Abandon Station (Dyson Bridge #1)
Book
A thunderous explosion echoes through the vastness of space. The Bridgeway Space Station is rocked...
Science Fiction Dyson Bridge Series
The Agincourt King (The Plantagenet Legacy #5)
Book
From the day he was crowned, Henry V was determined to prove the legitimacy of his house. His...
Historical Fiction Henry V Agincourt Plantagenet
Her Voice Will be on the Side of Right: Gender and Power in Women's Antebellum Antislavery Fiction
Book
Decades before the Civil War, the free American public was gripped by increasingly acrimonious...
Toupie Lowther: Her Life - a New Assessment
Book
Toupie Lowther appears as a walk-on character in many biographies of Radclyffe Hall and Una...
A Life of the Twentieth Century
Book
A Life of the Twentieth Century is the story of Aya, who lived through the loss of her parents...
Fictionalized Autobiography Adult Fiction
Scare Tactics: Supernatural Fiction by American Women, with a New Preface
Book
Scare Tactics identifies an important but overlooked tradition of supernatural writing by American...
Star Wars: Aftermath: Empire's End
Book
Following Star Wars: Aftermath and Star Wars: Life Debt, Chuck Wendig delivers the exhilarating...
Science fiction
Fire Along the Sky (Wilderness #4)
Book
The year is 1812 and Hannah Bonner has returned to her family’s mountain cabin in Paradise. But...
This book gives a very in-depth and detailed re-telling of the Battle of Gettysburg, and more specifically the charge of Barksdale himself. A battle and time that will live forever in history, Phillip Thomas Tucker weaves the death and grim reality of war with insightful quotes, maps and ideas about how this battle really occurred.
There are several outstanding aspects of this book, however first I feel it is necessary to warn any potential readers that this book is not that easy to read. I am a frequent reader of non-fiction books, and more specifically historical non-fiction, and this is amongst one of the hardest I have read, but the effort is well worth it. At times, it is just a little over loaded with details such as names, positions in the armies etc, and with the same names appearing in both sides of the battle as well as within the same units, it can get a little hard to keep track of everyone!
On a much more positive note though, the detailed research the author must have done truly does shine through on every page. The quotes from letters, the pictures and the maps, to name but a few things, really do add a whole new dimension to the book. Personally, it made it all seem a lot more real, helping me to engage more with the trials of those poor men (and horses) stuck in the mud and terror of that day. Although knowing all the names did get slightly confusing at times, it was a great touch in helping 'bring home' the reality and enormity of the loss at that battle.
In addition, the pace with which the events were told was pitched just right. Although packed with detail, the book still had a great pace and a pull to it. The action of the battle really does pour through the pages and come alive. It's written with great skill and is one of the best 'battle recounts' that I have read in a long time.
In conclusion, I can only praise this book for summarising one of the pivotal battles of the American Civil War. Detailed, at times a little too much so, and a compelling, engaging and at times emotional read that I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in this period of history, or who is studying this.
The Life of Louis XVI
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A thought-provoking, authoritative biography of one of history's most maligned rulers Louis XVI of...