Three Roads to GettysburgBy Tim McGrathDutton CaliberISBN: 978-0593184394528pp.

For four years, from 1861 to 1865, the US was plagued by a war between its northern and southern states: the Civil War, which changed the course of American history. Its tactics and strategies were studied by generals across the globe for years, including those who fought during the First World War.

The Battle of Gettysburg, waged in 1863 in Pennsylvania, decided the fate of the Civil War. Gen George Meade of the North led the Army of the Potomac. Gen Robert E. Lee of the South led the Army of Northern Virginia. The literature on that battle is voluminous, and anyone writing on it faces a tough challenge. Tim McGrath, a naval historian and biographer, takes on this challenge.

McGrath narrates the major events that led to Gettysburg in meticulous detail. And then he does something additional: he takes the reader into the minds of the generals fighting the war on both sides by quoting from letters they wrote to their wives. These reveal their emotions, the pain they felt as their soldiers were slaughtered, and the ambiguities that troubled their minds as they tried to predict the enemy’s counter-response.

It has been said that when it comes to warfare, amateurs discuss strategy while experts discuss logistics. This dictum was validated in the Battle of Gettysburg. Both parties knew that the battle would be won by the side that was better able to overcome the barriers that haunt any army: shortages of food, clothing and ammunition, inclement weather, bad roads — with broken bridges — and broken telegraphic........

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