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| ISBN-13: | 9780345438492 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Random House Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 10/05/2000 |
| Series: | Civil War Trilogy , #1 |
| Sold by: | Random House |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 512 |
| Sales rank: | 85,501 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
Hometown:
Kalispell, MontanaDate of Birth:
February 21, 1952Place of Birth:
New Brunswick, New JerseyEducation:
B.S. in Criminology, Florida State University, 1974Website:
http://www.jeffshaara.com/
Gods and Generals: AntietamSharpsburg
After Lee's victory at Bull Run, he took his men on a march into Maryland, drawing the Union army out of Virginia. But Union commander George McClellan captured Lee's plans; for once in his life he moved quickly to pin the Confederates down in the fields around the town of Sharpsburg, by Antietam Creek.
On September 17, 1862, the two armies clashed in the bloodiest day of the entire war. McClellan launched a series of uncoordinated attacks on Lee's outnumbered army. Joshua Chamberlain served in the Union army's reserve, waiting all day to be ordered into the bloody fight.
Excerpt
They reached a small village, Porterstown, and marched through wide streets, the townspeople standing in doorways, leaning out windows, some waving, others just staring. Farther ahead, on the creek itself, was the Middle Bridge, held by the Confederate division of Daniel Harvey Hill. The rebel forces were dug in, back, away from the creek, and to their front the Federal army was spreading out, into lines of attack, were crossing the creek and preparing for the assault. The battle had begun on the far right, just after dawn, and now, as the sun began to rise up behind them, Chamberlain could hear the steady rumble, and as they moved closer, the sharp sounds of single cannon. He sat high on his horse, moving along with the same slow rhythm of the march, but now the men did not fall out, did not feel the weight of the hot September morning, but stared to the front, marching steadily, closer to the sound of the guns.
He heard the steady clatter of muskets now, still off to the right of the road, to the northwest. The battle is not in front of us, he thought. Strange that we should move this way...not up there.
In front of them, Chamberlain saw a rise, a long, wide hill, and as they began to move up, he saw guns, rows of black cannon set into shallow, round depressions before the crest of the hill. Just then they began to fire, quick bursts of gray smoke, and a sudden shocking boom that startled him and his horse. He bounced around on the road, had to grab the horse hard to calm him. From over the hill he saw Ames, riding hard, past lines of troops that were moving away now, to the right, toward the sounds of the battle.
Ames reined up his horse, and Chamberlain saw he was sweating. "Colonel, we're here, right here. Keep the men in column lines. Let's move them out into this field. Wait for further orders. We are part of the reserve."
Chamberlain turned, and Ames rode past him, into the columns of men, and gave the command to the bugler. With the signal, the men moved quickly off the road. Then Ames rode up again, toward the front of the column, slowed his horse as he reached Chamberlain, said, "Colonel, keep them tight, keep them ready. I am to survey the field to our front."
Chamberlain watched him ride away, up the long hill, turning his horse to the side behind the rows of black cannon. The guns began to fire again, a loud and thunderous volley, and the hill became a great, thick fog bank.
He stayed on his horse, saw now across the road, on the left, vast numbers of troops, lines disappearing into a distant grove of trees, and the men not moving, keeping their formations. He rode out the other way, to the right, into the grass, saw more troops farther out that way, a great field of blue, waiting. He looked to his own men, saw the companies staying in their formations, coming off the road, and he rode up to the head of one column, saw Captain Spears of Company G, a small, sharp man who had also been a teacher. He had a narrow, thick beard, sat on a horse, watched Chamberlain approach, puffed on a large round pipe.
"Well, Colonel, do you think we will get our chance?"
Chamberlain looked back to the crest of the hill, could still not see through the smoke, and another volley thundered out, shaking the ground, startling his horse again.
"Whoa, easy...We'll see, Captain. Right now we must be ready...be ready to move forward on command!" He felt a little foolish, a vague order, felt again as if he were left out, didn't know what was happening. The battle sounds had continued to the northwest, and he wondered, Are they moving away, around us? He glanced at Spears, said, "I'll be right back...just going up the crest a ways, take a look maybe."
"We're right here, Colonel."
He turned the horse, then decided to dismount instead. This wasn't a parade. He jumped down, felt his belt, his pistol, began to walk toward the thick cloud of smoke.
The guns continued to fire, every minute or so, and he wondered, How far away is the enemy? There had been no explosions, no incoming shells, none of the sounds he'd been told about, coached about, by Ames, just the deadening thunder of their own big guns....
Now, from the sounds of the battle, he saw his first troops, thick lines of blue, uneven and ragged formations, moving toward a cornfield, and then smoke, solid lines of gray, and in a few seconds the sound reached him, the chattering musket fire, and the blue lines were in pieces, men moving back, some still advancing, some not moving at all. He saw more lines now, solid blocks of blue spreading wide, advancing, and more smoke, and more sounds, and then, farther away, a glimpse through the smoke, other lines of men, some moving, some firing, quick flashes of white and yellow, and the big guns beside him firing again....
He turned to watch the men working the cannon, and was startled to see more men, his men, watching the battle, lying on the ground, creating a neat blue patch on the hill. He had not thought anyone else would be up here, should not have been up here; he should not be up here, but he knew they could not just wait, could not sit behind some big hill and hear it all and not see.
Chamberlain stood up, began to wave his arms, fast and high, motioning to his men, and another blast came from the guns. He braced himself, did not fall, kept waving, back, move back, wondering if they saw him or were ignoring him. He moved along the hillside, tried to yell, but the sound of the guns took his voice away, and suddenly he heard a high, distant scream, louder now, whistling toward him, dropping down on him from behind. He turned, saw nothing, but the sound pierced his ears, and the ground suddenly flew high around him, dirt spraying him, knocking him down, and he lay still, shook his head...checked, all right, but...a bad day for the ears. Then another scream, overhead, and behind the hill, down where the rest of his men sat waiting, there was another explosion, and he tried to see, but it was beyond the crest.
Suddenly, someone had him under the arms, lifting him, and he said, "No, I'm all right," and he saw the face of an officer, a man with black crust under his eyes, around his mouth and nose, glaring at him with eyes of cold steel.
"You are bloody well not all right, you damned fool! Get these men back off this hill! You're drawing fire to my guns!"
A: I was on a sailboat off the coast of Maui to watch the sunset. The sunset was, of course, amazing, but as we were gathered staring off at the wisps of clouds lit by the glow, a U.S. Navy submarine surfaced about 300 yards from our boat (we assumed they were coming to Hawaii for a little R&R). It was an amazing combination of sights, nature and the power of man. It's hard to know which weighs more heavily on our lives. Certainly the sunsets will go on well past our presence on this earth, and that presence is in many ways held in our own hands.
Q: What have you read recently that just knocked you out?
A:I have recently reread Joshua L. Chamberlain's The Passing of the Armies. Given that the man was a master of language, the book goes so far beyond mere command of words to the poetic. His descriptions of seeing the Confederate army spread out before him just prior to the close of the war, and then receiving the surrender of Lee's army at Appomattox -- nothing in modern historical accounts brings the emotion to the surface the way he does.
Q:
What, to you, is the most important day of the year?
A:
New Year's Day. It is a reminder that time is passing faster each year, and that with every new year, I have a responsibility to myself not to waste time, not to let my life pass without noticing every day and enjoying what life has to offer. That's why I moved to Montana; that's why I appreciate what it means to follow in my father's footsteps and leave something behind -- which is something that he never knew he had accomplished. He died not believing he had spent his life doing anything useful (since The Killer Angels was no one's idea of a success at that time; it didn't become a film or a bestseller until 1993.) I have a sign in my office: "Enjoy Life: This Is Not a Dress Rehearsal."
"The battle of Gettysburg featured a cast of characters dramatically and poignantly portrayed in Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels. This new novel by his son Jeff Shaara describes the interconneted paths that brought these men together at this crossroads of our history. Readers of The Killer Angels won't want to miss Gods and Generals. -- Author of Battle Cry of Freedom
On Monday, July 14, barnesandnoble.com welcomed Jeff Shaara, author of GODS AND GENERALS.
Jeff Shaara: Good evening -- thank you! Pleasure to be here.
Jeff Shaara: I did not set out to mimic my father's style, but I have been told there are similarities. I just tried to tell the story in my own way, and it came out very close to my father's way. I don't have a better answer than that.
Jeff Shaara: The history is as factual as I could make it. That was critically important. By definition, what makes it fiction is the dialogue and the thoughts of the characters. But I knew historians would jump on this if the history wasn't correct, so I really tried to make the history as accurate as I could. That's what is interesting about these characters -- you don't have to embellish what they did. It's a wonderful story just telling the truth.
Jeff Shaara: Comparisons to THE KILLER ANGELS are inevitable. I knew that going into this, and had to accept it from the start. What I did not expect were the positive comparisons, which are wonderful. If people feel that GODS AND GENERALS can simply sit on the same shelf as my father's book, that's wonderful. I don't mind the comparisons a bit. Maybe after I've done this for a while, I hope that people will hear my voice, instead of just me and my father. But I'm too new at this to expect that.
Jeff Shaara: Discovering the character of Jackson. We learn about characters like this in history textbooks, usually in one-dimensional ways. It was an adventure for me to feel like I knew this man. The problem with that is that learning to love a character like this meant that it was a very, very difficult thing to have to write his death.
Jeff Shaara: I have had people question my right to put words in the mouths of these characters. There is no other way to tell a story like mine or my father's without doing that. My research gave me a very personal insight into who these people were, how they thought, and how they spoke, and I felt comfortable with the dialogue that I gave them. If I am not comfortable with what they are saying, then the reader will not be comfortable either, and the whole story falls apart. If I don't believe it, neither will you.
Jeff Shaara: I don't feel that I obscured the truth at all. If someone else feels that way, or senses something fake in my story, then I have failed as a writer. If there is a danger in historical fiction, it is when the facts are twisted, or history is falsified.
Jeff Shaara: Yes! I am almost finished with the manuscript now, and the publisher is already calling for publication next May. It begins exactly where THE KILLER ANGELS ends, moves through the end of the war, and brings in the wonderful character of Grant.
Jeff Shaara: Yes. But there was no pressure, because all I set out to do was continue my father's story, not compete with it. I never had any idea that GODS AND GENERALS would be receiving this kind of attention, something my father never saw in his lifetime.
Thanks a bunch!
Jeff Shaara: Certainly the research has to be done before anything is put onto paper. I am extremely lucky in that I have never experienced writer's block. I spend anywhere between two hours and 12 hours a day writing, depending just on how much comes out. I write until it stops, as if somebody turns off the switch.
Jeff Shaara: It did not happen long ago, because I don't feel that he was ever really understood. My memories of the end of his life were that he considered himself a failure. That's a real tragedy, considering the monument he left behind. I know full well that GODS AND GENERALS and the sequel would be his books if he was alive. There is closure in that.
Jeff Shaara: No, I read no other historical fiction on purpose. I didn't want anyone else's style to interfere in what I was trying to do. Of course, the only exception to that is THE KILLER ANGELS. I still have a hard time reading other writers' historical fiction.
Jeff Shaara: Yes, I was just there last week. I will probably be there every July for the rest of my life. [laughs]
Jeff Shaara: Turner is not involved at this point. Ron Maxwell, director of "Gettysburg," and I, are developing it to begin production, we hope, late next year. I have to be a little vague, at this point, but we hope to be able to make a serious announcement at the 135th of Antietam in September.
Jeff Shaara: Absolutely! The story doesn't exist without him. The principle characters are JLC, Lee, and Grant. The story will likely end with a brief chapter on JLC at the end of his life in 1914.
Jeff Shaara: That's not my style to rewrite history, although it can be very entertaining. Clearly Jackson's presence at Gettysburg would have certainly affected the outcome of the battle. I love getting into this stuff with historians, because everybody has a different theory on how things might have ended.
Jeff Shaara: If it does lead people in the wrong direction, it's because I've done a bad job in telling the story. I have no interest in creating myths. I know my father understood this well, particularly about JLC. If people discover a wonderful character like this because someone like my father, or maybe me, tries to tell his story, then I'm pretty happy with that.
Jeff Shaara: I have done it three times before, in both Civil War rooms and other author rooms. I'm very happy with the quality of the questions. It makes me think pretty hard on what it is that I do.
Jeff Shaara: Reynolds probably could have, and maybe should have, commanded the Army of the Potomac. Everyone who knew him wrote that he was unequalled as a commander of troops in the field, except possibly by Hancock. It certainly is likely that the war would have ended sooner than it did, and Grant might never have come to command.
Jeff Shaara: Gettysburg is always singled out as the turning point of the war. It's as close as Lee came to actually winning, and certainly if the battle had gone the other way, the war may have ended right there. One of the objections of doing a film about GODS AND GENERALS was raised by one Hollywood studio, who said "Didn't all the good stuff happen at Gettysburg?" Obviously I enjoyed writing about a great deal more "good stuff" that led up to Gettysburg. And by the way, I feel like the real turning point of the war was the death of Jackson.
Jeff Shaara: Hi! I'll say hi to Lynn, and yes, the sequel to THE KILLER ANGELS will be out next May. After that, I'm already beginning to work on a Mexican War story...
Jeff Shaara: Probably Joe Hooker. Even someone like Burnside, who was essentially incompetent -- at least he had good motives. Hooker seemed to have so much of his own self-interest at heart that he was outright dangerous, not only to his cause but to his own men.
Jeff Shaara: What we certainly want to do is keep the same spirit that the reenactors brought to the spirit of "Gettysburg." There were many lessons learned in the production of "Gettysburg," and I promise, the beards will be better!
Jeff Shaara: Certainly to some extent. The problem, of course, is that Longstreet is wounded in May of 1864, and doesn't return until near the end. For that reason, he can't be a main character in the story, but Lee certainly feels his loss, and in fact I've already written most of that part in the new book. You will see Longstreet getting wounded -- from his own point of view.
Jeff Shaara: It is amazing. At first, I simply didn't believe it at all. I thought maybe that people were just being too generous. As I've read more and more of those kinds of comments, what I'm now feeling is that my father truly left me a gift. And that by continuing his story, and actually seeing myself as a writer, not only can I honor him, but my whole life is moving in a different direction.
Jeff Shaara: It was very important that the reader be able to finish GODS AND GENERALS and pick up THE KILLER ANGELS and not miss a beat. So it was always clear where the ending would be. Just like it is very clear in the sequel where the beginning will be.
Jeff Shaara: I have been hearing a lot of good things about this new book called COLD MOUNTAIN. I haven't read it, and probably won't until I finish the sequel. I would also recommend a book called SHARPSHOOTER by David Madden.
Jeff Shaara: The best commanders were not always willing to take the job. Reynolds is the best example of that. Also, politics played a role. Lincoln had to deal with pressure from Halleck and Stanton, who had their own choices and their own motives. I believe that Grant finally was put in command because Lincoln had run out of patience.
Jeff Shaara: I have no complaints. This is a very different experience for me than it was for my father. It is quite likely that he would be a much more famous man if his relationship with New York had been better.
Jeff Shaara: That might be really the only point of disagreement between me and my father. However, consider that after Gettysburg, Lee did begin to use Longstreet's defensive tactics much more. Consider that through the wilderness, until the end of the war, Lee basically survived Grant's onslaught by using superior defensive strategy. If the Confederate soldiers didn't agree with Longstreet's idea of trench warfare, if it wasn't considered "manly" to dig a trench and hide from your enemy, by 1864 every man was looking for a shovel.
Jeff Shaara: I hope to get to Maine this fall. I really want to see what they've done with his house. Jeff Daniels is absolutely my first choice for JLC.
Jeff Shaara: My best source of information on Hancock were two books his wife's and General Walker's (on Hancock's staff). Also, the great surprise to me was realizing that Hancock was very much like my father. That made his character a great deal of fun to write. Thanks, Richard!
Jeff Shaara: Thanks to everyone for the extraordinary attention. This past year has been the ride of a lifetime. Thank you all!
These days we’re used to endless franchises—from James Bond to Star Wars, minor things like an author’s death aren’t enough to stop the creation of new chapters in a beloved series of films, TV shows, or even novels. And it’s not always the product of a corporation looking to vacuum some dollars out of your pockets by […]
