The Killer Angels: Novel Summary: Chapter 1 - 4

Monday, June 29, 1863

Chapter 1: The Spy

 

Form a position high in the woods, Harrison, a spy who has been sent to locate the Union Army, spots two Union Corps in the valley, probably twenty thousand men, moving fast. Harrison rides away downhill with the intention of reaching the Confederate Army at its Southern headquarters, which he thinks is near Chambersburg, before nightfall. Harrison at this moment is the only man who knows the locations of both armies. He rides on in the rain, reciting Shakespeare to himself. 

 

He is stopped at the picket line. Harrison mentions Longstreet, the man who sent him on this mission, and he is sent on to Longstreet’s headquarters. Harrison is warned that if no one there recognizes him, he will be hanged.

 

Longstreet is informed that Harrison has returned. Harrison tells him he knows the position of the Union Army. He points out their position on a map, and says there are at least eighty thousand men. Harrison gives him more details and is pleased with his work. He knows it is all news to Longstreet, who has heard nothing of Union movement and does not know the Union Army is close, less than four hours away. He has heard nothing from Lieutenant General J. E. B. Stuart, who went out several days earlier to report on Union Army movement. So Longstreet is skeptical of Harrison’s information. However, he is also aware that if the spy is correct, his army is in great danger. He takes Harrison to see Lee, who does not care for spies. Lee interviews Harrison briefly and then sends him away. Lee tells Longstreet he is reluctant to make a move on the basis of information supplied by a spy. Nonetheless, he decides to move quickly, with the aim of getting behind the Union forces and cutting them off from Washington. Lee gives the order to move at dawn eastward, in the direction of the small town of Gettysburg, where all the roads converge.

 

June 29, 1863: Chapter 2: Chamberlain

 

Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, commander of the 20th Maine regiment, is roused from sleep by his aide Buster Kilrain. Kilrain informs him that they are being sent 120 mutineers. These men were part of a disbanded Maine regiment, the Second, who had served two years but had enlisted for three. They expected to be sent home since they believed they had only signed up for that particular regiment. When they found they were not being dismissed, they mutinied. However, they are being sent to the Twentieth Maine, and the orders from General Meade are that these men must fight or be shot. 

 

Chamberlain has no idea of what to do with these men. He cannot possibly shoot other Maine men, he thinks.  

 

The tired mutineers arrive, guarded by soldiers from a Pennsylvania regiment. Chamberlain’s younger brother, Lieutenant Tom Chamberlain, does not know how they will guard so many men, since the regiment itself has only 250 men. The elder Chamberlain ponders the paradox he must deal with: “How do you force a man to fight—for freedom?” (p. 22). 

 

Chamberlain arranges for the hungry men to eat and allows their leader, Joseph Bucklin, to present their grievances. Bucklin complains that he and his men have been badly used by their superiors in the chain of command. 

 

After Chamberlain receives orders that the regiment is to move west into Pennsylvania, he walks across to the mutineers and gives them an inspirational speech. He starts by saying he needs them because the regiment is under strength, but he will not shoot them if they refuse. Chamberlain, who believes passionately in the Union cause, then tries to explain to the men that they are fighting for freedom. He is not sure how his speech is received, but as the regiment begins its twenty-mile march in the direction of Gettysburg, Chamberlain hears from his brother Tom that all but six of the mutineers have agreed to fight.

 

Analysis, June 29, 1863, Chapters 1-2

 

Shaara is writing a novel about a famous historical event, and this imposes certain restraints on him. He must stick to the historical facts of the battle of Gettysburg, and he writes in his note “To the Reader,” that he has not knowingly changed any fact. However, he also acknowledges that the interpretation of each character is his own. Obviously, all the dialogue is fictional. Shaara has no way of knowing what Longstreet said to Lee or what Chamberlain said to his brother or the mutineers. It is this part of the novel that is fictional. However, Shaara has done his best to interpret his characters’ beliefs and motivations as accurately as he can, based on historical documents such as letters. He tells the story of the epic battle from a number of different points of view, including that of the three main characters introduced in these two opening chapters: Longstreet, Lee, and Chamberlain. In the novel as a whole, Shaara presents the Northern cause in a more favorable light than the Southern, and this is suggested in the first two chapters. While Lee and Longstreet discuss tactics, Chamberlain is allowed a speech in which he explains the high ideals of the Union side. They are fighting for freedom, and it is a kind of fight not seen in the world before—not for country but for mankind, not for land but for the people. Chamberlain is also presented in a very favorable light. Unlike the dour, inarticulate Longstreet, Chamberlain is bright and brilliant, loved by his men, capable, and fair-minded. His treatment of the mutineers is humane and just, as reflected in the willingness of almost all of them to join in the fight. 

 

June 29, 1863: Chapter 3: Buford

 

From a hill just outside Gettysburg, Union Major General John Buford observes rebel troops streaming into the town. Buford and one of his brigade commanders, Bill Gamble, estimate rebel strength at one brigade. They see infantry but no cavalry. Buford has two brigades at his disposal; the main Union infantry is a day’s march away. Buford watches as the rebels unexpectedly withdraw from the town; he assume they have orders not to fight because they do not know the strength of the Union forces.

 

Buford orders his brigades into the town. When he rides in himself, he is convinced that Lee’s forces will return and converge on the city the following morning. Buford will then move his own forces back to the hills because he knows that Major General John Reynolds and the Union infantry will not have arrived by then. He sends scouts to gather information about rebel movements and sends a message to Reynolds and General Meade saying that he expects Lee’s army to be there in force in the morning. 

 

Buford is concerned that by the following day the rebels will occupy the hills, putting them in a very strong position and the arriving Union forces at a disadvantage. He does not know whether his two brigades, good though they are, can hold the town long enough against Lee’s army until Reynolds arrives. He gives orders to dig in along the crest of a ridge west of the town; they would then be facing the advancing rebel army the next day. 

 

That evening, Buford’s scouts report that the entire rebel army is on its way to Gettysburg. He writes a message to Reynolds. He thinks he can hold the ground but only if Reynolds arrives early. Later, at nearly midnight, Buford receives a note from Reynolds, who promises to come in the morning as early as possible. Buford believes the rebels will attack at dawn, and he resolves to hold his position; he thinks he can do it for two hours.

 

June 29, 1863: Chapter 4: Longstreet

 

In Longstreet’s camp, thirty miles from Gettysburg, Longstreet is anxious because he does not know the movements of the Union army. He has still heard nothing from Stuart, and nor has he heard back from Harrison after he had sent the spy to Gettysburg. 

 

G. Moxley Sorrel, Longstreet’s chief of staff, reports that General Hill does not believe reports made by his own troops that there are Union cavalry in Gettysburg, and Lee accepts Hill’s judgment. Longstreet is not convinced, however. 

 

After Longstreet has given the Englishman Fremantle some advice about poker, General George Pickett arrives at the camp on horseback with three of his brigade commanders: Armistead, Garnett, and Kemper. They are all friends of Longstreet, who has known them for more than twenty years. There is some socializing for a few minutes, and Longstreet introduces Fremantle to the new arrivals. After this, Longstreet and Pickett talk in private. 

 

Pickett laments that he and his division have missed two major battles because they were directed to go elsewhere, and now his forces are bringing up the rear. He wants to see some action and asks Longstreet if his men can be moved up the line. Longstreet has no power to alter the existing arrangements but tells Pickett that if the army has to turn, which is possible, he will be first in line. 

 

After Pickett goes to play poker, Longstreet talks to Armistead, who inquires about his old friend Hancock, who is fighting on the Union side. Longstreet tells him Hancock is headed for Gettysburg. Armistead hopes he will get the chance to see Hancock again. He also tells Longstreet that the morale of his men is high and he is confident they will prevail. They discuss military strategy. Longstreet favors a defensive war but Armistead points out that Lee prefers to take the offensive. Longstreet knows this is true but he points out to Armistead that Lee had promised to seek out a good defensive position and let the Union army come at them. The two men go to join the other officers, who are explaining to Fremantle why the war is being fought. It is not just about slavery, as Fremantle believed. 

 

Harrison returns, bringing word of Union cavalry at Gettysburg. 

 

At dawn, Confederate skirmishers approach Buford’s pickets, one of whom fires the first shot of the battle.

 

Analysis, June 29, 1863: chapters 3-4

 

Shaara builds the excitement and tension here as the great battle looms and possible strategies emerge. He is able to do this in part because he focuses each chapter narrowly on the point of view of a single character, the one named in the chapter title. By means of this device he captures what it must have been like for the men who had to make decisions based on limited information. Buford, for example, does not know when Reynolds will arrive, and he does not know for sure what Lee’s intentions are. The Confederate command also has to make decisions based on limited information. Shaara is not like a historian looking back, knowing all the facts, but more like a mouthpiece for a series of individuals on the ground, interpreting what they know, making plans, subject to error and miscalculation.  

 

The narrative method gets the reader involved and wondering: How will Buford and his two brigades fare if they do have to face the full force of Lee’s army. And will Reynolds arrive in time? Certainly, Buford has no confidence in General Meade, and in this he echoes the sentiments of the leader of the mutineers that Chamberlain dealt with in the previous chapter. Buford thinks that Meade is too slow and bureaucratic but will be pressured by Washington to attack. Meade with then do so unwisely, charging up the hillside in the open to attack Lee’s well-defended position, leading to disaster. Buford knows what it is like to need assistance and not receive any. He is loved by his men for his legendary exploits at Thorofare Gap, when he had held off Longstreet, who outnumbered him by more than eight to one, for six hours, appealing for help that did not come. 

 

In Longstreet’s chapter, the confederate cause is given brief exposition by the officers who believe in it, such as Kemper and Pickett. Their exposition does not match the prominence given to Chamberlain’s stirring speech on the Union side presented in chapter 2. Also, it is emphasized again that what he refers to as the Cause does not interest Longstreet. He is a military man who is concerned only with victory, not with causes or ideals. 

 

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