kilelr angels
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In The Killer Angels, a historical book by Michael Shaara, a complex combination events which led to the defeat of the Rebel army in the Civil War. The book details the final four days of the war, in which the Rebel army and the Union army of the Potomac coincidentally both arrive and meet at the small town of Gettysburg, where the bloodyest and darkest battles ever fought in america happened. Had it not been for the "joyriding" of the Rebel cavalry's captain, J. E. B. Stuart, the chance meeting might have been avoided all together. The rebel army had originally been considered the sure victor over the Union "rabble," but Stuart's failure initiates a long string of unfortunate coincidences which, combined, bring about the unlikely fall of General Robert E. Lee's Rebel army.
In the first two days of the book, General Lee and General James Longstreet are strongly confident of the outcome of any upcoming struggles, as are their men. Fremantle, a British ambassador watching the war from the Rebels' side, "knew with the certainty of youth and faith that he could not possibly lose this day, not with these troops, not with Englishmen, the gentlemen against the rabble" (Pg-162)...