My father loved Civil War history, particularly the details surrounding the Battle of Gettysburg. My family visited the battlefield and surrounding museums many times during my childhood, and I have tried -- with my father's assistance, when he was still able -- to instill that passion for history in my own children. I picked up a copy of Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel, written and illustrated by C.M. Butzer, thinking it might be a simple tool to help my younger kids understand the battle and the ramifications it had on the continuing war.

It's a fast read, just 69 pages with relatively little text. And ... it's disappointing.

I was concerned from the beginning, where Butzer writes in a two-page summation of the circumstances leading up to the battle that "the Confederates were closing in on Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. If the South conquered Gettysburg, it could threaten the bigger cities of Harrisburg and Philadelphia and ultimately break through to Washington, D.C." Well, no. As even my young children know, the Confederates under General Robert E. Lee intended to march through Lancaster and Philadelphia before turning south toward the capitol, but they were stopped at the Susquehanna River when townsfolk in Columbia burned in the only bridge in the area. Gettysburg was not a part of Lee's grand plan, it was a fallback position when his army retreated from the river and headed west.

Someone who is already familiar with the details of the three-day battle in Gettysburg might recognize events such as the running battle as a small Union force led by Brigadier General John Buford sought to delay the Confederate advance until reinforcements could arrive, the gallant defense of Little Round Top commanded by Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, and the brave but foolhardy attack remembered as Pickett's Charge. If you don't already know the details of those events, don't expect to learn them here. Butzer devotes scant pages to those pivotal actions and provides little context for them, preferring instead to draw cartoonish sketches of open-mouthed soldiers looking terrified. He spends much more time on drawing dead bodies in the aftermath, with one two-page spread showing a dead soldier pointing at the circling vultures in far too comical a pose.

The book concludes with a dramatic excerpt from the two-hour speech given at the battlefield later that year by orator Edward Everett, followed by the entirety of Abraham Lincoln's brief and poorly received (at the time) Gettysburg Address. Lincoln's speech gets more attention from Butzer than anything else in this book.

Anyone who makes it to the end can learn additional details by reading nine pages of author's notes, but readers would have been much better served if those details were included in the main body of the book. I learned nothing new from this book, and I don't think my kids would, either. I won't bother giving it to them, I'm sure I can find a far better resource for them elsewhere.