Book Description
The Confederate invasion of the Northern states in 1863 was General Lee's last great gamble. By taking the war to the Union he hoped to force Lincoln into peace negotiations, or win support from the European powers who were watching events closely from across the Atlantic. Equally, Meade's Army of the Potomac needed to regain it's fighting credibility after the setbacks of Fredericksburg and saw this as an opportunity to redeem its honour. With three years behind them, North and South both boasted professional armies. The clash of 150,000 soldiers from both sides would ultimately decide the fate of the nation. Although losses were similar in number, the relative cost to the South was greater because they could not afford to lose the same number of men as the Union. Carl Smith examines the bloody four days of Gettysburg, at which almost one in five participants died, and gives readers to an in-depth examination of this critical battle of the American Civil War.
Customer Reviews:
very informative.......2006-06-15
Well written and well illustrated, a nice book to have for studying this battle.
A good book to have for anyone interested in the Civil war.
Useful Supplementary Text - Good Photos and Maps.......2005-02-06
Gettysburg 1863 - High Tide of the Confederacy, with 128 pages of text, tables, maps, and photos, serves as a useful reference when reading other works on this decisive battle. However, by itself, this text is not a replacement for the classic works on Gettysburg by historians like Shelby Foote, James M. McPherson, Bruce Catton, and Harry Pfanz.
A previous reviewer criticized the author, Carl Smith, regarding some factual details, and another suggested that certain Gettysburg National Park publications are better alternatives. While this criticism may be valid, I have found the extensive photos, paintings, portraits, and maps to be quite useful. The photo quality is quite good, better than I have found in many other books on Gettysburg.
Gettysburg 1863 - High Tide of the Confederacy was originally marketed by Osprey Publishing Ltd (UK) as part of their Osprey Military Series for wargaming enthusiasts. New editions are also available from Stackpole Books, Praeger Publishers, and Barnes and Noble Books. The price is quite variable. My Barnes and Noble hardcover edition was substantially discounted.
Buy the Park's Guidebook Instead.......2003-05-21
Another Carl Smith Osprey effort, though this one isn't quite as bad as his Chancellorsville. The maps by Adam Hook are quite good, but I found it annoying that there wasn't a _single_ overhead view of the battlefield showing the reader the distinctive "fish hook" formation of the Union lines. The problem, though, isn't with the maps, it's with the text.
Like his other Osprey books, Smith's text has a number of factual errors and sloppy editing. Some of the errors are fairly minor, like Captain W. A. Tanner of the Courtney Artillery (Confederate II Corps artillery) being named Turner, but when there are so many of them you start to really wonder about the accuracy of the work. For instance, he suggests that Buford heard about the Confederates marching through Gettysburg on the 26th when he arrived in the town on the 30th. In actuality Buford knew of this _before_ he entered Gettysburg because Union troops went through the town on the 28th.
A previous review mentioned the wounding of Hancock, and how it shows Smith's accuracy and the "bar he set for himself". This is rather ironic as Smith gets the incident wrong. In the book he makes a big deal of a bullet smashing the pommel of Hancock's saddle, sending shrapnel and a nail into his thigh, and bouncing off his belt buckle. The buckle supposedly saved Hancock's life, leaving him with a wound that was "merely painful". I would like to know the source of this (there are no footnotes or end notes), for that's not what happened. According to Earl Hess (_Pickett's Charge: The Last Attack at Gettysburg_) and Jeffry Wert (_Gettysburg: Day Three_) the bullet hit the pommel and entered Hancock's leg. A nail was removed from his leg, but the bullet remained until August when it was finally pulled out. The bullet broke part of his hip, and he spent most of the rest of his service in the war riding in an ambulance. As for the "smashed" pommel, that is not mentioned in the other books. In fact Hess brings in evidence to suggest that the nail did not come from the pommel but might have been in the musket when it was fired! In any case, Smith appears to have made up the part about the belt buckle.
There are plenty of books about Gettysburg, but admittedly the Osprey book fills an important niche: a short overall volume on the battle. The many errors, however, perpetuate inaccuracies in the minds of those who use this as their only reference to the battle. I'd give it 1.5 stars due to its length and the maps but 2 stars is too generous. Osprey has a reputation for poorly edited books. While most of their books are much better than this one, for some reason their Campaign series -- particularly the American Civil War campaign books -- are notably poor. I _can_ recommend Osprey's 6 volume Order of Battle series for Gettysburg, though the format is not much use for newcomers to the battle. If you want a single short book on the battle buy the guide they sell at the battlefield instead.
Great travel companion.......2001-07-07
This is a great book to read either before or right after a visit to the Gettysburg park. It really helps tie these events together. The publisher strays from its normal format and adds an additional 20+ pages. This is a great bonus and they should think about doing that for some of more complex battles they write on (such as Waterloo and Leipzig).
The text provides very good biographical information on the various commanders, giving the reader insight into their personalities and leadership styles. The only complaint I have is that the maps don't give the reader a clear indication of the famous 'fishhook' shape of the Union defenses, but that is readily available with other resources.
I've read many of the Campaign Series books and this is one of the best!
A little lame..........2001-07-05
This book, while graphically and aesthetically pleasing, is not all that it could be. It has the general idea of the battle, but there are numerous historical as well as grammatical errors throughout. the maps are okay, and can be a little confusing. Overall, I would only reccommend this book for a beginner history reader, so they can get a feel for this momentous battle.
Average customer rating:
- Tucker goes to great lengths.
- A pretty good introduction to the Battle of Gettysburg
- Great account of this famous battle
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High Tide at Gettysburg: The Campaign in Pennsylvania
Glenn Tucker
Manufacturer: Stan Clark Military Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Civil War
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Campaigns
| Civil War
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Gettysburg
| Campaigns
| Civil War
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1879664267 |
Customer Reviews:
Tucker goes to great lengths........1999-10-06
Glenn Tucker's "High Tide at Gettysburg" is an extraordinary piece of work. Tucker, unlike many historians describes the officers, where they came from, and who they were. He also points out little tidbits that make the whole story of Gettysburg more interesting. For anyone who is interested in the Battle of Gettysburg, I encourage him/her to read this.
A pretty good introduction to the Battle of Gettysburg.......1998-09-26
Glenn Tucker takes the time to cover just about all aspects of the Battle of Gettysburg in this book. However by doing so the writer seems to be bored at times, feeling he has to convey what happened though it has no consequences or historical value only that it, in fact, happened (Stuart and the calvaries on the third day). At the same time, the profiles of the individuals involved in this great battle (their personal histories and even physical appearances) are supurb and add a touch of familiarity. Also, there are moments when the author's prose is truly eloquent, haunting, vivid, and beautiful at the same time.
Great account of this famous battle.......1998-04-20
When the movie on Gettysburg was first released in Australia I tried desperately to find a book to read about the battle. I found this one and I enjoyed it a great deal. It may not be the most detailed account available but I found it to be one of the best that gave a complete overview of the 3 days fighting without getting lost or bored. The authors style of writing was refreshing and enjoyable and I found it hard to put the book down. Still one of my favourite books on this battle although I have read many since.
Book Description
High Tide at Gettysburg tells the story of the Army of Virginia. How near the South came to victory is clearly set forth in these pages. The author vividly conveys the background of the crucial b attle of the Civil War so that the reader can fully appreciate its unfolding.
Customer Reviews:
A different take.......2007-06-29
As the title above suggests, I hold a different opinion of Tucker's work than the authors of the other reviews here assembled. I do not disagree that Mr. Tucker invested considerable amounts of time and energy into this work and one glimpse at the work's notes will tell you that he did his research. Bias, however, can have a profound impact on the outcome of a work of historical scholarship and in this instance Mr. Tucker's bias has out and out diluted his work. An example to assist in making my point: On page 376 on this work Tucker gives a list of reasons why the charge of July the 3rd failed; absent from this list is any mention of the superb performance of the Federal troops on Cemetery Ridge. Contrary to its performance on any number of other occasions, the Army of to Potomac stubbornly held its ground and refused to retreat in the face of the Confederate advance. While scholars and historians may disagree on the extent to which their performance affected the outcome of the charge, I find it hard to believe that any respectable historian or scholar would hold the position that the Army of the Potomac had no effect on the day's events. In a more general sense, it is my opinion that Tucker's Confederate sympathies impaired his ability to objectively analyze the general course and specific events of the battle of Gettysburg.
Classic Objective Book on the "High Tide" .......2006-06-04
This 1958 classic by one of the great historians of his era was ahead of its time in providing an objective history of Gettysburg without getting sucked in too deeply in which Confederate lost the war at Gettysburg. Tucker writes in an easy to read style and captures many interesting side stories of the battle aside from well done descriptions of the attacks/defenses and biographies while writing chapters with numbered sub headings with their own subtitles. One such example is the chapter on "McPherson's Heights" with subtitle 2 called "A Quaker with an Iron Brigade", which is Tucker's introduction to the Iron Brigade that includes a colorful description of their North Carolina Quaker and commander, Major General Solomon Meredith. The sidebars are very interesting such as the chapter called "The Story of the Missing Canteens" concerning the attack on Little Round Top that went awry for many reasons such as the stubborn union defense but possibly contributed to by a lack of water and the failure of the water carriers to return to the Confederate firing line. Tucker also offers a compact and reasonable analysis of the battle laying out the reasons for victory and loss. And in categorizing the truth about Longstreet, he writes" His loss of prestige had its inception not so much in what he did or failed to do at Gettysburg, but in defending his course at Gettysburg. His fame among his contemporaries would have been greater had his pen been more discreet." Tucker's ability to write history in an objective vain with a fluid and entertaining writing style always made his books a joy to read.
A Good Introduction to the Battle of Gettysburg.......2003-08-20
The Battle of Gettysburg (July 1 -- July 3, 1863) is the most - discussed battle of the Civil War. It provides endless materials for discussion on questions ranging from the reasons for the Confederacy's invasion of the North, the factors leading up to the battle, the strategy and tactics employed by the armies, how close the South came, or could have come, to achieving victory, and -- most importantly -- the significance of it all for our country.
Even with such recent studies of Gettysburg as those by Steven Sears (2003) and Noah Trudeau (2002) Tucker's 1958 book, "High Tide at Gettysburg" remains worth reading. There are immeasurable perspectives on this battle. I am finding that the reader can only work towards an understanding of it by reading several accounts. Tucker's book is less detailed than are the studies of Sears and Trudeau. But it is an easier read, it is well told, and it features many interesting biographical detail an many of the key figures of the battle. In terms of getting a grasp of the complex military actions, it might be better for the reader to start with Tucker before approaching Sears or Trudeau.
Tucker differs from Sears and Trudeau in that he takes a pro-South perspective. His focus is on the Army of Northern Virginia and on its heroics -- and its failures -- during the battle. There are moments when I felt Tucker was downplaying the Union effort at the battle to such a degree that he thought that the ultimate success or failure of the Southern effort was entirely in the South's hands. (Many years after the battle General George Pickett was asked why his charge failed. He replied "I think the Union Army had something to do with it.")
Tucker also takes a markedly Southern view of the meaning of the War. He sees it as a War for Southern Independence which reached its high tide at Gettysburg. He tells his story with drama and passion. He greatly downplays slavery as a motivating factor for the Civil War, contrary to most more recent accounts of Civil War History. Again, he also tends to minimize the moral force of the Union's commitment, exemplified by the determination of President Lincoln to hold our country together as one nation rather than have it divide in two.
Tucker's approach is valuable because it emphasizes how people on both sides of the conflict were fighting for what they perceived as ideals. This is sometimes forgotten in more recent accounts and it goes a considerably way to explain the ferocity of the fighting. There is a great deal to be learned from Tucker as long as the reader approaches the book critically.
There has been endless discussion about why the Battle of Gettysburg turned out the way it did. In the final chapter of his book Tucker offers a list of his reasons. His list is thoughtful if not particularly surprising to students of the battle. The list will help the reader focus on the critical events of this fascinating battle and to reflect for him or herself on their meaning.
New to Gettysburg? Which book do you read?.......2002-07-31
Tucker takes the entire battle beginning to end and places it together for the novice reader. Where does the "first-timer" look for a well rounded book on the battle? He or she may find it here. Tucker does an excellent job getting the basis for the battle complete while covering issues such as Lee's Campaign, Heth's attack, Longstreet's flank march, Little Round Top, Culp's Hill, the Pickett/Pettigrew charge and of course Lee's retreat from Pennsylvania. Don't let the word novice scare you or the fact that it was written in the late fifties sway your decision. Tucker includes many details and backs them up with roughly 400 pages of information valuable to anyone looking to gain further insight on Gettysburg. Does Tucker grab everything common in books covering certain days or events in Gettysburg? No. Though for someone trying to understand and get the general format of the battle, this is the book to read.
Customer Reviews:
A great place to start..........2005-10-26
In preparing for a trip to Gettysburg, I wanted a book that would provide a brief but concise history of the Battle of Gettysburg. Gettysburg: The Confederate High Tide by Champ Clark (part of the Time-Life Civil War series) is the perfect book.
Gettysburg starts a month after the Battle of Chancellorsville, and details how the two armies managed to meet up in this tiny, rural Pennsylvania town. Neither army was fully prepared for what became one of the bloodiest battles and the turning point of the Civil War. Over 160,000 soldiers converged on Gettysburg, and Clark does an admirable job of breaking the three day battle into understandable engagements. Maps are provided to better see troop positions and troop movements. There are dozens of photographs, and the ones taken immediately after the battles are very sobering. There are also fascinating reproductions of paintings by Peter Frederick Rothermel and Paul Philippoteaux. Both artists traveled many miles, talked to hundreds of soldiers and spent years recreating these battle scenes. But where Clark excels is bringing this story to life through stories, quotes and anecdotes.
My only complaint about Gettysburg comes from the fact that it is one of a series of books, and I only read this one. I had a hard time at first keeping track of whether officers were Confederate or Union. Perhaps a list would have made things easier. But this complaint aside, I'll be traveling to Gettysburg with a much better understanding of this historic battle.
Strategy, tactics, and human beings at Gettysburgh.......2002-07-05
"Gettysburg: The Confederate High Tide" is the volume in the Time-Life Civil War series devoted to the most famous battle in American history. Author Champ Clark does a marvelous job of both providing the basic information for understanding the strategy and tactics of the battle as well as providing intriguing details for those more intimately familiar with the story of Gettysburg. For example, there is a photograph of Dan Sickle's shattered leg bone that was amputated on the second day of the battle and which he visited at the Army Medical Museum in Washington periodically for the rest of his life.
The book is divided into five chapters. "A Hard Road North" covers the movements of the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac north from Fredericksburg to begin converge on the town of Gettysburg on the last night of June in 1863. A very detailed map of the troop movements is provided. This chapter ends with a look at "Soldiering on Horseback," which looks at the trappings of the cavalry, including a McClellan saddle. "The Push to Seminary Ridge" tells of the first day of battle, July 1st, as John Buford's dismounted Union cavalry held off the advancing troops of Henry Heath's troops along the Chambersburg Pike. Most readers know of the strategic importance of getting the high ground at this battle, and Clark covers all of the key moves in this fatal dance. In this chapter particularly, Clark does a nice job of combining the military maneuvers with fascinating human elements of that day, from the stories of local civilians John Burns and Jennie Wade, to the battlefield friendship forged between Union General Francis Barlow and Confederate General John Gordon, and the story of Lt. Bayard Wilkinson, who commanded a Union battery and amputated his own leg after being hit by a shell.
"Through the Valley of Death" deals with the action on July 2nd, which begins with General Dan Sickle's idiotic redeployment of his III Corps off of Cemetery Ridge and ends with the defense of Little Round Top. The latter, with the pivotal role played by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's 20th Maine, is one of the centerpieces of the film "Gettysburg." The consequences of Sickle's blunder is covered in "Fury in the Peach Orchard," which we tend to remember up here in the Northland because General Winfield Scott Hancock ended up plugging the massive hole in the Union line created by Sickles with the 1st Minnesota regiment, whose 262 men attacked an entire Confederate brigade to buy time, at the cost of 82 percent of its men. This chapter ends with "An Artist's Portrayal of the Battle," which looks at the works of Peter Frederick Rothermel, who was commissioned by the state of Pennsylvania in 1866 to do a series of paintings of the battle.
Before the book's final chapter, we get "A Panoramic View of the Last Charge," a 400-foot cyclorama by French artist Paul Philippoteaux recreating Pickett's charge (If you visit the Gettysburg Battlefield, it is a must-see). Of course the high watermark of the Confederacy is covered in "'In Hell or Glory,'" which concludes with "Images of the Aftermath," taken by Mathew Brady's team a couple of weeks after the battle. However, the final two-page spread of the book offers the simple elegance of Abraham Lincoln's handwritten version of "The Gettysburg Address" super imposed over a photographic enlargement of Lincoln about to sit down after giving the most famous speech in American history.
Good history, good modelling!.......2000-06-30
In the usual CAMPAIGN format, but double sized, this book follows the whole Gettysburg campaign, starting with the Army of Northern Virginia "invasion" up to their retreat.
There are the standard "3D" maps showing the actual battle, day by day, and *lots* of period photographs, as well as modern day drawings.
For modellers (my case!) there is plenty of material for uniforms, weaponry, and dioramas. Wargamers also get some attention.
I heartily recommend all of the Civil War Osprey Campaign books: Antietam, Fredericksburg, Manassas, and so on!
Book Description
Harry, leaning against a bush, fell into a light doze, from which Dalton aroused him bye and bye. But the habit of war made him awake fully and instantly. Every faculty was alive. He arose to his feet and saw that Lee and Jackson were just parting. A faint moon shone over the Wilderness, revealing but little of the great army which lay in its thickets.
Download Description
Harry, leaning against a bush, fell into a light doze, from which Dalton aroused him bye and bye. But the habit of war made him awake fully and instantly. Every faculty was alive. He arose to his feet and saw that Lee and Jackson were just parting. A faint moon shone over the Wilderness, revealing but little of the great army which lay in its thickets.
Customer Reviews:
High Tide by Helen Dortch Longstreet.......2005-10-06
THE CRITICS HAVE IT ALL WRONG AS USUAL.
There are many critics who have poo-pooed this work as just another book by a desperate wife trying to save (or restore) the slandered reputation of her husband, General James Longstreet.
After the civil war, a cadre of unscrupulous low-level Confederate generals attacked the reputation of Gen. Longtreet in a effort to mask their own questionable civil war records or to enhance their own current reputations and that of Gen. Robert E. Lee. This book was Helen Longstreet's response to that attack.
Keep in mind that at age 17, Helen Dortch was editoress of the Carnesville Tribune newspaper, in Carnesville, Georgia. As a newpaperwoman, she possessed all the investigative and writing skills necessary to cull facts from fiction. This is an excellent book in defense of her husband's reputation and was based on the Official Records. Unlike many others, she quoted from historical, not hysterical, facts.
Helen Sets the Record Straight.......2000-07-12
Helen Longstreet, the second wife of Confederate Genneral James Longstreet, works at length to set the record straight concerning the politics that "tarnished" Lee's #2 man in the Army of N. Virginia after Lee's death. This is out of print, but is a book to read in conjunction with "Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant" by William G. Piston
Customer Reviews:
An interesting read.......2004-09-12
I enjoyed this well-researched book even though I'm not a history buff. I found it light on Confederate stories with a pro-North undertone, but was pleased with what seems to be a fair reporting of facts. The stories were interesting and the book was an easy and very interesting read.
Women in the Civil War.......2003-05-09
In Patriots in Disguise by Richard Hall, I learned about all the roles the women played in the Civil War, from nursing, serving as patriotic leaders, and some even would go so far as to dress in male attire to serve their cause. The book mainly focuses around the stories of a few important figures: the nurse Anna Etheridge, and soldiers-in-disguise Sarah Emma Edmonds (aka Frank Thompson) and Loreta Janeta Velazquez (aka Lieutenant Harry T. Buford). In a time when women had limited rights, the only way that these courageous figures could serve was in disguises of military uniform, a big difference from the hoops skirts and corsets that they had previously worn. It was a major step in women's rights and the fight for gender equality.
I enjoyed the topic of this book, women's roles in the Civil War, but I continued to wonder exactly how the women could pull off male disguises without being known. I did find it amusing at the end of the book to discover that some women were caught when they had babies and even one was discovered after trying to pull her pants on over her head. This book didn't exactly give me more information about the Civil War itself, but I liked that the roles of women was mainly told through the tales of the women who had done them. Before I read this book, I never really had thought about how courageous these women were to risk their lives and take the secret of their identity to their grave, all because they wanted adventure and they believed in their cause or wanted to support their home state, and feel like a true patriot. They could take action in the war, instead of just staying at home and helping the wounded troops, but by helping fill their ranks.
I didn't exactly enjoy the writing style of the book because it read more like a history book without one specific plot line, but it wasn't too long of a book, so I was able to finish it quickly and get it over with. I don't think that I would recommend this book as either a book for pleasure or even as a book that you should choose when needing to read about the Civil War. On the other hand, I wouldn't say that it is the worst book ever as long as you are at least interested in women roles in the Civil War, but the information given is only satisfactory.
Patriots in Disguise.......2002-12-13
Not wildly scholarly, but reasonably useful discussion of women who were on the battlefield in the Civil War. This is structured around descriptions of specific women such as the nurse Anna Etheridge, the soldier Franklin Thompson, the whatever-she-really-was Loreta Janeta Velazquez. There isn't much theoretical discussion here, nor is there much explanation of how women's disguises were able to work--and, despite the title, much time is given to vivandieres, nurses and the like.
Women in the Military... Nothing New!.......2000-10-02
We might think that women in the military is a modern day phenomenon, related somehow to the Women's Lib movement. But, SURPRISE, Richard Hall paints a colorful historical picture of many patriotic and dedicated women who, in a period in our country's history dominated by hoop skirts and constricting corsets, secretely traded their hoops and corsets for military battle uniforms. Disguised as men -- the only way for these women to serve in our country's Civil War military campaigns -- they served in disguise, discovered as women only when they were injured and required medical care in field hospitals! Author Richard Hall has researched these women's lives extensively, and the many pages of actual Civil War-era photographs and engravings included in the book bring these women's stories to life in vivid detail.
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Antietam 1862: The Civil War's Bloodiest Day (Campaign)
Chancellorsville 1863: Jackson's Lightning Strike (Praeger Illustrated Military History)
Second Manassas 1862: Robert E Lee's greatest victory (Campaign)
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