Gods and Generals (book review)

Gods and Generals, by Jeff Shaara, is a prequel of sorts to The Killer Angels. Although it is a fiction book, the historical information is factual. It delves into the lives of famous Civil War leaders such as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Winfield Scott Hancock, and Joshua Chamberlain. Although there are many Civil War books that describe these characters in detail, none are like Gods and Generals...within the pages of this book, these men come alive.

In this book, Jeff Shaara studies the lives of the men in a time range beginning in 1858 and ending in June of 1863. The Killer Angels, his father's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, picks up right where Gods and Generals left off (though they were written in reverse). The battles in these pages--Williamsburg, Second Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville--seem vividly real. The reader is present, breathing in the smoke and hearing the sounds of dying men on the battlefield. This was overall a great book, and it made me eager to reread The Killer Angels .

I give this book 4.5 out of 5 stars.

This book was for the What's In A Name 2 Challenge.