Part of an ongoing series revisiting graphic novels and collected editions from days gone by....

Having been so very disappointed by the lame history presented in C.M. Butzer's Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel, I decided to read Michael Burgan's The Battle of Gettysburg to see if it did a better job of telling the story of a pivotal three-day episode in the American Civil War. With less than 30 pages devoted to the battle, I had low expectations, especially after Butzer did such a poor job with nearly 70 pages to work with.

And yet, this is a much better book.

I was encouraged when I saw the list of other Capstone Press titles on the back of this book. It seems the line focuses on bringing historical events to life, with books devoted to diverse topics such as the Alamo, Marco Polo, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, King Tut's Tomb, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, John Brown and Harper's Ferry, the Salem Witch Trials, the Titanic, the Pony Express, John Sutter and the California Gold Rush, Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion, and the Statue of Liberty.

Burgan sets up the battle, explaining what motivated Confederate troops to invade the northern state of Pennsylvania, and he gives the highlights of major encounters that followed. He very quickly covers the particulars of Devil's Den and the Wheatfield, Big and Little Roundtop, the Peach Orchard and Pickett's Charge.

There aren't a lot of details here, but it's a fast read -- I finished the book in less than five minutes -- but for a young reader it can certainly whet an appetite for more. (Interested readers will find some suggestions for further study at the end.) The book ends with a two-page spread covering the Gettysburg address and the Confederates' surrender nearly two years later at Appomattox, Virginia.

Steve Erwin, Keith Williams and Charles Barnett III provide the illustrations. For the purposes of the book, it's fine -- nothing spectacular to see here, but it gives some visual context to the clashes, strategies and maneuvers of both sides over three days of hard fighting. The art is rough and lacks details, and on at least a few pages the Confederate soldiers are colored blue rather than gray ... but it serves its function to move the story forward.

By no means a complete history of Gettysburg, this brief introduction could definitely motivate someone to read more about the battle.