Overview

For good reason, the second and third days of the Battle of Gettysburg have received the lion's share of attention from historians. With this book, however, the critical first day's fighting finally receives its due. After sketching the background of the Gettysburg campaign and recounting the events immediately preceding the battle, Harry Pfanz offers a detailed tactical description of events of the first day. He describes the engagements in McPherson Woods, at the Railroad Cuts, on Oak Ridge, on Seminary Ridge, and at Blocher's Knoll, as well as the retreat of Union forces through Gettysburg and the Federal rally on Cemetery Hill. Throughout, he draws on deep research in published and archival sources to challenge many long-held assumptions about the battle.

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9781469603018

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Reviews

Gettysburg--The First Day continues Harry Pfanz's superbly researched, beautifully written, and exquisitely detailed study of the battle. The three volumes now in print comprise a great classic, and the best Gettysburg material ever published. --Robert K. Krick, author of Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain and Lee's Colonels No one knows and understands the battle of Gettysburg better than Harry W. Pfanz. Since he joined the National Park Service as a historian in 1956, he has never been far from what for the public is America's best-known and most controversial battle. His credentials as a researcher, raconteur, and historian par excellence are attested to by his applauded books on the battle's second and third days. Now, thanks to Pfanz and the University of North Carolina Press, Gettysburg--The First Day fills a void and completes in masterful fashion a trilogy long needed and guaranteed to stand the test of time. --Edwin C. Bearss, Chief Historian Emeritus, National Park Service With this installment, Harry Pfanz completes a three-volume work that every serious student of the battle of Gettysburg must consult. Here is military history at its best. --James I. Robertson Jr., author of Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Soldier, The Legend

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