Voices from Gettysburg: Letters, Papers, and Memoirs from the Greatest Battle of the Civil War

The voices of those who witnessed the Battle of Gettysburg and its aftermath with their own eyes – who saw the bloodshed, heard its din, trembled in its crash, struggled with its aftermath – are collected for the first time by Allen C. Guelzo, America’s foremost Civil War scholar, in this moving and sobering oral history.

This treasure trove of original documents – many never-before published – creates a uniquely personal, day-by-day eyewitness account of the monumental collision at Gettysburg, in the words of the commanders, soldiers, politicians, and civilians from both the North and the South who experienced firsthand the changing course of the Civil War.

Three pivotal days in 1863 – July 1st through July 3rd – marked the beginning of the end of the Civil War. While the audible voices of those who experienced it first-hand in that crossroads town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania have been lost to history, their words live on in Voices from Gettysburg.

Gathering a treasure trove of powerful, rare, and haunting original documents, New York Times bestselling author and award-winning historian Allen C. Guelzo presents a uniquely readable and intimate oral history of the Civil War’s turning point. We hear from a Union staff officer, a Confederate amputee, artilleryman, a sympathetic Northern woman, a Union prisoner-of-war, Union colonels and Confederate generals, a drummer boy, a fearful college student, those who orchestrated the Battle of Gettysburg, those who survived it, and those who would perish.  

With introductions from Guelzo, a detailed order of battle, and comprehensive list of every unit that fought, each of these original maps, personal letters, excerpts from forgotten memoirs, and more never-before-published documents offers an unprecedented narrative of the Great Rebellion and the impetus for Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address – in the authentic words of fire, blood, and smoke by those who saw the battle, heard its din, trembled in its crash, and struggled with its aftermath.