An epic, revelatory account of the Battle of Gettysburg, where George Meade, Lincoln's unexpected choice to lead the Union army, defeated Robert E. Lee and changed the course of the Civil War, from the award-winning author of James Monroe: A Life
By mid-1863, the Civil War, with Northern victories in the West and Southern triumphs in the East, seemed unwinnable for Abraham Lincoln. Robert E. Lee’s bold thrust into Pennsylvania, if successful, could mean Southern independence. In a desperate countermove, Lincoln ordered George Gordon Meade—a man hardly known and hardly known in his own army—to take command of the Army of the Potomac and defeat Lee’s seemingly invincible Army of Northern Virginia. Just three days later, the two great armies collided at a small town called Gettysburg. The epic three-day battle that followed proved to be the turning point in the war, and provided Lincoln the perfect opportunity to give the defining speech of the war—and a challenge to each generation of Americans to live by.
These men came from different parts of the country and very different upbringings: Robert E. Lee, son of the aristocratic and slaveholding South; George Gordon Meade, raised in the industrious, straitlaced North; and Abraham Lincoln, from the rowdy, untamed West. Lincoln’s election to the presidency in 1860 split the country in two and triggered the Civil War. Lee and Meade found themselves on opposite sides, while Lincoln had the Sisyphean task of reuniting the country.
With a colorful supporting cast second to none, Three Roads to Gettysburg tells the story of these consequential men, this monumental battle, and the immortal address that has come to define America.
Praise for Three Roads to Gettysburg:
“Tim McGrath's Three Roads to Gettysburg: Meade, Lee, Lincoln and the Battle that Changed the Nation, braids the lives of these three men into the history of their times with rare dexterity and plain good writing. By centering his story on the Civil War's most important battle and the role each of the protagonists played in its approach and aftermath, McGrath manages to shift the focus of the train of events and produce a unique and original take on the war that made us who we are.” —Robert L. O’Connell, national bestselling author of Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman
“Tim McGrath is a prodigious researcher and captivating writer. What an interesting angle to take three individuals—two well known, one less so—and interpose their careers and the journeys that brought them to opposing sides of a great battlefield and the speech that in its pointed brevity offered hope for binding up the nation’s wounds.” —Walter R. Borneman, author of Polk, The Admirals, and MacArthur at War
“A powerful, well written, and deeply researched narrative, Three Roads to Gettysburg moves to its climax with steady control of its complex story, a fine addition to the accounts of the battle and the converging lives of its main participants, Lincoln, Lee, and Meade. It brings to the battlefield the two generals, and President Lincoln at the telegraph office in Washington, through a contrasting and complementary account of their lives and what got them there.” —Fred Kaplan, author of Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer
Tim McGrath is a two-time winner of the Commodore John Barry Book Award, as well as the author of the critically acclaimed biography John Barry: An American Hero in the Age of Sail.
View titles by Tim McGrath
An epic, revelatory account of the Battle of Gettysburg, where George Meade, Lincoln's unexpected choice to lead the Union army, defeated Robert E. Lee and changed the course of the Civil War, from the award-winning author of James Monroe: A Life
By mid-1863, the Civil War, with Northern victories in the West and Southern triumphs in the East, seemed unwinnable for Abraham Lincoln. Robert E. Lee’s bold thrust into Pennsylvania, if successful, could mean Southern independence. In a desperate countermove, Lincoln ordered George Gordon Meade—a man hardly known and hardly known in his own army—to take command of the Army of the Potomac and defeat Lee’s seemingly invincible Army of Northern Virginia. Just three days later, the two great armies collided at a small town called Gettysburg. The epic three-day battle that followed proved to be the turning point in the war, and provided Lincoln the perfect opportunity to give the defining speech of the war—and a challenge to each generation of Americans to live by.
These men came from different parts of the country and very different upbringings: Robert E. Lee, son of the aristocratic and slaveholding South; George Gordon Meade, raised in the industrious, straitlaced North; and Abraham Lincoln, from the rowdy, untamed West. Lincoln’s election to the presidency in 1860 split the country in two and triggered the Civil War. Lee and Meade found themselves on opposite sides, while Lincoln had the Sisyphean task of reuniting the country.
With a colorful supporting cast second to none, Three Roads to Gettysburg tells the story of these consequential men, this monumental battle, and the immortal address that has come to define America.
Reviews
Praise for Three Roads to Gettysburg:
“Tim McGrath's Three Roads to Gettysburg: Meade, Lee, Lincoln and the Battle that Changed the Nation, braids the lives of these three men into the history of their times with rare dexterity and plain good writing. By centering his story on the Civil War's most important battle and the role each of the protagonists played in its approach and aftermath, McGrath manages to shift the focus of the train of events and produce a unique and original take on the war that made us who we are.” —Robert L. O’Connell, national bestselling author of Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman
“Tim McGrath is a prodigious researcher and captivating writer. What an interesting angle to take three individuals—two well known, one less so—and interpose their careers and the journeys that brought them to opposing sides of a great battlefield and the speech that in its pointed brevity offered hope for binding up the nation’s wounds.” —Walter R. Borneman, author of Polk, The Admirals, and MacArthur at War
“A powerful, well written, and deeply researched narrative, Three Roads to Gettysburg moves to its climax with steady control of its complex story, a fine addition to the accounts of the battle and the converging lives of its main participants, Lincoln, Lee, and Meade. It brings to the battlefield the two generals, and President Lincoln at the telegraph office in Washington, through a contrasting and complementary account of their lives and what got them there.” —Fred Kaplan, author of Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer
Tim McGrath is a two-time winner of the Commodore John Barry Book Award, as well as the author of the critically acclaimed biography John Barry: An American Hero in the Age of Sail.
View titles by Tim McGrath
