STYLE

Metaphor:

"The cannons were blossoming." (p.206)

"His mind, temporarily sidetracked, oiled itself and ticked and turned and woke up, functioning." (p.220)

"He could see troops running; he could see the blue flood, the bloody tide." (p.226)

Personification:

"Thunder...not angry yet, but growling." (p.206)

Similes:

"The hill was shaped like a comma." (p.211)

"He felt the emptiness to his left like a pressure, a coolness, the coming of winter." (p.212)

"An angular moustache, like a messy inverted U." (p.212)

"Incapable of standing up straight, he listed [tilted], like a sinking ship." (p.213)

"The battle moved this way, like a wall of rain moving through the trees." (p.214)

"The Rebs seemed to be coming on like a lapping wave, rolling up the beach." (p.216)

"[He felt a] blow in the side like a lightning bolt." (p.219)

"His scabbard rippled like a spiderÂ’s leg." (p.219)

"The face of the officer was very white, like old paper." (p.228)

"[He] felt a grin break out as if stepping into lovely sunshine." (p.230)

"Head bobbing bareheaded like a lively mossy white rock." (p.230)

"Rice was clucking like a chicken. ‘Amazing. They ran like sheep.’ " (p.233)

Show to Tell:

"A weird sound, a wail, a ghost, high and thin. For a vague second he thought it was the sound of a man in awful pain, many men. Then he knew: the Rebel yell." (p.215)

Allusion & Role Reversal:

"Whole Reb army coming right this way. Wonder who? Longstreet? He was behind the stone wall at Fredericksburg. Now we have our own stone wall."

Imagery & Color:

"Gray-green-yellow uniforms...Coming out of the green, out of the dark...They seemed to be rising out of the ground." (p.216)

Irony:

" ‘I keep thinking I better come back and help you, but you said stay out there and guard that flank, so I did...Nobody came nowhere near me until just a few minutes ago...Easiest fight I was ever in.’ " (p.229) Chamberlain was almost down to the last man, but this one part of his regiment didn’t see any action at all.

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