Product Details
These Honored Dead: How the Story Of Gettysburg Shaped American Memory

These Honored Dead: How the Story Of Gettysburg Shaped American Memory
By Thomas A. Desjardin

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Product Description

Ever since the guns of Gettysburg fell silent, and Lincoln delivered his famous two-minute speech four months after the battle, the story of this three-day conflict has become an American legend. We remember Gettysburg as, perhaps, the biggest, bloodiest, and most important battle ever fought-the defining conflict in American history. But how much truth is behind the legend?In These Honored Dead, Thomas A. Desjardin, a prominent Civil War historian and a perceptive cultural observer, demonstrates how flawed our knowledge of this enormous event has become, and why. He examines how Americans, for seven score years, have shaped, used, altered, and sanctified our national memory, fashioning the story of Gettysburg as a reflection of, and testimony to, our culture and our nation.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #962393 in Books
  • Published on: 2004-10-13
  • Original language: English
  • Dimensions: .87 pounds
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 288 pages

Editorial Reviews

From AudioFile
Another work about Gettysburg? Yes, but with a twist. In this title the emphasis is on how the story of the battle has come down to us. The author examines how many of the stories about the battle, such as the belief that the Confederates were looking for shoes, just are not true. (There was not a shoe factory there at the time of the battle.) We find many instances of how participants in the post-war years fabricated incidents to make their own actions more laudable. (For example, Jubal Early's account of the order that was given to Longstreet by Lee early on the morning of July 2--no such order was given.) We find that these myths even change from era to era, but all have made the battle into, as the author notes, our "Valhalla." Lewis Grenville reads this fascinating work with an easy-going style. His voice is comfortable with the text and his delivery clear. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
In George Bernard Shaw's Devil's Disciple, British general Burgoyne faces certain defeat at Saratoga. A subordinate asks him how history will view the event. History, Burgoyne states, "will tell lies, as usual." Desjardin is a historian and an archivist at Gettysburg. In this intriguing look at the reliability of many of the assumed truths about the Battle of Gettysburg, he does not accuse "history" or individuals of deliberate deceit. Rather, he convincingly asserts that the memories of battle participants, many of them recorded a decade later, are fragmentary and often contradictory. Faced with confusing recollections, historians often chose to select those accounts that satisfied their own preconceptions. As their accounts were written and repeated over decades, they received the aura of sanctified truth. For example, what really happened on the second day at Little Round Top? Did Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain really "save the Union" with an unorthodox charge? In dissecting various accounts, Desjardin skillfully illustrates how hazy memories of the fog of battle are gradually codified into accepted fact. An excellent addition to Civil War collections. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Intriguing look at the reliability of many of the assumed truths about the Battle of Gettysburg"