Beneath a Northern Sky: a Short History of the Gettysburg Campaign. By Steven E. Woodworth. The American Crisis Series: Books on the Civil War Era, No. 12. (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, Inc., 2003. Pp. xii-219.)

            The Battle of Gettysburg is likely the most famous of the Civil War. In Beneath a Northern Sky: a Short History of the Gettysburg Campaign, Steven Woodworth provides a synthesis of literature on the battle. There is no explicit overarching thesis, but multiple important themes emerge. Conspicuous by its absence is the belief that Gettysburg was the decisive battle that decided the course of the war. Contrariwise, Woodworth makes clear in the opening chapter that he considers the west to be the strategically decisive theater. Geography in the east limited its strategic significance, preventing either side from winning decisively, but dangling enough tantalizing potential that North and South each had to employ substantial resources to prevent victory by the enemy. The concept of Robert E. Lee’s responsibility for the Confederate defeat, contrary to what spin Lost Cause authors have provided, appears several times. Woodworth makes the case that Gettysburg was a clear defeat for Lee; his aura of invincibility was no more (despite the efforts of later apologists to rebuild it). Many of his subordinates did fail him (James Longstreet receives the most extensive criticism), but not all did, and the failures of some do not exonerate Lee for his decisions. Woodworth rightly observes that Meade’s generals were also flawed, but Meade coped, and overall performed passably well. Woodworth gives the greatest credit for victory to the soldiers of the Army of Potomac, who proved their ability to fight when not crippled by a totally inept commander.

            The book first concisely summarizes the war in the east up to the summer of 1863. Following the smashing victory over the bumbling Joseph Hooker at Chancellorsville, Lee hoped to gain a decisive victory that would crush Union morale (seeing the breaking of the Northern will to fight as the South’s only path to ultimate victory). He convinced Jefferson Davis to hazard Confederate troops on a victory in the east rather than send them west to attempt to save Vicksburg. With a string of victories behind them, Lee and his army were firmly confident as they headed north that June. Had the erstwhile Union commander, Hooker, had his way, Gettysburg would not have happened. Hooker seemed to try to avoid confronting Lee, but Abraham Lincoln remained insistent about destroying Lee’s army. As Lee moved north, the hapless Hooker achieved nothing, foiled by his own foibles and by the efforts of J.E.B. Stuart and the Confederate cavalry to screen Lee’s movements.

The main action soon shifted to Pennsylvania. The Confederate efforts to live off the land in Pennsylvania were mostly comparable to Union actions in the South, but they differed in a crucial respect. The Confederates made a point of kidnapping any free blacks they encountered, to drag back to the South and to slavery. These depredations highlighted a crucial ideological difference between the two sides and pointed to the reasons they fought. When Hooker, in a power play, dared Lincoln to replace him, Lincoln promptly appointed George G. Meade to command the army. The Army of the Potomac’s northern movements hindered Stuart’s information-gathering ride, and though Lee still had half his cavalry, they proved ineffective at discerning where the Union army might be. Thus the Battle of Gettysburg evolved out of a Confederate force encountering an unexpectedly large and stubborn body of Union cavalry north and west of the eponymous town. Beginning with that misguided search for shoes, Woodworth provides a thorough, detailed narrative of the battle. He carefully tracks each sector of the battlefield, weaving together the objectives and perspectives of both sides as he describes events. In addition to presenting the big picture, he peppers the narrative with anecdotes of individual generals and common soldiers. After three days of intense combat, the Northerners won, but Meade exercised such extremely caution in following Lee after the battle that he forfeited any chance to trap and crush him.  Thus Gettysburg became yet another indecisive action in the eastern theater. This incisive synthesis will be useful for historians wishing to quickly grasp recent scholarship or lay readers seeking an accessible overview of this famous battle.

Jonathan T. Engel

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Beneath A Northern Sky: A Short History of the Gettysburg Campaign.  By Steven E. Woodworth.  (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources Books, 2003.  Pp. xv, 219.)   

The Civil War battle of Gettysburg has been the subject of countless histories and studies, some broad and some narrow, some good and some bad.  Steven E. Woodworth’s refreshing Beneath A Northern Sky: A Short History of the Gettysburg Campaign falls without question into the favorable side of the good and bad argument.  While one may ask, “Why another book on Gettysburg?” it becomes clear after a brief reading that Woodworth’s is a much-needed basic text that appeals to readers of all levels, from the inquisitive layman or beginning student to the most accomplished scholar. 

Woodworth’s prose is most reader-friendly; even the most ignorant reader can pick up this book and read on without the distractions of excessive technical jargon and dense examination without explanation that often comprise battle histories geared to the expert.  He begins his tale of the battle with a brief history of the war and pertinent issues up to summer, 1863, including the possible and actual significance of Lee’s march to Pennsylvania.  Also discussed are the personalities and power struggles within the Confederate and Federal chains of command.  From President Lincoln’s frustration with a succession of generals who failed to act decisively and aggressively to the confusing lack of concrete command in the Confederate ranks, Woodworth gives a superior overview of the essentials any reader must know to understand the events at Gettysburg and the basic workings of both armies. 

Once the daring decision for Lee’s troops to extend the war into the North was made, the Army of Northern Virginia marched into the enemy territory of Pennsylvania, plundering as they went.  Although the men behaved relatively well, in general only confiscating items useful to the army and treating the citizens of Pennsylvania with relative respect (very few incidents of violence were reported, rather proudly by Southern newspapers), they pulled out the stops when it came to cleaning out Yankee stores.  Due to Federal General George C. Meade’s indecision, (to his credit, he had very recently replaced Joseph Hooker as commander of the Army of the Potomac) Union troops had to scramble to catch up with their Confederate counterparts with orders to protect Washington, D.C. and to attack Lee’s invading army.  On Wednesday, July 1, as Confederate Major General Henry Heth led his men to Gettysburg to scavenge some shoes and other provisions, Union Brigadier General John Buford’s cavalry engaged the Rebels in a skirmish.  The situation escalated as both sides reinforced their armies with additional soldiers.  On this first day of unplanned battle, the Confederates held the reins, driving their enemy back at the end of the afternoon.  On the following day, however, which witnessed some of the war’s most gruesome fighting, the Federals held firm against their Rebel chargers, although the battle was by no means decided as the sun went down.  July 2 brought a Union attack that unseated portions of Lee’s army, followed by the famed Pickett’s Charge Confederate attack that resulted in severe Rebel casualties and a strengthening of Union resolve.  July 3 saw a massive Rebel assault of Union fortified Cemetery Ridge, which resulted in overwhelming Union victory and outrageous Confederate casualty rates.

Gettysburg’s legacy—and General Robert E. Lee’s—play an important part in the book’s final chapter.  While it is of course debatable that Confederate defeat at Gettysburg was the result of Lee’s own poor choices (or as many Lee worshipers like to claim, the bungling of his subordinates), or that had Meade followed the retreating Army of Northern Virginia and attacked once more might have, as Lincoln believed, ended the war that much sooner.  Rather than focusing on these ventures into counterfactualism, Woodworth gives credit to where it is due: to the regular soldiers who risked and lost their lives despite facing almost certain death on the fields and hills around Gettysburg.  As a whole, the book is just as well balanced, showing no favoritism to either the Southern or Union cause or bias against any one individual, although Woodworth does not hesitate to assign incompetence and insubordination where it is due, as in the case of Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet.

One of the book’s many strengths are the numerous and comprehensive maps provided throughout the text.  Serving to illuminate key points of the battle, the maps are especially easy to read for the newcomer to Civil War battle histories.  In addition, Woodworth draws upon numerous primary sources to accompany a solid core of secondary sources to validate his well-documented prose.  Beneath A Northern Sky is recommended especially to Civil War enthusiasts and novice scholars, but even the most learned Civil War historian will gain much from a reading of Woodworth’s concise prose. 

 Ashley Laumen

Texas Christian University