Book Thoughts: "Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage" By Noah Trudeau

One of the best historical books I've ever read. I was a little worried at first because I haven't read a lot of Military History, and I'm not totally up to snuff with with a lot of the terms and tactics. Trudeau addresses this right off the bat with a little primer section on military terms and tactics from the era. It helped me a lot, but the reader would still do well to have something of a working knowledge of this area before reading the book.

Still, the military writing didn't dominate the flow of the work at all. This Gettysburg volume does so much more than just go through the "This regiment was at point A and executed action B." It gives the human stories of the young men who were mowed down in battle and really puts a human face on it.

This book also gives a much more comprehensive picture of the first day's fighting than I had read before. Much of the common knowledge of Gettysburg in this day and age centers around the Little Round Top/Devil's Den area on day 2 and Pickett's charge against Cemetery Ridge on Day 3. To be sure, both of these areas are covered and covered exhaustively, but Trudeau's writing helped me get a much better understanding of the first day's fight than I had before. So for that reason alone this volume is worth it.

Trudeau also gives poignant and relevant analysis of the battle, and I really enjoyed the commentary. The other big plus for me was the inclusion of the rest of Lee's campaign that led up to the battle.

If you want pictures of dead bodies and portraitesque pictures of the landscape today, this isn't your book, it doesn't contain a single picture except for many very good maps, and that's more than ok because Trudeau more than accomplishes the most vivid imagery with his words alone. An excellent volume.