The Killer Angels (Michael Shaara)

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1. What is the genre?

Global—War > Brotherhood

Secondary—Worldview > Disillusionment

2. What are the conventions and obligatory scenes for the genre?

Conventions

Big Canvas. Either a wide scope external setting or the internal landscape: The story covers the entire battle of Gettysburg from multiple points of view, using no less than eight POV characters on both sides of the conflict, from beginning to end.

Overwhelming odds…the protagonists are substantially outnumbered: Buford, on the Union side, faces overwhelming odds in the first day of the battle entrenched with his dismounted cavalry men facing the vastly superior numbers of Rebel troops; he will be overrun if Reynold’s infantry doesn’t arrive in time to relieve him that morning. Chamberlain faces overwhelming odds at the very far left end of the line, trying to hold the high ground against the onslaught of Rebel charges, again, who greatly outnumber him. His group of soldiers barely survive, barely hold the line, and are almost flanked. Finally, and most significantly on the Rebel side, Longstreet faces the most overwhelming of odds when ordered by Lee to lead the attack on the middle slope of the Union line on the final day of the battle. The Union has the high ground and the field they must cross to get to the middle of that line is wide open for their line of men and artillery to pummel them. Their attack fails miserably and the battle is lost.

A clear “point of no return” moment, when the combatants accept the inevitability of death: Longstreet, on the eve of battle on the last day, implores Lee to change his mind about a frontal assault. If they attack in such a manner, he knows they will all die. But, Lee is resolute and detached from reality. Longstreet considers resigning his commission, but he cannot bear to abandon Lee; he loves the man. He knows he is wrong, but he can’t leave him. He sets his men in place, directing them where to fire, and resolves that leading the attack as ordered is his only choice, even though he knows it is suicide. The attack cannot be stopped. Lee cannot be stopped.

The sacrifice for brotherhood moment. One protagonist sacrifices himself for the good of his fellow soldiers: Armistead’s chapter comes to mind for this convention. He leads the final, fateful charge across the open field that ensures defeat for the Rebels. He coordinates the charging troops, coaches them, keeps them together until finally they are all overwhelmed. In a moment of clarity, seeing his tattered line stalled with death ahead of them and death behind them if they try to retreat, he roars and charges forward, pushing to the stone wall that marks the Union line with everything he has, actually reaches the impossible goal, gets OVER the line, and dies there of his wounds. Longstreet too, sacrifices his own personal honor and the lives of his men for the brotherhood and loyalty he has for Lee. It’s a sacrifice in vain, for he feels in the end that it has damned him, and damned them all.

Obligatory Scenes

Inciting Attack: Lee’s army slips across the Potomac river into the north, getting as far that direction as Harrisburg, PA, destroying towns as they go in an attempt to draw the Army of the Potomac out into the open, away from DC, so they can engage and destroy them. The Union takes the bait and heads north on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge mountains, searching for the rebels. This happens before our story begins.

Protagonists deny responsibility to respond: A spy has determined the entire Union army’s position heading up towards Gettysburg, and reports this back to Rebel commanders. They are hesitant to believe him. It’s difficult for the spy to convince them to bring him to General Lee.

Forced to respond, protagonists lash out according to their positions on the power hierarchy: On the Union side, John Buford finds “good, high ground” in Gettysburg, entrenches his troops there after a long day of marching, and sends word to the other commanders to come quickly. He senses a great mass behind the Rebel skirmishers he saw, and fears he will be overwhelmed in the morning without reinforcements. On the Rebel side, Heath’s men withdraw at the sight of the Union troops at first…but then attack the following morning, believing they were only fighting with militia members. Even when they realize they’re fighting Union dismounted cavalry, he sees his numbers are greater than theirs, and presses forward. He only withdraws in defeat once he realizes that Union Infantry reinforcements have arrived, and they’re now in greater numbers than his own. All of his advances are against Lee’s orders.

Each character learns what their antagonist’s object of desire is: It is apparent at the end of the first day of fighting, when Reynolds shows up with his Union troops early in the day, and then more battle groups of Union soldiers that evening, that the Union intends to hold onto its high ground in Gettysburg with the strength of the entire Army of the Potomac. On the other side, General Lee has wanted exactly this: the Union Army to be met out in the open, away from Washington. Lee takes advantage of all the roads in the area converging on Gettysburg to concentrate his troops, the Army of Virginia, to engage them there and break their line, overwhelm their troops, and deal a huge blow by destroying/breaking up their main force.

Protagonists’s initial strategy to outmaneuver antagonist fails: The protagonists in The Killer Angels are split up between several Union and Confederate commanders, but if I were to pick one, it would have to be the Rebels. They are the ones who must maneuver the most, they are the ones who deal with the biggest failures, and they are the ones whose strategy is deliberated the most, particularly between Longstreet and Lee. Their initial strategy is to use forest cover to maneuver to the far right of the Union line, an area called Little Round Top, charge up the hill, and break their line there. Longstreet’s first maneuver to that area comes up short—they’d completely lose cover in long stretches of open road, vulnerable to the Union artillery from above—and they must find a second road to get there, which they do. They then commence their attack on the Union line, which is actually not up on top of the ridge as they expected, but down below it at its base. This leaves an opening for the Rebel army to move further right and use an unfinished railroad to take position on the top of the ridge, above and behind the Union line. But, Lee has explicitly denied Longstreet’s pleas to do this. His attack is to be coordinated at the front, and there’s no time to get word to him. They charge as ordered by the General, to the front, and are horribly defeated, taking massive losses.

Protagonists, realizing they must change their approach to attain a measure of victory, undergo an All Is Lost moment: Longstreet does realize this. He knows it in the first major attack on the second day of the battle, when they are ordered to attack from the front, but victory is only possible by changing the attack to the far right and taking the ridge…but he cannot bring himself to defy Lee, and his forces are defeated. Longstreet again knows their approach must be changed in the early hours before the final main battle on Day 3, in which Lee will again attack from the front, but this time at the dead center of the Union line. Longstreet is certain this will end in disaster, that they are outmaneuvered and must withdraw, but he cannot convince Lee to change his mind. Again, he cannot bring himself to defy the man he admires and loves. At this crisis, Longstreet considers resigning from the Army, so as not to order his men to death for nothing. He resolves, however, that nothing can be done except his duty. They will attack in the morning as Lee has ordered, and their fate is in God’s hands.

The Big Battle Scene: the core event of the War story and what the reader is waiting for. This is the moment when the progtagonist’s gifts are expressed or destroyed: Longstreet (and then a POV from Armistead during the charge) leads the Rebel assault on the center of the Union line. It starts with Artillery bombardments from both sides. The Union shells stop dropping after a while and the Rebels believe they’ve either taken out some of the Union guns, or made them need to be re-placed. The infantry form a line and charge. The Union guns then re-open fire, having stopped firing to successfully bait the Rebels into the open. The Rebel charge is utterly and completely wiped out. It’s a massive defeat. On the Union side, with Chamberlain as our POV (the man who held the far left flank of the Union line that Longstreet attempted and failed to overrun), they defend their position behind a low rock wall at the very center of the Union line. They succeed.

The protagonists are rewarded with at least one level of satisfaction (extrapersonal, interpersonal or intrapersonal) for their sacrifice: This is exemplified perhaps best in the Rebels, with the commander Armistead who, in the midst of a crumbling and dying Rebel line, makes a huge, heroic charge to reach the Union’s line. It was his duty to reach that line, and by God he does, yelling for his men to follow him. He reaches it alone, and he dies very quickly thereafter from multiple gunshot wounds, but he did reach it, and he is able to send a final message to Hancock, the Union commander for that battle group, that he is “sorry.” Sorry to be fighting against the very men he once served with. On the Union side, there’s a case to be made that Chamberlain’s sacrifice comes in the battle at Little Round Top in which he had to use his own brother to “plug the line” in the heat of the fighting. It’s a move that haunts him, even though it turned out well; his brother survived and they did hold. That sacrifice is rewarded with victory that day, and his placement right in the middle of the line for the big battle the next day which was supposed to be light duty. Instead, he’s a part of the force that holds it against the main Rebel assault, which gives him the elation and horror of surviving such a deadly battle. He finds truth in the words of Aristotle after that experience: that in the moment of true tragedy, a man feels “neither pain, nor joy, nor hatred, but rather a sense of space and time suspended, of eternity.” The battle and its resulting victory for his men have left him feeling ready to defend again, to get back behind that wall or some other wall, and fight the Rebels again, and he will either live or die, but he is looking forward to it.

Learn more about obligatory scenes and conventions.

3. What is the point of view?

Third Person Omniscient, with some Free Indirect Style, as we do get direct thoughts in the prose from the heads of the POV characters. There are several POV characters in this book, all commanding officers of varying ranks, with the exception of the spy who starts off our story…but there are two MAIN characters, one on each side: Chamberlain for the Union side, and Longstreet for the Rebel side. And if I were to really pick one protagonist for the entire story, the one with the most to lose, the most conflict, the biggest crises, etc, it would be Longstreet.

Learn more about point of view.

4. What are the objects of desire?

External/Conscious: All the POV characters share an external object of desire to be victorious over the opposing force.

Internal/Subconscious: Internally, honor is at stake. All of the Rebel commanders—Lee, Longstreet, Armistead—struggle with the break their rebellion has caused in what used to be one, cohesive military. Fighting, and therefore victory over the Union army is irreconcilable with the dishonor they have brought themselves by turning against their brothers. Internally for the Union soldiers, they are fighting for an ideal that Shaara doesn’t give the Rebels: the freedom of slaves, and the righteous soul of their country. Both Chamberlain and Buford ruminate on the morality for which they are fighting.

Learn more about objects of desire.

5. What is the controlling idea / theme?

War lacks meaning when a soldier fights against his own brothers-in-arms, and when one so blindly loves a leader that they follow him into certain defeat and death.

Learn more about controlling ideas.

6. What is the beginning hook, middle build and ending payoff?

Beginning Hook – Union forces are spotted moving north from Washington and the Rebel army, under command of General Lee, turns and prepares to meet them in Gettysburg.

Middle Build – Several battles break out with the Union army occupying the high ground in Gettysburg, and over and over again, the Rebel army is unable to crack their line.

Ending Payoff – In a final, major, concentrated assault, the Rebel army charges head-on to the center of the Union line, and is slaughtered in a major defeat to General Lee.

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