Haskell of Gettysburg

His Life and Civil War Papers

Frank L. Byrne and Andrew T. Weaver

All students of the Civil War are indebted to Frank Haskell for his classic description of the battle of Gettysburg.  A lieutenant on the staff of John Gibbon, Haskell stood at the focus of the Confederate assault on July 3, 1863.  He wrote of the battle in a letter to his brother.  When it came to light after the war it became and remains probably the most read and repeated account of Civil War combat written by a participant.  It captures wholly the terrible fascination that the Civil War—and Gettysburg—holds for all Americans.  Haskell wrote other letters (thirty-one in this collection) and attained the rank of colonel before he was killed at Cold Harbor on June 3, 1864.

This 1989 paperback reprinting of the 1970 edition contains a new preface by Frank L. Byrne.