In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation's history, two armies fought for two dreams. One dreamed of freedom, the other of a way of life.

Far more than rifles and bullets were carried into battle. There were memories. There were promises. There was love. And far more than men fell on those Pennsylvania fields. Shattered futures, forgotten innocence, and crippled beauty were also the casualties of war.

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After 7 years of writing, this novel was rejected by the first 15 publishers who saw the manuscript. Despite winning the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1975, it did not achieve commercial success until five years after Shaara's death, when the film "Gettysburg", based on the novel, was released. Nineteen years after its publication, it topped the New York Times Bestseller List.