Conceived In Liberty: William Oates, Joshua Chamberlain, and the American Civil War

At the center of this absorbing dual biography lies the legendary conflict at Little Round Top--"the single most important struggle" of the Civil War. Little Round Top decided the Battle of Gettysburg, opened the door to Northern victory, and brought together the disparate lives of two important Americans: Joshua Chamberlain, an academic from Maine who proved to be a brilliant military strategist, and William Oates, an Alabama maverick who fought heroically throughout the war. Both were self-educated men whose military success propelled them to the governorship of their respective states. By drawing on a vast mine of documents, Mark Perry brings these men vividly to life, and affords a fascinating look at nearly seventy years of American history. As a compelling portrait of two fabled men and an evocative account of the most crucial period in our nation's past, "Conceived in Liberty shows how history should be written" (Joseph Persico, author of My Enemy, My Brother).