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Author explores the legend of two friends fighting on opposite sides of a conflict

Author Tom McMillan on his book "Armistead and Hancock: Behind the Gettysburg Legend of Two Friends at the Turning Point of the Civil War"

FILE PHOTO: Confederate re-enactors take part in a demonstration of a battle during ongoing activities commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg at Bushey Farm in Gettysburg.

 Matt Rourke / AP Photo

FILE PHOTO: Confederate re-enactors take part in a demonstration of a battle during ongoing activities commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg at Bushey Farm in Gettysburg.

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In a war of brother versus brother, theirs has become the most famous broken friendship: Union general Winfield Scott Hancock and Confederate general Lewis Armistead.

Books like Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels (1974) and the movie Gettysburg (1993), which was based on the novel, presented a close friendship divided by war, but history reveals something different.

Were Generals Hancock and Armistead rightly cast as symbols of a nation torn apart, or merely acquaintances who’s lives intersected but were not connected?

Author Tom McMillan on his book Armistead and Hancock: Behind the Gettysburg Legend of Two Friends at the Turning Point of the Civil War, appears on Smart Talk Tuesday to set the record straight on the relationship between the two historic figures.

 

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