The Killer Angels Summary

The Killer Angels is a historical novel that was written by a man named Michael Shaara. He received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1975. This book tells the story of what happened before and during the Battle of Gettysburg. On the 1st of July 1863 the Union army, and the Confederate army fought in the largest battle of the Civil War. When the war/ battle was finished, both sides combined together lost about 51,000 men; these men were either killed, wounded, missing. The characters that are told in the story are based on real life people such as, General Robert E. Lee who was the leader of the Confederate army, General James Longstreet who was the 2nd leader after Lee, and Joshua Chamberlain who was one of the famous men that fought on Little Round Top in the Battle of Gettysburg.

A spy was sent out by the Confederate leaders, and comes back to tell General Longstreet that he has seen the Union army moving closer to their territory. This surprised General Longstreet because he knew that General Jeb Stuart was supposed to be watching out for the Union army with his cavalry. Longstreet believed that his army should move quickly in order for them to attack the Unions and intercept them. They travel southeast, leading them through the mountains into the small town of Gettysburg. When they are in Gettysburg, General John Buford, the leader on the Union soldiers finds out that General Lee and his army were close by. General Lee knew that the two armies, were fighting, so he took two of his brigades and made them move up to higher ground because it was an advantage of shooting from a higher position rather than shooting on the