In a way the fight was more political, but instead of being fought with words, guns and death was needed in the end. .
One thing that stood out to me immensely throughout the novel was the theme of pride. Time after time pride got in the way of doing what was smart. Longstreet had a good theory of staying on the defense, which had made him become known as one of the best defensive soldiers(65). But Lee thought it would make him look weak. After Longstreet had mentioned the idea of disengaging Lee would listen, but not go through with it. His reason was, "We cannot disengage. We have already pushed them back. How can we move off in the face of the enemy?"(111). Lee had another problem with Stuart. Stuart left for days and was unheard from, not returning with the needed position of the enemy. It is hard to believe that if he had done what he was supposed to that the troops would have suffered as bad as they had. Instead of court-martialing him, Lee gave him a slap on the wrists(265-267). Pride is still a big part of our lives today. People just don't know when to swallow their pride and admit they were wrong.
The best thing that I found throughout the novel was the relationships between the soldiers. Shaara did a wonderful job of describing the different friendship between Longstreet and Lee. He showed this trust and friendship by showing that Lee did not check up on Longstreet throughout the battles. Longstreet knew that they should be on the defense, but he knew Lee was an old man and didn't question his orders. Then there was the great friendship between two opposing officers, Hancock and Armistead. I thought it was very honorable how they had made a pact not to fight each other. There were times where Armistead would sit and talk to Longstreet about his old friend, mentioning that he wouldn't mind seeing him one more time(61). At one point Armistead said that god may strike him dead before he would have to fight against his companion.