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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
West Point at Gettysburg by Paul Semendinger brings together the West Point graduates who fought at Gettysburg, placing their academy connection beside the battle that divided former classmates between Union and Confederate service. The book opens with the armies’ corps-level movement, then gives each graduate the same biographical frame, linking the academy record to the battlefield assignment and the life that followed. The author begins with Julius Adams leading the 4th U.S. Infantry from Little Round Top toward the Wheatfield, and E. Porter Alexander directing the Confederate cannonade before Pickett’s Charge. The larger purpose is not just to retell three days in Pennsylvania. The author uses Gettysburg as the meeting point for men whose military education later carried into the rebuilding of the country they had nearly lost, as well as the nation’s memory of the war.
Paul Semendinger’s West Point at Gettysburg is fascinating, and I appreciated how he makes a famous American battle easier to understand through the people trained at the same military school. What’s interesting is how the author links Gettysburg to everything that followed. Abner Doubleday is a perfect example because the baseball myth around his name makes his actual service after John Reynolds was killed on July 1 feel newly important. I also loved James Barnes because his postwar place on the Union Pacific commission connects a Gettysburg general to the route near Promontory Point. The writing is easy to follow, and the repeated officer format makes the book useful to dip into. Readers who enjoy Civil War history that is collated and comprehensive will adore this. Very highly recommended.
