Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels tells the amazing story of the Battle of Gettysburg. On July 1, 1863, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac fought the largest battle of the American Civil War. The battle left 51,000 men dead, wounded, or missing. The characters first introduced include General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate army; General James Longstreet, Lee's second-in-command; Union Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, and Major General George Meade, commanding general of the Union Army. .
On June 30, 1863 a spy comes to General Longstreet to inform him that he has seen the Union army moving nearby. Longstreet is surprised by this information because General J.E.B. Stuart has been sent to track the Union army with his cavalry. Longstreet tells General Lee that he thinks the Confederate army should move quickly to the north to intercept the Federals. The Confederates move southeast through the mountains and toward the small town of Gettysburg.
Just south of Gettysburg, Union colonel Chamberlain is awaken and discovers that his regiment, the Twentieth Maine, has 120 new members who are mutineers from the Second Maine. Chamberlain gives them a quick speech, asking them to continue to fight, and all but six of the men join freely. .
General John Buford, leader of the Union cavalry, rides into the town of Gettysburg and encounters Confederate troops in the nearby area. He realizes that the two armies may end up fighting in the town, so he positions his two brigades along the hills of the area. He knows that having high ground is the key to winning the battle. .
On the morning of July 1, Lee rises to find that Stuart is still nowhere to be found. Without Stuart he has no idea where the Union army is located. He meets with Longstreet, who wants to use defensive tactics to swing southeast and come between the Union army and Washington, D.C. Lee refuses, saying that he wants to aggressively take the Union army in one decisive stroke.
