I just received the following 5-Star Review from Readers’ Favorite on my book West Point at Gettysburg, Vol. 1:

“Very highly recommended”

West Point at Gettysburg by Paul Semendinger brings together the
West Point graduates who fought at Gettysburg, placing their
academy connection beside the battle that divided former
classmates between Union and Confederate service.

The book opens with the armies’ corps-level movement, then gives each
graduate the same biographical frame, linking the academy record
to the battlefield assignment and the life that followed.

The author begins with Julius Adams leading the 4th U.S. Infantry from Little
Round Top toward the Wheatfield, and E. Porter Alexander directing
the Confederate cannonade before Pickett’s Charge.

The larger purpose is not just to retell three days in Pennsylvania. The author
uses Gettysburg as the meeting point for men whose military
education later carried into the rebuilding of the country they had
nearly lost, as well as the nation’s memory of the war.

Paul Semendinger’s West Point at Gettysburg is fascinating, and I
appreciated how he makes a famous American battle easier to
understand through the people trained at the same military school.

What’s interesting is how the author links Gettysburg to everything
that followed. Abner Doubleday is a perfect example because the
baseball myth around his name makes his actual service after John
Reynolds was killed on July 1 feel newly important. I also loved
James Barnes because his postwar place on the Union Pacific
commission connects a Gettysburg general to the route near
Promontory Point.

The writing is easy to follow, and the repeated officer format makes the book useful to dip into. Readers who enjoy Civil War history that is collated and comprehensive will adore this.

Very highly recommended.