Ready Reference Treatise: The Killer Angels

By Raja Sharma

“The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara was first published in 1974. It is a historical novel. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in the year 1975.

The story describes the four days of the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War. On 30th of June, 1863, both the Union and the Confederacy troops move into battle near the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle continued for three days after that, from July 1st to July 3rd. The story gets its basic momentum from the characters. Different protagonists tell the story from their different perspectives.

Ready Reference Treatise: The Killer Angels
Copyright
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Plot Overview
Chapter Three: Characters
Chapter Four: Complete Summary
Chapter Five: Critical Analysis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Jul 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311975652

Raja Sharma

Raja Sharma is a retired college lecturer.He has taught English Literature to University students for more than two decades.His students are scattered all over the world, and it is noticeable that he is in contact with more than ninety thousand of his students.

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Ready Reference Treatise: The Killer Angels

Copyright

Ready Reference Treatise: The Killer Angels

Raja Sharma

Copyright@2015 Raja Sharma

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Chapter One: Introduction

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara was first published in 1974. It is a historical novel. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in the year 1975.

The story describes the four days of the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War. On 30th of June, 1863, both the Union and the Confederacy troops move into battle near the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

The battle continued for three days after that, from July 1st to July 3rd. The story gets its basic momentum from the characters. Different protagonists tell the story from their different perspectives.

The book was adapted into a movie in 1993. It was a highly successful movie and was widely admired. The movie was titled Gettysburg.

Although the book did not become economically very much successful during the author’s lifetime, but in the recent years it has begun to gain popularity and commercial success.

Even after winning the Pulitzer Prize, The Killer Angels remained a kind of obscure novel, but when it was made into a movie, its popularity rapidly increased.

After the release of the movie, the novel The Killer Angels shot to number one on the New York Times bestseller list. The author’s son Jeff wrote two more Civil War novels and they have also been very well accepted.

The book presents the real historical figures and describes the real events in which the characters had taken part during the Civil War in America.

The author had done a very careful study of letters, documents, and historical texts before choosing characters and events to be put into the form of this novel. However, the author has taken significant liberties in his portrayal of the characters and their inner thoughts and emotions.

The book has also been added to thousands of academic libraries around the world and some of the schools and colleges have included the book in their reading lists for their students of American history and literature.

Chapter Two: Plot Overview

The story revolves around the Battle of Gettysburg. On 1st of July, 1863, the Confederate army, or the North Virginian army, and the Union army, also called the Army of the Potomac, fought the largest battle in the history of the American Civil War.

The battle lasted for four days, and at the end of the battle there were 51,000 dead, wounded, or missing men. The characters in this novel are based on the real characters who had really taken part in that battle.

The characters include General Robert E. Lee, General James Longstreet, and Union Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain. General Robert E. Lee was the commander of the Confederate army.

General James Longstreet was the Lee’s second in command. Union Colonel Joshua L. Chamberlain had taken part in one of the most famous part of the Battle of Gettysburg.

It is the 29th of June, 1863. Longstreet is informed by a spy that the spy has seen the movement of the Union army nearby.

Longstreet is surprised