The author of this book, Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, has, perhaps, achieved more renown in recent years than at any time since the publication of his literary efforts. Those familiar with the film Gettysburg will recall the unusual figure of a British Guards officer attired (inaccurately) in his full dress Guardsman's scarlet uniform among the ranks of the Virginians at the famous and pivotal battle. The cinema may have taken its usual liberties, but the character was firmly based in fact and was none other than the Fremantle himself. The British Empire felt no need to come down strongly on either side of the conflict between the States, but its support for the Confederacy was both implicit and occasionally obvious. Fremantle wanted to see the war at first hand and so he traveled to America and accompanied the Confederate forces—actually unglamorously in mufti—in the field. His experiences brought him to the collision of Gettysburg, and history is indebted to Fremantle for the observations of a comparatively impartial military man on these monumental times and events.
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