The Slopes of War

Summary of the Book

The American Civil War started when Union troops headed toward Richmond, Virginia in the early summer of 1816. At Bull Run, the left side of the stream in Virginia, The Union Troops encountered the Confederate army. This led to a heavy fighting resulting in the deaths of thousands of soldiers of both sides and then people realized that this war was anything but civil.

It is one of the strangest battles in the history of the world as fathers were up against their own sons, brothers were prepared to cut the throats of their own brothers, and the families were fighting themselves. The misery of the battle, the suffering of the youths, the wailings of the women, and the emotional impact of civil strife on soldiers, their families and the on the nation as whole was huge and it is all chronicled in the novel The Slopes of War by N A Perez.

Perez narrates a story of the Summerhill family, which centers on the Battle of Gettysburg. Three of the family members of Rebekah Summerhill, were fighting in the war. Rebekah’s brother Buck Summerhill accompanying with his friend Tully Willard, were privates in the Union Army.

Rebekah’s two cousins Custis and Mason Walker were privates in the Confederate Army. The scenes of violence in this story, which centers on the Battle of Gettysburg, were horrifying. Perez presents a Shaara-esque Gettysburg with a befuddled Lee and a Longstreet in the right. Her research fails her at one point as she places the Stonewall Brigade in the night assault on Culp’s Hill and the Second Virginia with the rest of the brigade.

Key Events of the War

1. In the early summer of 1863, Gen. Robert E. Lee and his battle-hardened Army of Northern Virginia stood undefeated.
2. In early May, Lee had led his veterans against Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s Federals concentrated around the small crossroads of Chancellorsville.
3. In the first weeks of June, the Army of Northern Virginia, 70,000 strong, pushed north with Gen. Richard Ewell’s corps in the vanguard.
4. On June 15, the first Rebel infantry crossed the Potomac.
5. On June 24, Lee permitted Stuart to depart on a raid into enemy territory
6. On June 28, with his forces concentrated around Frederick, Hooker was sacked and replaced by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade.
7. On July 1, part of A.P. Hill’s corps moved to Gettysburg to seize a supply of shoes that were reported to be there.
8. On the morning of July 2, encouraged by his success of the preceding day, Robert E. Lee planned to renew the attack.
9. By the morning of July 3, after two days of bloody fighting, the costly Rebel attacks on the Union flanks had achieved little.
10. At 3:00 p.m., after an ineffective two-hour artillery bombardment, the Rebel infantry stepped off. (Civil War Chronicle)

Work Cited

Civil war chronicle, Gettysburg: Bloody Cross Road, Discovery Communication,

retrieved on March, 3, 2007 from http://www.discovery.com/stories/history/civilwar/gettysburg/gettysburg.ht

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