Analysis Of The Killer Angels By Michael Shaara

In the early spring year in 1861 the Civil War began and lasted four years later until the summer of June 1865. An estimated of 620,000 men had lost their lives. This war was one of the bloodiest wars that occurred in American history. For the union army the purpose of the war was to officially end the act of slavery. However, the Confederate army was fighting to continue to have slaves because not only did they work for free, but they also had an impact on the growth in their economy. In the novel The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara reflects the iconic battle scenes from the Battle of Gettysburg in the viewpoints of the men who fought in this bloody massacre, however; we do not only learn about the personal bias’ the men had but Sharra also sheds light upon the internal struggles these men faced.
Furthermore, during his time in the war he suffered from severe heart problems, but he had never consulted a doctor. In the text it mentions, “a sick grey emptiness he knew too well,that sense of a hole clear through him like the blasted vacancy in the air behind a shell burst, an enormous emptiness” (Sharra 74). Lee was very aware of the amount of pain he felt frequently, but he was not one to complain. Soldiers in the Civil War often distinguished one of the two heart problems, one is known as rheumatic fever and the other as “soldier's heart”. Doctors at the time relied on methods of percussion and auscultation, this involved the tapping the area of the chest and the doctors were relied on to listen for any abnormalities. All in all, due to the lack of knowledge doctors portrayed, their was an exact way to address an internal issue especially involving such a delicate