Gettysburg

July 1, 2013

Gr 6 Up-Vansant presents a military history of the battle of Gettysburg in comic-book style, beginning with Robert E. Lee's motivation for attacking Pennsylvania and concluding with Abraham Lincoln's reflections on the battle in his short memorial address. The artwork has a casual simplicity, with scratchy, brisk lines and muted tones. Almost no attempt is made to make moments melodramatic or spectacular. The severity of the depiction of bloodshed increases somewhat as the battles get more fraught, but the primary goal is not to show war as either glory or hell. Instead the focus is to give a visual impression of the physical scope of the battlefields and to put human faces to some of the division commanders. The first goal is effectively accomplished; the maps with the changing positions of the relative forces show the complexity of the ground and the increasing intensity as the battle progresses. The section about crossing an open mile to Cemetery Ridge works especially well. However, the capsule introductions to the various commanders are less elucidating. Each man is given a close-up drawing and a single biographical detail, but not usually something that would increase understanding of how he commanded. The many men who died under their commands are given even shorter shrift. The readable narrative breaks down the military actions and decisions leading up to and during the battle, but the accompanying visuals do little to either illuminate or re-create the actual experience or to humanize the participants.-Benjamin Russell, Belmont High School, NH

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