Hallowed Ground : A Walk at Gettysburg

by James M. Mcpherson

Release Date: 13 May, 2003

Edition: Hardcover

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A great tour book of the battlefield

Well-written. Interesting. Nice amount of details. I've been to the battlefield twice and read numerous histories and taken one class so I have no problem visualizing the battlefield in my mind. This would be an excellent addition for any visitor to the battlefield. The chapters are short enough that a thoughtful tourist would have no problem reading them as he/she stood there.

It is a bit pricy for its size ($16.00 retail, I got it for $11.00 here at Amazon.com which is still quite a bit for a 140 page small hardback book) but perhaps they'll come out with a paperback. Even if they don't, I know I've seen similarly-priced tourbooks that weren't as well-written.

It would have helped to have pictures to help orient the tourist, but this would necessitate editing of the book if the Parks Department begins the restoration projects McPherson mentions (and hopes for). These include removing woods that have grown up since the battle and restoring fences and orchards that have been removed.

I own a number of McPherson's books. I'll be glad to put this one on the shelf with the others. Whenever I can convince my wife to let me return to Gettysburg (she gets bored after a couple of hours, I could spend days), I'll bring it along, that's for sure!

Battlefield of Freedom

For the last two years, I've been planning various trips to the United States, trips that will focus (in addition to the more regular tourist attractions) on historical events and places which interest me, chiefly ones connected with the American War of Independence, the Ante-Bellum South, the US Civil War, and the Civil Rights Movement. The trip keeps getting postponed and altered, but I hope to go around April-May, and one place I will certainly visit is the best known of America's Civil War battlefields, the greatest defeat of Robert E. Lee, and the place where the Union was (arguably) saved: Gettysburg.

James McPherson, distinguished scholar of the Civil War and Pulitzer Price winning author of 'Battle Cry of Freedom' is an ideal tour guide for Gettysburg, and "Hallowed Ground: A Walk in Gettysburg" describes his tour.

As usual, McPherson's prose is effortless and delightful. McPherson explains well the battle events, from the points of view of generals and privates, both Federal and Confederate. He discusses various historical controversies, and the post CW commemorations, which sometimes served purposes which were not entirely historical. McPherson also draws on his own scholarship, notably on his book 'For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War' to explain various aspects of the fighting, and especially the courage of soldiers, such as those in Pickett's charge, who fought uphill against a screen of fire and died in the thousands.

When McPherson reaches the end of the tour in the Confederacy's high water mark - the furthest places where Pickett's men reached - you get a clear understanding of the structure of the battle in Gettysburg, and in the role of key divisions and men, from Custer and Chamberlain to Lee, Longstreet and Meade.

Although both entertaining and insightful, McPherson's book has several weaknesses. Firstly, from a value for money point of view, it is short and expensive. It contains only four maps and no photographs.

The maps are not very clear, and I (an admitted novice in Gettysburg geography) often struggled to understand where several places were. The map of downtown Gettysburg is almost entirely useless, and there is no map of the tour itself!

Although McPherson is as insightful and interesting as I've come to expect of him, he recycles himself a bit, repeating anecdotes and quotations that appear in his other works. Also, relatively little attention was paid to the history of Gettysburg in the 140 years since the battle. Stories of later events are anecdotal, with no attempt to structure or put things into context. The book contains neither endnotes nor a bibliography, so the reader cannot use this book as a jump point for further studies (Unlike McPherson's 'Battle Cry of Freedom', which contains one of the best bibliographical essays I've ever encountered).

Finally, from a practical point of view, 'Hallowed Ground' contains absolutely zero "getting there and around" information. We are not even given an estimate for how long the tour of Gettysburg should last. Is it doable in a full day? Two?

I genuinely enjoyed 'Hallowed Ground', and I understand Gettysburg much better after having read it, and if you're interested in the American Civil War, this is a worthy addition to your book collection.