Quotes from book
The Killer Angels

The Killer Angels
Michael Shaara

The Killer Angels is a historical novel by Michael Shaara that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1975. The book tells the story of the three days of the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War, and the day leading up to it: June 30, 1863, as the troops of both the Union and the Confederacy move into battle around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and July 1, July 2, and July 3, when the battle was fought. The story is character-driven and told from the perspective of various protagonists, mainly James Longstreet and Robert Lee with the Confederates, and John Buford and Joshua L. Chamberlain with the Union. A film adaptation of the novel, titled Gettysburg, was released in 1993.

“There's nothing so much like a god on earth as a General on a battlefield.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Source: The Killer Angels

“If men were equal in America, all these Poles and English and Czechs and blacks, then they were equal everywhere, and there was really no such thing as foreigner; there were only free men and slaves.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Source: The Killer Angels

“Here we judge you by what you do, not by who your father was. Here you can be something. Here's a place to build a home. It isn't the land-there's always more land. it's the idea that we all have value, you and me, we're worth something more than the dirt. I never saw dirt I'd die for, but I'm not asking you to come join us and fight for dirt. What we're all fighting for, in the end, is each other.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Part I, CH 2: Chamberlain, p. 32
The Killer Angels (1974)

“They are volunteers: last of the great volunteer armies, for the draft is beginning that summer in the North. They have lost faith in their leaders but not in themselves.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Foreword, June 1863: 1. The Armies
The Killer Angels (1974)

“"A Holy War," Longstreet said. He shook his head. He did not think much of the Cause. He was a professional: the Cause was Victory. It came to him in the night sometimes with a sudden appalling shock that the boys he was fighting were boys he had grown up with. The war had come as a nightmare in which you chose your nightmare side. Once chosen, you put your head down and went on to win.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Part I, CH 4: Longstreet, p. 58
The Killer Angels (1974)

“Some of us volunteered to fight for Union. Some came mainly because we were bored at home and this looked like it might be fun. Some came because we were ashamed not to. Many of us came… because it was the right thing to do.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Part I, CH 2: Chamberlain, p. 32
The Killer Angels (1974)

“I've been thinking on your theories of defensive war, and look, Pete, if you don't mind the opinion of an aging military genius, just this once? Technically, by God, you're probably right. Hell, you're undoubtable right. This may be a time for defensive war. But, Pete, this aint the army for it. We aren't bred for the defense.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Lewis Armistead, Part I, CH 4: Longstreet, p. 59
The Killer Angels (1974)

“It's no good trying to get yourself killed, General. The Lord will come for you in His own time.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Captain Goree, Part IV, CH 5: Longsteet, p.355
The Killer Angels (1974)

“"General Meade has his son as adjutant." "That's different. Generals can do anything. Nothing quite so much like God on earth as a general on a battlefield."”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Thomas Chamberlain and Joshua Chamberlain, Part I, CH 2: Chamberlain, p. 29
The Killer Angels (1974)

“He moved closer to the wall up there, past mounds of bodies, no line any more, just men moving forward at different speeds, stopping to fire, stopping to die, drifting back like leaves blown from the fire ahead.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Lewis Armistead, Part IV, CH 4: Armistead, p. 347
The Killer Angels (1974)

“He had forgotten the Cause. When the guns began firing he had forgotten it completely.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Part IV, CH 6: Chamberlain, p. 365
The Killer Angels (1974)

“Oh, by the way, there's a story going around, do you know? They say that General Lee was asleep, and the army was marching by, and fifteen thousand men went by on tiptoe so as not to wake him.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Lt. Col Arthur Fremantle, Part II, CH 5: Longstreet, p. 130
The Killer Angels (1974)

“I was trying to warn you. But… you have no Cause. You and I, we have no Cause. We have only the army. But if a soldier fights only for soldiers, he cannot ever win. It is only the soldiers who die.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

General Robert E. Lee, Part IV, CH 5: Longsteet, p.361
The Killer Angels (1974)

“It is unbecoming to a soldier, all this book-learning.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

George Pickett, Part I, CH 4: Longstreet, p. 53
The Killer Angels (1974)

“Men cannot be threatened into the kind of fight they will have to put up to win. They will have to be led.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Part III, CH 2: Chamberlain, p. 185
The Killer Angels (1974)

“One thing I'm very glad to see. Your General Lee is a moralist, as are all true gentlemen, of course, but he respects minor vice, harmless vice, when he finds it in others. Now that's the mark of a true gentlemen. That is what distinguishes the man so to me, aside from his military prowess, of course. The true gentlemen has no vices, but he allows you your own.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Lt. Col Arthur Freemantle, Part II, CH 5: Longstreet, p. 130
The Killer Angels (1974)

“The man was looking his way, with glasses. Buford waved. You never knew what old friend was out there. The Reb officer took off his hat, bowed formally.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Part I, CH 3: Buford, p. 39
The Killer Angels (1974)

“If the war goes on-and it will, it will-what else can we do but go on? It is the same question forever, what else can we do? If they fight, we will fight with them. And does it matter after all who wins? Was that ever really the question? Will God ask that question, in the end?”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

General Robert E. Lee, Part IV, CH 5: Longsteet, p.360
The Killer Angels (1974)

“The Frenchman may fight for France, but the American fights for mankind, for freedom; for the people, not the land.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Part I, CH 2: Chamberlain, p. 29
The Killer Angels (1974)
Context: But he was fighting for the dignity of man and in that way he was fighting for himself. If men were equal in America, all these former Poles and English and Czechs and lacks, then they were equal everywhere, and there was really no such thing as a foreigner; there were only free men and slaves. And so it was not even patriotism but a new faith. The Frenchman may fight for France, but the American fights for mankind, for freedom; for the people, not the land.

“General Meade has his son as adjutant.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

<br/k> "That's different. Generals can do anything. Nothing quite so much like God on earth as a general on a battlefield."
Thomas Chamberlain and Joshua Chamberlain, Part I, CH 2: Chamberlain, p. 29
The Killer Angels (1974)

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