Sweeping away many of the myths that have long surrounded Pickett's Charge, Earl Hess offers the definitive history of the most famous military action of the Civil War. He transforms exhaustive research into a moving narrative account of the assault from both Union and Confederate perspectives, analyzing its planning, execution, aftermath, and legacy.

Earl J. Hess is Stewart W. McClelland Chair in history at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee. He is author of several books on the Civil War, includingThe Union Soldier in Battle: Enduring the Ordeal of Combat, and coauthor of Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West.