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The legends and myths that have shaped our national memory of the most important battle in American history-and our very notion of "hero."

Ever since the guns of Gettysburg fell silent in July 1863, and Lincoln stepped away from his two-minute speech on the same battleground four months later, the story of this three-day conflict has become an American legend, a cultural icon. American memory has established Gettysburg as the greatest, biggest, most important, most heroic, most savage, bloodiest battle this nation has ever fought. It has become our Waterloo, our battle of Marathon, our siege of Troy. The soldiers who fought there have become heroes in our national pantheon: They fought the hardest, endured the worst, and achieved the most, nothing less than saving the United States from self-destruction. Gettysburg has become the defining conflict in our history.

How did the story of Gettysburg evolve? How did the battle become a legend? And how much truth is behind the myth? Thomas A. Desjardin, a prominent Civil War historian and keen cultural observer, shows how flawed our knowledge of this enormous event has become, and why that has happened. It is, in effect, the extraordinary biography of a story-the story of Gettysburg. It also shows how Americans have shaped, used, altered, and sanctified our national memory, fashioning the story of Gettysburg as a reflection of, and testimony to, our culture and our nation.

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