Amongst Immortals Raging: Gettysburg Third Day Begins

By Marshall Conyers
Poetry, 111 pp., 2007. Pelican Publishing Co. Inc., 1000 Burmaster St., Gretna, LA 70053, $19.95 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Blake A. Magner

Blake A. Magner is the Book Review Editor of Civil War News. He makes his liv­ing as an editor, writer, car­tographer and photographer of Civil War history. He is author of At Peace With Honor: The Civil War Burials of Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Review:

Amongst Immortals Raging is a book of poetry pertaining to the third day of the battle of Gettysburg. The volume is divided into several chapters covering the various aspects of the day including “The Gray,” which looks at the likes of Lee, Longstreet, Pickett, Pettigrew, and Trimble, to name a few.

This section begins with Lee’s thoughts at 5 a.m. and continues through the preparations for Longstreet’s Assault.

The author then covers “The Union” with poems about Chamberlain, Meade, Hancock, Jennie Wade and members of Chamberlain’s command. This section includes the attack and repulse. “The Retreat” and “Aftermath” take the story through to the surrender at Appomattox.

Because of the major characters in the poems, the lines covering the relationship between Armistead and Hancock, I get this odd feeling that the author relied heavily on the movie Gettysburg as a historical source. One major clue is the reference to Chamberlain’s “Top Sergeant” as referring to—yep, Kilrain, like he was a real person. The author also consistently misspells Lee’s Traveller as Traveler.

The poetry is well written and brings forth the protagonists’ thoughts. I just wish I could stop thinking about a movie when I read it. If you like poetry, Gettysburg and Longstreet’s Assault, you might like this collection.