Better to Be a Prisoner Than a Corpse

This chapter builds on the previous one to examine the Battle of Gettysburg through the lens of the soldiers who surrendered. More soldiers ended up captured at Gettysburg than killed. The chapter explores all three days of the battle, Lee's retreat, and the fate of some of the soldiers who surrendered.

Battle

Now fully immersed in their military experiences, Confederate soldiers struggled to express in letters to their families the scale and emotional impact of war’s carnage. The Battle of Gettysburg serves as a lens for the examination of the soldiers’ efforts to express their new-found emotional experiences in words. Through these efforts, the men’s self-perceptions and identities were often altered forever.