James M. McPherson. Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg. Illustrated edition, Crestline, 2017.

Hallowed Ground started out in 2003 as a guide book for visitors to get the big picture of the Battle of Gettysburg. Author of Battle Cry of Freedom, McPherson is one of the most respected historians of the American Civil War.

This was written after many years of taking his students on field trips to Gettysburg. There are specific directions, for example: “A quarter mile north, across the road and next to Buford’s monument…” This book takes us by the hand, day by day and almost hour by hour. If visitors were to follow McPherson’s directions, they would be able take in the whole scope of the battle.

This edition is not a typical portable guide for walking around the battle town. It is illustrated with current photographs along with many engravings and photos from the 1860s. It is a great one both to read and to look at the pictures. Taken to the site, it would work in a motor vehicle or with a backpack.

With the popularity of Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels and the film Gettysburg, based on the novel, McPherson tries to bring some things into balance. There is no question that the disagreement between Lee and Longstreet makes for good drama and the courageous defense of Little Round Top saved the Union left flank. Still, there was an equally rigorous defense on the right flank around Culp’s Hill at the same time.

McPherson explains that Lee assumed that Union troops had been sent to reinforce the two flanks, and that is why the Confederate assaults there failed. Lee expected that the center ranks would be depleted and an attack on the Union center on the third day would succeed. A similar combination of flank attacks and a central assault worked at Chancellorsville.

Longstreet was not at Chancellorsville. He, Pickett, and Hood were in the Norfolk area at the time. The Union may have learned from its experience there. Lee was confident that what McPherson calls the Pickett-Pettigrew charge would work. Longstreet could not make himself give the order for Pickett to attack. He simply nodded his head when Pickett asked him if it was time.

Hallowed Ground also tells about the surrounding cavalry skirmishes. Jeb Stuart was out of communication with Lee for the first two days. One of the most successful cavalry leaders was George Armstrong Custer. Some years ago I read an account of a Michigan cavalry officer who served under Custer in the war. Custer was remarkably effective throughout. McPherson says that his debacle at Little Big Horn in 1876 was out of character.

McPherson also describes different things that the National Park Service are doing to make the geography more like the setting of the battle at the time. This means cutting down some woods that were fields back then, and planting woods that are open country now. McPherson expressed concern that the woods might be thicker than back then because in the 1860s most of the understory would have been grazed away by cattle. That is probably not an issue because if Gettysburg is anything like most of the rest of Eastern North America in this century, the understories of most woods have been browsed clean by deer.

Hallowed Ground includes excerpts from primary sources. We read parts of Lee’s orders, Meade’s report, and excerpts from various memoirs. It ends with Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

McPherson debunks a few legends about Gettysburg but does note at least two natives of the town who moved to Virginia and ended up attacking their native burg. He also tells a few stories about some of the monuments at Gettysburg. Many are pictured. He informs and entertains.

Hallowed Ground is a great overview of the battle. It tells the story without getting bogged down in minutiae. With or without the illustrations, it should be a helpful guide for anyone visiting the battlefield.

Twice a minor detail spoke to me personally. McPherson tells briefly about two different young men who at one time or another were at Gettysburg to learn the craft of carriage making. My great grandfather Fridolin Miller, an orphaned immigrant from Switzerland, in 1863 was a fourteen year old apprentice carriage maker. He was in Gettysburg in the fall of 1863. He was not there for the battle, but everyone had a day off for the cemetery dedication in November. He climbed a tree to get a better look at President Lincoln and remembered the Gettysburg Address for the remainder of his long life (1849-1943).