Minnesota Book Award Winner! The smoke had just cleared from the last volley of musketry at Gettysburg.
In cogent appended essays, the author muses on the lack of standardized timekeeping in the mid-nineteenth century, on the nature of Civil War weaponry, and on the emergence of a heroic mythology after the war..
In his investigation of the battle Leehan raises important questions about how we can really know the truth about the past.
By tracking the movements of individual soldiers over the field of battle, Leehan reconstructs in amazing detail the story of this remarkable band of soldiers.
Those who escaped the scythe of battle the First day lived to play a pivotal role the next in rebuffing the most famous infantry assault in American military history, Pickett\'s Charge.
By focusing on the men themselves--and their accounts of the engagement--he weaves together a narrative of the First\'s action on July 2 and 3.
All of this leaves the historical investigator to ask, what really happened that day at Plum Run? In order to answer that question, Leehan performs superlative historical detective work.
Confused officers and frightened soldiers told very different stories of the day\'s hearsay and camp gossip for their sources of information.
Emerging from the chaos of battle, however, firsthand reports contradicted each other.
Their stand late on July 2, 1863, stopped a furious rebel assault and saved the day for the Union.
Word of the First\'s heroic act at Gettysburg quickly spread along Union lines and back to Minnesota.
Through painstaking research of firsthand accounts, eyewitness reports, and official records, Brian Leehan constructs a narrative remarkable for its attention to detail and careful reportage.
Pale Horse at Plum Run is the study of this single regiment at this crucial moment in American history.
Nearly 70 percent of the First Minnesota regiment lay dead or dying on the field--one of the greatest losses of any unit engaged in the Civil War.
Minnesota Book Award Winner! The smoke had just cleared from the last volley of musketry at Gettysburg
