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

Voices from Gettysburg: Letters, Papers, and Memoirs from the Greatest Battle of the Civil War. Edited by Allen C. Guelzo. New York: Citadel Press, 2024. Hardcover, 339 pp. $29.00.

By Peter Miele

While the last few years have brought us Gettysburg scholarship that has trod new historiographic ground, such as Allen Thompson’s In the Shadow of the Roundtops and Corey Pfarr’s Righting the Longstreet Record at Gettysburg, we have also seen a proliferation of “reference” works, those which are not as much thesis-driven. This includes Scott Mingus and Melissa Bretz’s 2023 work Gettysburg Stories: Monuments, Men, and Memories and James Gindlesperger’s The Medal of Honor at Gettysburg. Now, we can add Allen Guelzo’s Voices from Gettysburg: Letters, Papers, and Memoirs from the Greatest Battle of the Civil War to this category. These works, while not providing new, groundbreaking insights into the battle of Gettysburg, are still valuable in adding to our understanding of the largest battle in the Western Hemisphere.

This book, from an author who has produced more than a dozen thesis-driven works, comes to publication because of Guelzo’s view that there is “no substitute for listening to the voices of those who had been at Gettysburg in 1863.” (xix) Drawn from more than a decade of working with students and the public at Gettysburg College, the author gives readers a curated collection of both well-known and relatively unused primary sources that illustrate the reality of battle. His attention is not solely focused on the generals who commanded the armies, but also on the junior officers and enlisted men whose actions, often overlooked, were pivotal in determining the battle’s outcome. Surprisingly, many of the sources (85 out of 121, not counting the sources that deal directly with memory and remembrance) that Guelzo chooses were written years, even decades after the fighting. He justifies this by arguing that he has found that letters written shortly after the battle and narratives that are written years later “track with remarkable similarity” (xx). Furthermore, he believes that documents written years after the fighting “may have been based on letters and diary entries from the battle itself” (xx). Most of the works included are previously published in some form, with few coming directly out of archives. Sources from The War of the Rebellion (the “OR’s”) and the Southern Historical Society Papers are included, but are deployed sparingly.

There are some drawbacks to Guelzo’s work, however. While the author offers a variety of perspectives from military participants, his coverage of the civilian experience during and after the battle is lacking. He does include a handful of writings from civilian observers, like Reverend Michael Colver, student at Pennsylvania (Gettysburg) College in 1863 and Henry Eyster Jacobs, who watched the battle from his father’s home on West Middle Street, but these are focused on the battle, not its impact on civilians. And, he does almost entirely leave out women’s voices. Of 130 primary sources included in the book, only two of them are written by females. For readers seeking primary sources that address how the battle impacted the town and its inhabitants, Jim Slade and John Alexander’s Firestorm at Gettysburg: Civilian Voices June-November 1863 (Schiffer Military/Aviation History, 1998) is a more appropriate resource. Furthermore, Guelzo provides introductions to each chapter; however, he does not footnote these sections, leaving the reader to guess where he is getting his materials. While few would question Guelzo’s knowledge and understanding of the battle, readers will struggle finding where he got his information for these passages.

Guelzo’s Voices of Gettysburg is a well-curated collection that reminds us, once again, that the battle of Gettysburg was experienced by men (and women) who had to live with this experience for the remainder of their lives. The strength of this work lies not in uncovering new facts or presenting groundbreaking arguments, but in offering readers a chance to engage with the battle on a more personal, emotional level. This work will be just as valuable as a guidebook out on the battlefield as it is as a reference work on the historian’s shelf. Whether you are new to Civil War studies or a seasoned historian, it is a reminder of the enduring power of the voices from the past.

Peter Miele is Senior Project Leader at Susquehanna National Heritage Area, managing the multi-year, $25+ million Susquehanna Discovery Center & Heritage Park project at the historic Mifflin Farm in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Ramapo College of New Jersey with a B.A. in History and Secondary Education (2011), Miele began his career as a public school educator in New Jersey. In 2013, he reoriented towards public history and museum work and earned a M.A. in Applied History from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania (2014). He spent more than eleven years (2013-2024) at Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center in Gettysburg, PA, including four years (2020-2024) as President and Executive Director. Miele recently completed coursework towards a Ph.D. in American Studies at Penn State, Harrisburg, where his academic interests include the social and cultural history of the mid-Atlantic, nature and environment, and historical memory.