I am having The Killer Angels read to me, which will be the I don’t know how many times I have exposed myself to the words of the late Michael Shaara. But I think it is the very best rendition of the Battle of Gettysburg ever put on paper.
I have to warn you that it is not historically correct. It is what is called Historical Fiction.
The true historian has to prove every word he puts down or he will be attacked by competing historians for making things up. As a result much historically accurate writing comes out stilted and stiff. The stuff that you learned to hate when you were in school.
There were a lot of diaries and newspaper articles by the participants of that battle. If you walk the grounds and read everything printed you can find you begin to have a “feel” for what the people were like, the weather, the food and the controversies between the various people, so now you will put words in their mouths. Speak of their thoughts and worries for which there is no real historically correct proof.
As a result, the reader, you, will get a real feel for the thoughts, words and actions that are as close to the real thing as imagination and careful thought can make it.
As you read The Killer Angels you are there. You see the personalities of the generals on both sides.
When you finish you feel that you did witness everything, felt the worries. saw the hopes rise and fall.
Another example of this kind of writing is
The Red Badge of Courage written by Stephen Crane, unborn at the time of the great conflict, but who depicted what a new recruit would experience so well that veterans swore that he had to have been there.
Read both books and you feel that you Saw the Elephant as those soldiers called witnessing a real battle.