Battle Tested!: Gettysburg Leadership Lessons for 21st Century Leaders. Jeffrey D. McCausland and Tom Vossler. Brentwood TN: Post Hill, 2020.

Battle Tested!: Gettysburg Leadership Lessons for 21st Century Leaders is the combined effort of its authors Jeff McCausland and Tom Vossler. Both men are retired Army colonels and combat veterans; McCausland served as Dean of the Army War College before founding his own leadership and strategy firm, while Vossler now works as a licensed battlefield guide at Gettysburg and has written several books on Civil War battles.[1] They bring these backgrounds to their work, an exploration of successful leadership traits and skills that is filtered through the lens of both Union and Confederate senior officers during one of the most important battles of American history.

While the authors center Battle Tested! on the Battle of Gettysburg, the book is ultimately more about leadership than history.

Battle Tested! focuses on the three decisive days of battle—July 1 to 3, 1863—between George Meade’s Army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia near the sleepy town of Gettysburg. After a brief overview of Civil War-era military organizations, each book chapter focuses on a major event or phase of the battle. The chapters provide historical and biographical background and then present a “Leadership Moment” for the reader, asking what they would do in a particular commander’s shoes at that point. Then the authors present several leadership qualities at play in the scenario, explain the importance of each, and provide modern examples to supplement their analysis.

While the authors center Battle Tested! on the Battle of Gettysburg, the book is ultimately more about leadership than history. The authors present a clear and chronological narrative of the battle and its historical and strategic contexts, but Battle Tested! focuses primarily on the major thrusts of the Gettysburg battle by both sides of the conflict, its leadership lessons drawn from the decisions and personalities of each side’s most senior officers. Those readers who want to explore the minutiae of Gettysburg are better served by already existing historical works that go into much deeper detail and depth about the battle and its participants, such as Stephen Sears’ Gettysburg or Allen Guelzo’s Gettysburg: The Last Invasion.[2] Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Killer Angels is the classic dramatic retelling of the battle.[3]

…Battle Tested! [is] immediately accessible and understandable to both Gettysburg experts and newcomers, and serves both these audiences extremely well.

The book’s focus on major events and senior officers during the battle, supplemented by simplified and straightforward maps throughout the narrative, instead serves another goal: it makes Battle Tested! immediately accessible and understandable to both Gettysburg experts and newcomers, and serves both these audiences extremely well. This approach allows McCausland and Vossler to narrowly focus on a figure’s key decision point, giving the reader just enough information to understand the complexity of their situation and drive the narrative forward so the authors can spend most of their time and energy diving into the core of their work: wringing an impressive amount of leadership qualities from the key moments of a single battle and providing an in-depth analysis and exploration of each of these traits and skills.

The authors’ focus on generals and senior-level officers in their study of Gettysburg also leads to a greater emphasis on leadership attributes and competencies more applicable to what U.S. Army doctrine might define as “organizational leadership.”[4] Today’s Army recognizes three types of leadership: direct, organizational, and strategic.[5] Direct leadership often focuses on executing tasks, organizational leadership focuses on maintaining systems and processes, while strategic leadership focuses on managing whole-of-government, national, or global ways, means, and ends. The primary focus on the responsibility of leaders from the regimental to army level therefore emphasizes the interpersonal; the relationship and culture-building aspects of leadership that feature prominently in any study of organizational leadership.

The competencies and attributes explored in Battle Tested! therefore steer readers more towards a less hierarchical, more collective style of leadership and command whose lessons can apply more widely to modern-day readers, organizations, and scenarios.

For instance, one fascinating section of the book is its exploration of informal relationships and personal authority. The authors use the case of Colonel Strong Vincent, who on July 2 needed to decide whether to move his Brigade to Wheatfield and Peach Orchard as ordered, or to Little Round Top based on guidance offered by Brigadier General Warren.[6] Battle Tested! argues that although Warren had no real command authority over Vincent and his brigade, since Warren was a staff officer and not a commander, Vincent ultimately followed Warren’s guidance based on his respect and trust for the latter, rather than any formal authority the general may have had over his unit.[7] This particular example speaks to a leader’s personal authority and influence, and how it affects others’ decision-making and the organization’s overall functionality. A reader might not necessarily find such an example of the complex structure of informal relationships in a book focused solely on direct or tactical leadership.

The competencies and attributes explored in Battle Tested! therefore steer readers more towards a less hierarchical, more collective style of leadership and command whose lessons can apply more widely to modern-day readers, organizations, and scenarios. Take for instance the authors’ analysis of each side’s decision-making during the night of July 2. Here, McCausland and Vossler praise General Meade’s use of a council of war to plan for the next day, while criticizing General Lee’s more go-it-alone approach the same night. The authors make their approval of Meade’s use of informal discussion and a vote quite clear, arguing the approach allowed Meade to “get buy-in from his team.”[8] Meanwhile, McClausland and Vossler make clear that Lee’s decision to plan for the next day of battle “in virtual isolation from his confidants” doomed the organization, since doing so meant he “had not reached out to his subordinates for the true capabilities of their commands” and that he “failed to recognize that his style of method of leadership in this battle was not working.”[9]

A book focused on senior military officers during a decisive battle might risk perpetuating a kind of Great Man Theory

The authors concede that “achieving buy-in was more important for Meade than Lee” because Meade was more or less “leading his peer group,” having only been appointed to his command five days ago over subordinate commanders with more seniority.[10] However, the fact that Meade, despite the unique context, still even had to consider promoting buy-in and collective decision-making shows these principles are universally applicable, even for a nineteenth-century army. A book focused on senior military officers during a decisive battle might risk perpetuating a kind of Great Man Theory by implicitly arguing that the inherent qualities of a commander determine a battle’s outcome. However the authors actively fight this throughout the whole book by placing just as much, if not more, emphasis on relationships than the personal traits and abilities of a single commander. They disapprove of those leaders who rely too heavily on the latter.

Although Battle Tested! is filled with outstanding examples of organizational leadership, it still offers plenty of examples of direct and strategic leadership. Lee’s order to Confederate General Richard Ewell to “take that hill if practical to do so” on July 1 arguably serves as an important vignette on direct leadership.[11] The authors also bookend the work by exploring the strategic issues and leadership of Presidents Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln. The authors also still explore individual attributes, such as initiative and critical thinking. No matter what kind of leadership scenario or issue a reader might face in the future, no doubt they will find an applicable vignette or lesson from the book.

Battle Tested!’s biggest shortcoming is arguably how the authors structure the book’s “Leadership Moments” for readers to debate and consider. Each “Leadership Moment” puts the reader in an officer's shoes and asks what decision they would make at that moment in time. Although the authors insist “there are frequently many options, and several can be equally justified,” very rarely do the authors explore the strengths and weaknesses of each possible choice.[12] The authors almost always imply whether the decision was the right one, supported either by the certain leadership qualities the decision embodied or failed to embody, or by whether the decision ultimately made by the individual ultimately played out to their advantage. Still, the book’s “Leadership Moments” effectively summarize the problems faced in each historical vignette, allowing the authors to present the relevant leadership qualities in an effective, logical, and organized manner while advancing the narrative of the battle.

Battle Tested! Gettysburg Leadership Lessons for 21st Century Leaders is an extremely versatile and effective compilation of leadership lessons and qualities. Although it draws on one of the most important battles of the Civil War, it neither presumes nor requires the reader to possess an in-depth familiarity with its events or key decision-makers to reap its historical lessons. McCausland and Vossler have created an invaluable resource that current and aspiring leaders in all walks of life, from first-year Cadets to seasoned business leaders, will find useful for their personal development.

Leo Li is an Armor officer in the U.S. Army. The views represented in the article are the author’s alone and do not reflect the views of the U.S. Army, Department of Defense, or U.S. Government.

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Header Image: General Warren at Little Round Top, Gettysburg, PA 2021 (Tyrell Mayfield).

Notes:

[1] Jeffery D. McCausland and Tom Vossler, Battle Tested! Gettysburg Leadership Lessons for 21st Century Leaders (New York: Post Hill Press, 2020).

[2] See Stephen W. Sears, Gettysburg (Boston: Mariner Books, 2004). See also Allen C. Guelzo, Gettysburg: The Last Invasion (New York: Vintage, 2014).

[3] Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels (New York: Ballantine Books, 1974).

[4] Department of the Army, Army Leadership and the Profession, ADP 6-22 (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 2017), 9-1, https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN20039-ADP_6-22-001-WEB-0.pdf.

[5] Ibid., 1-22.

[6] McCausland and Vossler, Battle Tested!, 88.

[7] Ibid., 91-92.

[8] Ibid., 113.

[9] Ibid., 115-116.

[10] Ibid, 114.

[11] Ibid, 63-65.

[12] Ibid., xvi.