberg, and from then on they kept on winning virtually every battle for two years. This battle is seen through the eyes of Confederate Generals Lee, Longstreet, and Armistead and Federal General Buford, Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain, and a host of others.
             The historical account of the Battle of Gettysburg, as seen in Killer Angels, provides the facts of the battle as seen through the eyes of Generals Robert E. Lee, Joshua Chamberlain, James Longstreet, and John Buford. The feelings and inner-thoughts of each General and the conditions of the battle are seen, heard, and felt by the reader in the historical account. Shaara tried to keep it as truthful as possible, "I have not changed any fact" (p. xiii). Shaara takes historical license with letters, the words of the men, and documents writte...