Nine Months to Gettysburg: Stannard's Vermonters and the Repulse of Pickett's Charge

Coffin, Howard

ISBN 10: 0881504009 / ISBN 13: 9780881504002

Published by Countryman Press 1997-11-17, US, 1997

About this Item

314 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR. Minor shelf-wear to price clipped dust jacket, else a clean, tight copy. Record # 464500.

Seller Inventory # 464500

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Nine Months to Gettysburg: Stannard's Vermonters and the Repulse of Pickett's Charge
• Publisher: Countryman Press 1997-11-17, US
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0881504009
• ISBN 13: 9780881504002
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

The compelling story of the Second Vermont Brigade and its vital role at Gettysburg (more than any other brigade they determined the fate of the battle) fills a significant gap in the history of America's Civil War.

"A Vermont brigade held the key position at Gettysburg and did more than any other body of men to gain the triumph which decided the fate of the Union," the New York Times reported soon after the historic battle over the Fourth of July, 1863. The citizen soldiers of General George J. Stannard's Second Vermont Brigade, only a few days short of their nine-month enlistments, occupied a sector of Cemetery Ridge, helped stabilize the line, and then shattered the right flank of Pickett's famous charge just when the outcome of the battle hung in the balance.

In this unique eye-witness account, Coffin draws on scores of soldiers' letters to relate how and why young recruits from isolated hill farms flocked to the Union colors in response to Lincoln's call in 1862. During the nine months leading up to their rendezvous with destiny at Gettysburg, they recorded, in humorous detail, foraging for food, and, in more sober terms, enduring homesickness, monotony, and often fatal diseases. We share, too, their anxieties as they are thrust suddenly into the most important infantry maneuver directed against the Confederate assault.

About the Author

Howard Coffin, former press secretary to U.S. senator Jim Jeffords, is the author of The Battered Stars, Full Duty, Guns Over the Champlain Valley, and Nine Months to Gettysburg. He lives in Montpelier, Vermont.