The Killer Angels

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

The Killer Angels is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Michael Shaara that tells the story of the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. The novel follows the stories of the commanders of both the Union and Confederate armies, as well as the soldiers who fought in the battle. It is told from the perspectives of both sides, and the characters are based on real people. The novel focuses on the events leading up to the battle, the battle itself, and the aftermath. It also explores the motivations of the men who fought and the moral implications of the war. The novel is considered a classic of Civil War literature and has been adapted into a movie, Gettysburg.

By Michael Shaara · First published 1974 · Genre: Historical Fiction, War Fiction, Literary Fiction · 27 chapters · 110,932 words

First lines

He rode into the dark of the woods and dismounted.

He crawled upward on his belly over cool rocks out into the sunlight, and suddenly he was in the open and he could see for miles, and there was the whole vast army below him, filling the valley like a smoking river. It came out of a blue rainstorm in the east and overflowed the narrow valley road, coiling along a stream, narrowing and choking a white bridge, fading out into the yellowish dust of June but still visible on the farther road beyond the blue hills, spiked with flags and guidons like a great chopped bristly snake, the snake ending headless in a blue wall of summer rain.

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The Killer Angels is listed on Textopian as a novel by Michael Shaara, dated 1974 CE.

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American Civil War · Battle of Gettysburg · Historical Novel · Military Strategy · War · armistead · army · black · buford · chamberlain · colonel · coming

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More by Michael Shaara