Pickett’s Charge: The Last Attack at Gettysburg by Earl J. Hess (review)

REVIEWS The withdrawal of the Confederate Army after Shiloh to Corinth offered Halleck an opportunity to pursue and inflict niore damage on the southerners. Halleck believed that the next big battle in the western theater after Shiloh would be at Corinth,but his glacia] advance against the town allowed the Confederate forces to effect a withdrawal . In the process of evacuating Corinth, the Contederates surrendered a significant southern railroad ( the Memphis and Charleston)and all of western Tennessee. In the wake of the Union Army's stunning seizure of vast stretches of the Confederate heartland, Engle writes that the struggle in the region " became more accurately a people's war" XX). The frustrating effc, rts of federal troops to deal with recalcitrant southern civilians and guerillas challenged northern beliefs in a limited war. Union generals and common soldiers realized that a policy of conciliation would have tc,end and that their armies could be used as instruments of civil policy. The actions of these soldiers helped usher in an acceptance by the Lincoln administration of harsher policies,including confiscation and emancipation. Readers looking for detailed tactical studies of the battles of Forts Henry and Donelson or Shiloh will probably be disappointed in this book. They should turn instead,as Engle suggests, te) recent works by Benjamin R Cooling or Larry Daniel. Anyone looking for an introduction to these important campaigns that examines the decisions and actions of highlevel Unic, n and Confederate generals and politicians can find no better place to start than Struggle for tbe Heartland. Keith S. Bobaitnon State University of West Georgia Earl J. Hess. Pickett' s Charge: Tbe Last Attack at Gettysburg. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. 497 pp. ISBN: 0807826480 cloth), $ 34. 95. arl J. Hess,the author of several well-received books on the (: ivil War including a study of Union soldiers in combat and another on the Battle of Pea Ridge, now takes on one of the best known and thoroughly described incidents in the Wan Although a number of recent books have taken new and innovative approaches to analyzing Pickett's Charge,Hess has chosen to pursue a traditional approach in his research and presentation . He explicitly says that the 4: book is grounded in the " old military history" rather than the new, a stance that takes more than a little courage fc, r an author to advertise these da>s. Sonic 1»Ilight ask: Is there a need for one more book on Pickett's Charge? Hasn't that been done? But in the mind of this reviewer Hess has provided a book well worth reading,even if one is familiar with Gettysburg and Pickett' s Charge. Indeed,Hess demonstrates in this book the value of a traditional apprc, ach to military history for producing a compelling narrative of a grand event that captures its inherent drama. Hess has succeeded in producing a narrative that draws the reader into a dramatic historical moment. By turning to a large body of primary materials that were not used by previous scholars of Pickett's Charge and by broadening his focus to include the Unic, n troops who repelled the assault, Hess () ffers a reconstruction of the attack that is both new and compelling. Further,he cuts through accretions of myth and legend to present a highly credible narrative of whit actually happened that Julv da:achievOHIO VALLEY HISTORY 48 ing one of the traditional goals of the historian to determine what happened and wh>. The several maps and photographs help in following the action , but if there is a weakness in the book it is here. More and largei- 111Ups Would hilve made it easier to keep pace with events as they unfolded. But this is a small criticism of a book that succeeds admirably in providing a compelling account of an event onl>' we thought we knew. Hess's research in previously neglected sources has uncovered a depth of detail about Pickett's Charge that makes this the definitive study of the event. The book is not only a tribute to the continuing power and relevance ot the " old military history," but reminds us that new or neglected sources...