The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara, is a historical novel that describes the three days of fighting at Gettysburg in the summer of 1863. The book illustrates the horrors of brother fighting brother, friend fighting friend, and the brutality of this devastating war that left 50,000 Americans dead. Although the book is a work of fiction, Shaara is very accurate in his depictions and characterizations. It is the humanity and personality that he infuses into the book that makes the reader feel a personal bond with the characters. Shaara revives this legendary battle from historical obscurity and breaths new life into the characters. The reader will be unable to put the book down.
             Many people believe that the Civil War was not based solely on slavery but it was. Without the uprising of John Brown and the election of an abolitionist president who got less than 40% of the national vote, secession would not have occurred. Or at least it would have been seriously delayed. The Northerners truly believed that the slaves deserved to be free, and their desire to set slaves free was the cause of the Civil War. Just before the Battle of Gettysburg, Colonel Chamberlin 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. The South, however was against freeing the slaves. The entire Civil War, whether the people were for or against the idea of slavery, soldiers fought for their sense of freedom.
             Shaara takes the reader into the minds and tents of most of the key strategists at Gettysburg, the southern Pennsylvania town where the war turned and the south began its lengthy retreat. Prior to Gettysburg the South had won most major battles. At Gettysburg, however, the North gained it's first major victory. From then
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