Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies: Union Generals’ Accounts of the Battle of Gettysburg

Without question, the most famous battle of the Civil War took place outside of the small town of Gettysburg from July 1-3, 1863. Over those three days, nearly 8,000 would die, over 30,000 would be casualties, and the most famous attack of the war, Pickett’s Charge, would fail Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. 

The South would go on to lose the war, and when it did, the importance of Gettysburg as one of the “high tide” marks of the Confederacy became apparent, making the battle all the more important. Former Confederate comrades like James Longstreet and Jubal Early would go on to argue who was responsible for the loss at Gettysburg in the following decades.

Before the memoirs, however, came the Official Records, the true primary accounts of the battle by the important generals who directed and fought in it. This collection of 10 Union accounts of the Battle of Gettysburg and Pennsylvania campaign include the accounts of commander George Meade, artillery chief Henry Hunt, Winfield Scott “Hancock the Superb,” John Buford, Joshua Chamberlain, and more. It is specially formatted with a Table of Contents for each general’s account.