High Tide of the Confederacy?

Tucker, Phillip Thomas.  Barksdale's Charge: The True High Tide of the Confederacy at 
        Gettysburg, July 2, 1863.  Havertown, PA: Casemate Publishers, 2013.
        ISBN: 978-1-61200-179-1

Like most readers of history, especially American Civil War history, any time I see a book about Gettysburg, I resist adding it to the stack of books I want to read.  Most visit the same ground, emphasizing the same fights, and retelling the same stories.  I am glad that I made an exception with Barksdale's Charge.  Phillip Tucker makes a very convincing case that the often overlooked Mississippi Brigade's charge, routing a large part of Sickle's Third Corp, came the closest to splitting the Army of the Potomac which could have led to its defeat in detail.

 Tucker did not write your standard book on the Battle of Gettysburg.  Instead, he wrote a well-documented study of on particular unit (Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade of McLaws' Division in Longstreet's Corp) and the pivotal, but forgotten, role it played in almost defeating the Army of the Potomac.  Tucker sets the stage with two chapters discussing Barksdale and the other leaders of the Mississippi regiments, the units and their men.  He follows this with a chapter on the previous engagements of the Mississippi Brigade.  Chapter four sets the scene with narration of the battle for July 1 and July 2, 1863, as all the actors take their places.  Finally, in chapter five, the Mississippi Brigade is unleashed upon Sickle's men.  For the next eight chapters, Tucker uses quotes from letters and diaries, well-laced with maps to put the reader on the battlefield with the participants.  We can thrill with the enthusiasm of the Confederates as they overcome one obstacle after another only to fall into grief as the Confederates finally ran into a fresh unit they just could not overcome.  Then the "romantic" disaster of Pickett's Charge, state prejudice in the Army of Northern Virginia, and the death of Barksdale cast the role of the Mississippi Brigade into obscurity.

Take the time to read the book.  Your understanding of the Battle of Gettysburg will be changed as a result.