OK I'm done and left with. . .

First of all, I wish I had been a research assistant for McPherson. The man and his crew must have read every scrap of paper ever written about the Civil Waror during it. At today's wages, his assistant(s) could have been very wealthy at the end of it.

Second, I can't decide what to think of the generals and commanders. How truly frustrating it must have been for those who wanted to battle it out and get it over with to have had so many generals under them who failed to follow orders (either because they didn't want to or because they couldn't). The patience and pressure the men like Lee and Grant must have felt. And, yet, it must have been horrible for most of the generals knowing they were sending all of those men to their possible deaths. As I considered the huge weight this must have put on them, I understood why men like Longstreet, etc. stayed away and separate from their soldiers. Perhaps I can even understand the hesitation time after time of McClelland. The planning and organization was the easy part. Sending men to their deaths was difficult. Seeing men they knew die must have been heart-breaking. I wonder how often they questioned whether the "cause" was worth it.

Third, I wonder why McPherson didn't go into more detail about Gettysburg. He certainly was detail oriented on most of his other battles. It made me wonder why Shaara made a point of making his reader really like Reynolds and Chamberlain if they were no more important than McP portrayed them.

Last, I am amazed at how invested I became in the battles, generals, and outcomes as I read BCof F and KA. I've never really been a "battle"-type of person. Military history just isn't my priority. However, I found myself in tears as I read about Lee's decision to retreat and his eventual surrender and the formal ceremony directed by Chamberlain.