I've been on a Battle of Gettysburg binge over the last few days. It began when I read a book my sister had given me: The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. It's a well-written novel based on the pivotal battle in 1863 during the U.S. Civil War. Shaara does an impressive job of putting words and thoughts into the mouths of key players on both sides of the engagement while sticking closely to historical accuracy.
Having had my interest sparked by the novel, I then plowed through Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage by Noah Andre Trudeau, which had been sitting on a shelf unread for a couple of years. It is recognized as a definitive work on the battle and is superbly researched and engagingly written.
I used to be a military history buff, and found such works stimulating as a teenager and young man, but now I tend to focus more on the horror.
As I emailed a friend yesterday: "Am in a troubled state about all that killing... And the eagerness to kill... And to die for 'honor.' Does that sort of courage = stupidity? Sometimes I think the basest human instincts (fight, kill, those different, them, the enemy) are somehow manipulated into being viewed as the noblest (courage, valor, buddies, us, our state, our country)."