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In 2013, I celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1 -- 3, 1863, by reading Carol Reardon's and Tom Vossler's new book, "A Field Guide to Gettysburg: Experiencing the Battlefield through its History, Places, and People". It is "altogether fitting and proper" to think further about Gettysburg and to review the book, as I first did, on Independence Day, 2013. Carol Reardon teaches at Pennsylvania State University and is best-known for her book on Pickett's Charge, "Pickett's Charge in History and Memory" and for a book on Civil War military thinking, "With a Sword in One Hand and Jomini in the Other: The Problem of Military Thought in the Civil War North". Vossler, a retired Army colonel, is former director of the U.S. Army Military Institute and a licensed battlefield guide at Gettysburg.
Reardon's and Vossler's book is arranged as a "field guide" to the battlefield for use for visitors to the park. In many ways, it serves this purpose well. The book is a compact paperback, lightweight and easy to carry, and printed on glossy, sturdy paper. It is organized into 34 "stops" each covering a separate point of interest on the battlefield. The authors provide detailed driving instructions between one stop and the next. They also provide the reader with a precise orientation on the ground, indicating where to stand and where to look to gain an understanding of the military action. Each of the stops is also accompanied by a precise, highly useful map illustrating the flow of the action -- many battle studies tend to be short on mapping -- with the location of the reader indicated as a point of reference.
Each chapter presents its material uniformly, following a fixed set of six questions. Thus the reader learns for each of the sites: 1. what happened here? 2. who fought here? 3.who commanded here? 4.who fell here? 5. who lived here? and 6. what was said later about the action at the site. The authors explore these questions succinctly but with a great deal of detail. Thus, they describe the military action, the commanders on both sides at the particular site, the casualties, with detailed accounting by regiments and brigade of those killed, wounded or missing, the owners of the property on which the action took place, and historians and others discussion of the action in the years following the battle. The discussion also includes many photographs, many of which are rare and contemporaneous with the battle. In the discussion of "who fell here" the authors give short stories of soldiers on both sides of the line who were killed in the combat.
After a short introduction to the Gettysburg campaign and to the organization of the armies, the book begins with the first "stop", Cemetery Hill, the pivotal point of the battle. They proceed to present the battle chronologically, with 12 stops for July 1, 14 for July 2, and 7 stops for July 3. The final stop covers the Soldiers' National Cemetery while a short concluding chapter describes the retreat and aftermath of the battle.
Reardon and Vossler have written a good, detailed account of Gettysburg. The book reminded me of the heroism of the soldiers on both sides, of the tragedy of the battle, and of the complexity of the military action. For a visit to Gettysburg, the book needs to be used carefully. For most readers, it will be of most use in pointing out the sites to visit together with driving directions, orienting the reader at the site, and briefly summarizing the action. The 400 page text is far too extensive and difficult for the reader to absorb on a single visit to the park. It took me the better part of three days -- the commemoration days of the battle -- to read the book. It would be virtually impossible to do the book justice and absorb the details in the course of an on the ground visit.
The book would be valuable to have at the park as an overview and a guide but it is no substitute for a close visit to Gettysburg. On balance, I think the book will have most value to readers who have spent time at Gettysburg and who have at least a basic working knowledge of the battle.
I was unable to visit Gettysburg for the 150th anniversary, and I have not been to the battlefield for too many years, but Reardon and Vossler helped me commemorate the battle's many iconic moments for the United States. I was pleased to share my thoughts about the book and to think about American freedom and democracy on Independence Day, 2013, and to think about the book again in posting the review here on Alibris today.
