Old World vs. New World Theme Analysis

Shaara portrays the battle of Gettysburg as a pivotal juncture not only for the Civil War, but for history more broadly. This is done in two major ways throughout the story: first, through characters’ competing visions for what American culture is or should become, and second, through Lee’s and Longstreet’s competing visions for how to conduct the war. Lee’s vision is connected to an older, “gentlemanly,” honor-driven culture, while Longstreet’s is forward-looking and not much concerned with culture at all. Through this theme (and especially through the portrayal of Union victory and Lee’s resulting concession to Longstreet), Shaara argues that Gettysburg symbolizes the passing of the Old World and the inevitable birth of the New.

Certain characters, particularly Colonel Joshua Chamberlain with the Union and English observer Fremantle with the Confederacy, see the war as a struggle between two different visions for America—either as a place for new ideals of freedom to take root, or for Old World aristocratic values to flourish. Descended from persecuted Huguenots (French Protestants), Chamberlain cherishes a belief in America as a place where “a man could stand up free of the past […] and become what he wished to become.” He sees himself as fighting for the dignity of man and against “the horror of old Europe […] which the South was transplanting to new soil.” When faced with a regiment of mutineers, Chamberlain thus appeals to their freedom to choose to fight for others’ freedom. Throughout history, he explains, people “fight for land, or because a king makes them […] but we’re here for something new.” He continues, “this hasn’t happened much in the history of the world. We’re an army going out to set other men free.”

In response to Chamberlain’s idealistic words about the divine spark in humanity, Kilrain retorts, “What I’m fighting for is the right to prove I’m a better man than many […] I don’t think race or country matters a damn. What matters is justice.” He explains that an emancipated slave may not prove to be a better man than one who fought to free him, but that he, like Chamberlain, believes America should be a country where neither man is enchained by his ancestry.

Other characters see the war as essentially about the preservation of an older way of life. Fremantle, the English observer who is traveling with the Confederate army, views the Southerners as Englishmen and democracy as a failure. In the North, he reflects, “the only aristocracy is the aristocracy of wealth. The Northerner doesn’t give a damn for tradition, or breeding, or the Old Country […] Well, of course, the South is the Old Country […] They’ve merely transplanted it. And that’s what the war is about.” Other Confederate characters are skittish or silent on the subject of slavery but assert that they are fighting for their right to maintain their way of life undisturbed. Arguably, however, these characters’ way of life inherently includes slavery and could not be maintained without it.

The clash of old and new is further reflected in Lee’s and Longstreet’s conflict over defensive warfare. Longstreet tries to explain to Armistead that war has changed and defensive trench warfare is coming into its own. Armistead replies that while this may be a time for defensive war, this is not the army or the general for it. Fremantle is even more uncomprehending when Longstreet explains how advances in weaponry have challenged conventional wisdom about warfare. “But, sir,” Fremantle retorts, “there is the example of Solferino. And of course the Charge of the Light Brigade.” Longstreet, “who had invented a transverse trench which no one would use,” sees that it is no use pressing the matter.

Lee is shocked when Longstreet urges him to disengage the Confederates in order to get between the Union and the route to Washington—i.e., take a defensive position rather than continue on the offensive. He finds it unseemly to retreat in the face of the enemy and reflects that he has already had enough of defensive war after his previous, disastrous effort to defend Richmond. Lee thinks that Longstreet’s concern for defense arises from overprotectiveness of his men, and Longstreet realizes that there is no time to convince Lee otherwise; Lee is “a simple man, out of date.” On the cusp of final battle, meanwhile, Lee decides that morale must win out over cleverness; “cleverness did not win victories; the bright combinations rarely worked. You won because the men thought they would win, attacked with courage, attacked with faith.”

After the Confederate defeat on the last day at Gettysburg, Lee concedes that his backward-looking approach has failed, that Longstreet had been right, and that he needs his friend’s vision in order to move forward: “Help us to see,” he says.

Shaara uses the perspectives of multiple characters to portray a spectrum of attitudes about the war, acknowledging that motivations for fighting were complex—ranging from the idealistic and romantic to the cynical and self-interested. Yet, while showing that these motivations generally defied caricature, he also argues that they are sorted into fundamentally backward or forward-looking attitudes, and that the latter—symbolized by Union victory and Lee’s concession of his vision for the war—was finally determinative for America’s development as a country.