He confirms that although the battle’s participants believed the fate of the war hung in the balance, the results of the battle did not end the war, “nor did it write a blank check for the Union forces,” nor did it constitute a final knockout punch for the Confederate States (462–64). Guelzo’s appreciation for historical contingency is easy to see. In his opinion, contingency mattered: each component of the battle unfolded as a logical, direct response to the episode preceding it, even as the fog of war obscured the most basic tenets of command and control. Guelzo argues that such ahistorical assertions encourage carelessness, an irresponsible way of understanding human events. Guelzo takes issues with armchair historians and battlefield visitors who criticize commanding generals for their lackluster decision making, those who argue that the Battle of Gettysburg could have gone completely differently, or those who believe that the Battle of Gettysburg could have ended the war. In his opinion, this catastrophic engagement was neither total nor decisive. Guelzo contends that these complications accounted not only for the frustrating delays, mishaps, and horrific casualty figures, but they also minimized the damage done to noncombatants and private property. In doing so, he reveals the intricacies of leadership as well as the topographical, logistical, and disciplinary difficulties inherent in waging a massive, three-day engagement. He delves deeply into the backgrounds and personalities of senior and junior officers and discusses how personality conflicts, political ambition, feelings of paranoia, and traumatic experiences in battle shaped their command decisions. Guelzo shows how the contingency of Civil War combat and the contested politics of memory shaped the Battle of Gettysburg. Guelzo’s work emphasizes the complex realities of waging war in nineteenth-century America and he argues that even in the face of Gettysburg’s horrifying casualties, northern Americans renewed their commitment to preserving what they considered to be the “virtues of democracy and preaching its worth as the one true and natural system of human society” (480–81).
Guelzo’s Gettysburg: The Last Invasion is a beautifully written, compelling study of the Gettysburg Campaign that blends analysis of commanders’ decision making with explorations of the experiences of soldiers and civilians.
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