Beginning of Essay
Fabulous insight into the military mind, the minds of men, the minds of people dedicated to a cause greater than themselves. Michael Shaara gives us a dozen characters worth caring about from both armies, and then plunges them into one of the most terrible things ....

Middle of Essay
.... camps, under the artillery, behind the stone wall, marched, bled, and prayed that Lee would not order the charge. Michael Shaara takes you there, as soldiers saw the war and army life. He showed the true sorrow and terror. "Yet you learn to love it. Isn't that amazing? Long marches and no rest., up very early in the morning, and asleep late in the rain, and there's a marvelous excitement to it, a joy to wake in the morning, and feel the army all around you and see the campfires in the morning and smell the coffee…"[pg.125] Leadership in those days, was all about character, and conducting your self as a gentlemen. Shaara wrote of Gen. Armis ....