Killer Angels Questions
Please keep these questions in mind while you are reading The Killer Angels. For the exam on this unit, I will be give you 3-5 of these questions to answer in a complete paragraph. A complete paragraph is 5-8 sentences!!! Be prepared!
1. Why does General Longstreet doubt his own spy's report of the Union Army's advance towardConfederateTroops in Pennsylvania?
2. As John Buford tracks the Confederate Army, he stops to wave at a Rebel officer. Why would he greet an enemy in this way?
3. How could Armistead and Hancock, on opposite sides of the fight, become close friends?
4. What was Fremantle's purpose in traveling with Longstreet and the Confederate army?
5. During Longstreet and Lee’s discussion on breaking their military service vow, how do we know that Lee has been influenced by “sectionalism”?
6. Why did officers under Lee want J.E.B. Stuart court-martialed?
7. Whydoes Trimble thank Longstreet for an assignment that could very likely hasten Trimble's own death?
8. What qualities made Lawrence Chamberlain a successful leader?
9. Author Shaara changes some of the historical facts about the battle--for instance, he puts Chamberlain in the middle of the Union line during Pickett's Charge, when in factChamberlainwas more than a mile south. Why do you think Shaara does this? Do you think it is good or bad to change the facts in a historical novel?
10. What about the relationship between the two Chamberlain brothers? Think about this quote: (325-326) "Must think on the theology of that: plugging a hole in the line with a brother. Except for that, it would all have been fine. An almost perfect fight, but the memory of that is a jar, is wrong. Some things a man cannot be asked to do. Killing of brothers. This whole war is concerned with the killing of brothers. Not my family. ...Must send Tom somewhere else. In that moment, Chamberlain made up his mind: Tom would have to go."
11. According to Lee, his soldiers did “not die for us.” Who/what did they die for?
12. What makes Tom conclude that the war really was about slavery?
13. What did you think about the various viewpoints expressed about the cause of the Civil War? Explain 2 or 3 in your answer.