The Most Glorious Fourth: Vicksburg and Gettysburg, July 4th, 1863.July 4, 1863, saw the end of two battles, Vicksburg and Gettysburg, that together changed the course of the Civil War. It was a glorious day indeed for the Union cause. In this heart-quickening work of history, Duane Schultz interweaves the narratives of these two storied battles, fashioning a blow-by-blow account at once panoramic and intimate. Focusing on that pivotal Independence Day and the days and weeks leading up to it, Schultz vividly portrays not only the major players of the war but also the multitude of soldiers and civilians caught up in its sweep, whether it be Lincoln impatiently pacing the floor of the telegraph office as he awaits news from the front, General Meade frantically plugging the gaps in his tenuous line, or a Vicksburg family trying to make a home for itself in a cave while waiting out the Union siege. Throughout, Schultz weds a sympathetic eye with an unerring ability to trace the narrative thread through the chaos of events. We see a nation in the midst of its greatest convulsion, at a moment when the end seemed in sight. The “Glorious Fourth” lifted the spirits of the Union Army and dashed the greatest hopes of the Confederacy. Of course, the war was far from over, and it is Schultz’s great accomplishment to show how “the most glorious Fourth” served as a window onto the larger war and the time and place that produced it. |
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