Gettysburg: 6 (Civil War Battle 6)

Although Stonewall Jackson was dead Confederate moral was never higher. The victory at Chancellorsville had come against overwhelming odds and the Union army was in retreat. In less than a year the Federals had been pushed back from the outskirts of Richmond and now virtually out of Virginia. Thus begins GETTYSBURG the sixth volume in the Brannon family saga that has been praised as robust detail-rich and well-pacedequal parts pathos and accuracy (Publishers Weekly) and fraught with passion tension and tenderness (Booklist). Will and Mac the two eldest Brannon sons are in the ranks of the Stonewall Brigade and Jeb Stuarts cavalry. A short bivouac allows them to visit the family farm but almost as soon as Will rejoins his company Jacksons former corps marches up the Shenandoah Valley sweeping the Union troops out of Winchester. A natural route to the North lies open and Lees army heads in that direction. The eventual clash at Gettysburg occupies the rest of the book. Will who is involved from the first day is kept in the thick of the combat around Culps Hill and the right side of the Union line. Mac arrives on the evening of the second day and he sees action with the Southern cavalry at Hanover. Both are swallowed up in the melee of the fighting and neither emerges unscathed. Bruised and bleeding the Confederate army stumbles back into Virginia leaving a fourth of their number behind on the Pennsylvania ground. News of the defeat and the huge number of casualties spreads quickly. Like thousands of families across the South the Brannon clan in Culpeper County anxiously awaits word of the fates of two sons.