Priest, John Michael. June 2024, Savas Beattie.   Binding: Skivertex cloth with jacket; photos, original maps, 442 pp.

“Priest’s new history is a powerful and important examination of John Reynolds’ I Corps on July 1 and the wide array of Confederate forces that attacked it. It is meticulously researched to a level this reviewer has not seen for any similar Day 1 study and his finest work to date. It also raises a fascinating question: Was the often-overlooked fighting on the first day the major factor in the final Union victory? The soldiers of the I Corps saved the significant high ground south of town by inflicting heavy casualties on some of the finest units in Lee’s Virginia army to buy the time needed to allow reinforcements to gather at Gettysburg. This study, especially the view from within the ranks, is simply first-rate.” - Lance J. Herdegen, The Iron Brigade in Civil War and Memory: The Black Hats from Bull Run to Appomattox and Thereafter

“More than 12,000 men served in the I Corps of the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg. Despite their broad differences in age, experience, hometowns, religion, and prewar professions, they had in common the undying bond of soldiery born of countless hours together in camp, on the march, and in combat. John Michael Priest deftly interweaves hundreds of primary accounts from members of the I Corps and the Confederate ranks in a ‘you are there’ narrative of the brutal fighting on July 1. This highly readable and hard-to-set-aside treatise is a worthy addition to the growing historiography of the battle.” - Scott L. Mingus Sr., co-author of If We Are Striking for Pennsylvania: The Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac March to Gettysburg, 2 vols.

“The Union I Corps almost fought itself to death on the first day at Gettysburg. Many of its regiments suffered more than 60% casualties, but their sacrifice enabled Meade’s Army of the Potomac to hold the high ground and emerge victorious two days later. Priest’s new study recounts the actions of heroic soldiers on both sides at the personal level: how they marched, how they fought, how they suffered, and how they died. He uses a wide array of primary sources, many unpublished, to tell their story, episode by episode, as the battle progressed. Frequent explanatory footnotes further explicate the narrative. A special treat is the numerous original detailed maps tracing their movements. Priest’s new book is a valuable addition to our understanding of the first day at Gettysburg.” - David Martin, author of Gettysburg July 1    [LD] [PH:L]

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