Table of Contents

Rough and Tumble Days
2: Baptism by Fire
3: An Unchristian State of Mind
4: Ragged Jacks
5: Boulders like Gravestones
6: In the Purple Gloom
7: Gone to Flickering
8: The End of Chivalry
9: Before the Bar
10: The One-Armed Hero of Henry County
11: Striking to Hurt
12: A Soldier in His Heart
13: Stumbling Toward Equality
14: Requiem

About the Author

Glenn W. LaFantasie is the Frockt Family Professor of Civil War History and the Director of the Center for the Civil War in the West at Western Kentucky University. He is the bestselling author of Twilight at Little Round Top. He has also written for several magazines and newspapers, including American History, North & South, MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, The New York Times Book Review, America's Civil War,
Civil War Times Illustrated, and The Providence Journal.

Reviews

"A much needed examination of one of the more aggressive and remarkable commanders in the Army of Northern Virginia."--Jennifer M. Murray, The Alabama Review
"LaFantasie's Gettysburg Requiem is superb. It is engaging, informative, and never lacking in appropriate historical context."--Timothy J. Orr, Reviews in American History
"Fantasie has done a terrific job of telling Oates's tale, and of using him as a tool to delve into the greater issues that filled Oates's own life and times....This fine biography does him the justice denied him in times past."--George C. Bradley, The Civil War Courier
"No one will ever write a more detailed and comprehensive biography of William C. Oates than Glenn LaFantasie. Gettysburg Requiem is the definitive account of the life of the commander of the 15th Alabama Infantry."--John Deppen, The Civil War News
"An engaging biography."--Publishers Weekly
"Exhaustively researched and elegantly written, this captivating biography is a signal contribution to Civil War historiography....In LaFantasie's penetrating analysis, Oates becomes the avatar of everything both objectionable and laudable in the antebellum and postwar South as well as in the intervening Civil War."--Library Journal (starred review)
"In LaFantasie's absorbing and penetrating account, Oates emerges as an iconic figure to mirror the urbane Chamberlain...offering 'a fascinating--and sometimes unsettling--portrait of Southern manhood and the dynamics of violence, heroism, and memory.'"--Michael Kenney, The Boston Globe
"Until now, Confederate Colonel William C. Oates is remembered--if he is remembered at all--for losing to the celebrated Joshua Chamberlain in the fight for Little Round Top at Gettysburg. Here at last is Oates in full dimension, a fascinating, Faulknerian figure out of the Old South."--Stephen W. Sears, author of Gettysburg
"William C. Oates and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain faced one another in a storied confrontation on Little Round Top at Gettysburg. This fine biography demonstrates that Oates's life fully matched his more famous opponent's in drama and importance. LaFantasie's perceptive narrative uses Oates to explore major themes relating to the Civil War, the turbulent postwar years, and the struggle to shape the memory of the conflict."--Gary W. Gallagher, author of
The Confederate War
"Beautifully written and superbly researched...Oates' story is a richly compelling one, set against the most dramatic period in United States history."--Joan Waugh, University of California at Los Angeles
"As Glenn LaFantasie makes clear in this candid and penetrating biography, William C. Oates was a man who reflected, throughout his long life, the violent, tragic, and often self-deceptive world of the American South in the nineteenth century. Lyrically written, challenging in its conclusions, this is an important book about the wartime generation of southerners and how they adjusted to the realities of the post-war South."--Craig L. Symonds, author of
Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles That Shaped American History
"LaFantasie's book is a brilliant example of how diligent research and skillful writing can turn a soldier known mainly for his role on one historic day into a fully rounded character, as movingly depicted as in a Tolstoy novel. William Oates's life, before, during and after the battle of Gettysburg, illustrates his times better than that of grander figures whose public virtues and sins overshadow their inner complexity. But never until now has anyone as
talented as LaFantasie taken the pains to do it right."--Ernest B. Furgurson, author of Freedom Rising: Washington in the Civil War and Chancellorsville 1863

"A much needed examination of one of the more aggressive and remarkable commanders in the Army of Northern Virginia."--Jennifer M. Murray, The Alabama Review "LaFantasie's Gettysburg Requiem is superb. It is engaging, informative, and never lacking in appropriate historical context."--Timothy J. Orr, Reviews in American History "Fantasie has done a terrific job of telling Oates's tale, and of using him as a tool to delve into the greater issues that filled Oates's own life and times....This fine biography does him the justice denied him in times past."--George C. Bradley, The Civil War Courier "No one will ever write a more detailed and comprehensive biography of William C. Oates than Glenn LaFantasie. Gettysburg Requiem is the definitive account of the life of the commander of the 15th Alabama Infantry."--John Deppen, The Civil War News "An engaging biography."--Publishers Weekly "Exhaustively researched and elegantly written, this captivating biography is a signal contribution to Civil War historiography....In LaFantasie's penetrating analysis, Oates becomes the avatar of everything both objectionable and laudable in the antebellum and postwar South as well as in the intervening Civil War."--Library Journal (starred review) "In LaFantasie's absorbing and penetrating account, Oates emerges as an iconic figure to mirror the urbane Chamberlain...offering 'a fascinating--and sometimes unsettling--portrait of Southern manhood and the dynamics of violence, heroism, and memory.'"--Michael Kenney, The Boston Globe "Until now, Confederate Colonel William C. Oates is remembered--if he is remembered at all--for losing to the celebrated Joshua Chamberlain in the fight for Little Round Top at Gettysburg. Here at last is Oates in full dimension, a fascinating, Faulknerian figure out of the Old South."--Stephen W. Sears, author of Gettysburg "William C. Oates and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain faced one another in a storied confrontation on Little Round Top at Gettysburg. This fine biography demonstrates that Oates's life fully matched his more famous opponent's in drama and importance. LaFantasie's perceptive narrative uses Oates to explore major themes relating to the Civil War, the turbulent postwar years, and the struggle to shape the memory of the conflict."--Gary W. Gallagher, author of The Confederate War "Beautifully written and superbly researched...Oates' story is a richly compelling one, set against the most dramatic period in United States history."--Joan Waugh, University of California at Los Angeles "As Glenn LaFantasie makes clear in this candid and penetrating biography, William C. Oates was a man who reflected, throughout his long life, the violent, tragic, and often self-deceptive world of the American South in the nineteenth century. Lyrically written, challenging in its conclusions, this is an important book about the wartime generation of southerners and how they adjusted to the realities of the post-war South."--Craig L. Symonds, author of Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles That Shaped American History "LaFantasie's book is a brilliant example of how diligent research and skillful writing can turn a soldier known mainly for his role on one historic day into a fully rounded character, as movingly depicted as in a Tolstoy novel. William Oates's life, before, during and after the battle of Gettysburg, illustrates his times better than that of grander figures whose public virtues and sins overshadow their inner complexity. But never until now has anyone as talented as LaFantasie taken the pains to do it right."--Ernest B. Furgurson, author of Freedom Rising: Washington in the Civil War and Chancellorsville 1863

Col. William Calvin Oates (1833-1910) led his 15th Alabama regiment at Little Round Top, south of Gettysburg, on July 2, 1863, losing the contest and a much-beloved brother. From then on, according to LaFantasie (history, Univ. of Maine, Farmington; Twilight at Little Round Top), Oates's memory constituted his greatest inner demon. In this biography of Oates as a soldier, politician, attorney, land and cotton speculator, plantation entrepreneur, Alabama state legislator, governor, and U.S. congressman, the author deftly introduces elements of psychohistory. In LaFantasie's penetrating analysis, Oates becomes the avatar of everything both objectionable and laudable in the antebellum and postwar South as well as in the intervening Civil War. His dichotomous nature is made readily apparent: a courageous and tested soldier, he was also a poor tactician disinclined to follow orders; he could identify with Alabama's planter class even though he knew that its leaders would not admit him into their circle; and he could indulge in white supremist rhetoric while supporting both the deployment of slaves in the rebel army and later the postwar extension of the franchise to the "better elements" of his state's black community. LaFantasie reduces all of Oates's seeming contradictions to a single concluding sentence: "Being right was always important to Oates. The trouble was that he rarely thought himself wrong." Exhaustively researched and elegantly written, this captivating biography is a signal contribution to Civil War historiography. Recommended for all libraries. John Carver Edwards, Univ. of Georgia Libs., Cleveland Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.