is too strong. He urges Lee to march away and make the fight on more favorable ground. But Lee orders a flanking attack on the Union position. Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of Maine is told by his superiors that he occupies the end of the Union line, and that he must hold at any cost. In a brilliant, costly action, Chamberlain succeeds in repulsing the Confederate attack. On July 3, Lee, concluding that his flanking attack was repulsed due to the Union army's focus on them, concludes that "they are weak in the center" and orders a frontal assault on the center of the Union line. Knowing it is doomed, Longstreet argues against it, as his men will be forced to march across an open field under cannon fire to assault the well-entrenched Union center. But Lee is confident and Longstreet despairs. General George Pickett leads the charge, which is turned back with heavy losses. A shaken Lee orders retreat. Chamberlain is now confident of Union victory. Layout Beginning with the famous section about Longstreet's spy, Henry Thomas Harrison, gathering information about the movements and positions of the Federals, each day is told primarily from the perspectives of commanders of the two armies, including Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet for the Confederacy, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and John Buford for the Union. Most chapters describe the emotion-laden decisions of these officers as they went into battle. Maps depicting the positioning of the troops as they went to battle, as they advanced, add to the sense of authenticity as decisions are made to advance and retreat with the armies. The author also uses the story of Gettysburg, the largest battle in the history of North America, to relate the causes of the Civil War and the motivations that led old friends to face each other on the battlefield. Characters Confederacy Robert Edward Lee (Commanding general, Army of Northern Virginia) James Longstreet (Lieutenant General) George Pickett (Major General) Lewis Addison Armistead (Brigadier General) John Bell Hood (Major General) Isaac Ridgeway Trimble (Major General) James Lawson Kemper (Brigadier General) Henry Heth (Major General) Jubal Anderson Early (Major General) James Ewell Brown Stuart (Major General) Richard Stoddart Ewell (Lieutenant General) Ambrose Powell Hill (Lieutenant General) Richard Brooke Garnett (Brigadier General) Moxley Sorrel (Lieutenant Colonel) T. J. Goree (Captain) Walter H. Taylor (Major) Arthur Fremantle (Lieutenant Colonel, British Coldstream Guards) Henry Thomas Harrison (Confederate