35 Days to Gettysburg: The Campaign Diaries of Two American Enemies

by Mark Nesbitt

En route to battle, a Confederate soldier and a Union soldier both make daily entries in small, leather-bound diaries. Historian Mark Nesbitt places their writings into the context of the Civil War.

Genres: Civil War, Nonfiction

221 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Mark Nesbitt was a National Park Service Ranger/Historian for five years at Gettysburg before starting his own research and writing company. Since then he has published fourteen books including the national award-winning Ghosts of Gettysburg series. His stories have been seen on The History Channel, A&E, The Discovery Channel, The Travel Channel, Unsolved Mysteries, and numerous regional television shows and heard on Coast to Coast AM, and regional radio. In 1994, he created the commercially successful Ghosts of Gettysburg Candlelight Walking Tours

Reviews

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book that provides powerful insight and commentary into the lives of two common soldiers, one North and one South.

My only complaint about the book was that it could have perhaps had better maps. The ones provided were sometimes difficult to work with.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book that explains the thoughts and remarks contained in the diaries of two soldiers fighting on opposite sides in the Civil War. It includes maps to show the routes traveled by the two soldiers. The diary of the Confederate soldier is much more descriptive than that of the Union soldier, but the author does an excellent job of providing more detail on what the soldiers describe in their diaries. I just wish that the diaries described in more detail the camp life, the thoughts of their soldiers, the marches, etc. However. I thought it was an interesting concept for this book to be based on diaries of two soldiers who actually fought against each other at the battle of Gettysburg.

[Cory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good little read. You get a glimpse into the daily lives of the common Civil War soldier from both sides.

[Kevin Rumsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally a book that is from boots on the ground

[Paul Haspel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Nesbitt's 35 Days to Gettysburg reminds us that battles are won and lost by soldiers, not by generals. In Civil War studies, it has become conventional to engage in a bit of metonymy or synecdoche, referring to an entire army in terms of its commanding general; we say that Meade defeated Lee, or that Longstreet attacked and Hancock successfully repelled him. In fact, however, the defeating and the attacking and the repelling are done by ordinary soldiers whose names go out of the world largely unremembered -- who never have statues built for them, or forts or ships named in their memory.

35 Days to Gettysburg does something to redress that imbalance. In this book, Nesbitt presents us with a month's worth of the diary entries of two young soldiers, one Union and one Confederate, as their disparate paths lead them toward the same portion of the Gettysburg battlefield. For each of the 35 days referred to in the book's title, Nesbitt begins by quoting in turn the diary entries of Franklin Horner (12th Pennsylvania Reserves) and Thomas Ware (15th Georgia Infantry). For each day, Nesbitt provides a helpful gloss of Horner's and Ware's diary entries, explaining references and allusions that might be unfamiliar to modern readers. The structure of the book conveys a grim sense of inevitability; we know that Horner and Ware are both going to end up at Gettysburg, and we wonder if either or both are going to end up among the 51,000 casualties of the battle.

Nesbitt's emphasis on the cruelty and bitterness and futility of war is admirable, especially considering how often Civil War books suffer from an admixture of Lost Cause romanticism. It seems to me that the book's subtitle, The Campaign Diaries of Two American Enemies, is particularly well-chosen; for it reminds us, as we get to know these two decent and likable young men, that if these two decent and likable young men had actually met on the battlefield, they would have done their level best to kill each other.

[Philippe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. Everybody knows the Battle of Gettysburg. This book follows two adversaries in the days preceding the battle and examines how both armies converged on Gettysburg more through accident than planned strategy.

The analysis of each soldier's journal allows the reader to understand the daily life of the foot soldier and their thoughts, fears and hopes.

What struck me the most was the seamless transition from marching into the battle. Before you know it the two were in battle with fatal result for one of them. We did not even realized that Ware had been killed, because his brother picked up the journal and continued writing in it for a day or two before mentioning that his brother was dead. The only indication was that the handwriting had changed.

In the back of the book is a section that allows you to retrace the journey of both men through Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania using modern roads as well as the roads that existed back then and are still there today.

[Kim Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a great book. I enjoyed reading the diaries of two men bound for Gettysburg. The author also provided additional commentary that was useful. I recommend this for anyone who loves studying the Civil War. Particularly if you enjoy primary sources. (Granted, there is more commentary than actual primary source, but I found all of it interesting.)

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting view of the time and culture. Definitely a man's point of view.

[Michael T. Carney · Rating 5 out of 5]

brought to life

Reality of army life and how badly it ended for the soldiers who were certain about their cause til the very end