Witness to Gettysburg brings the bloodiest, most crucial battle of the Civil War to life through on-the-spot eyewitness accounts. From the courageous fighting men and officers to the civilians watching as the conflict raged through their towns, from the reporters riding with the regiments to the children excited or terrified by the titanic drama unfolding before them, each account stems from personal experience and blends with the whole to create a startlingly vivid tapestry of war.

In their own words, and through the eyes of their closest aides, such commanders as Robert E. Lee, Jeb Stuart, George Meade, and Abner Doubleday emerge as memorable, living men. So does the seventy-year-old Gettysburg resident John Burns, who joined a Union regiment when the rebels angered him by driving away his milk cows, was three times wounded, and emerged from the battle a national hero.

This is eyewitness history at its best.

Richard Wheeler, an ex-marine, is the author of numerous books of military history, eleven of which deal with different Civil War campaigns and battles, including Voices of the Civil War, winner of the Civil War Round Table of New York’s Fletcher Pratt Award. He is also the author of Voices of 1776: The Story of the American Revolution in the Words of Those Who Were There.