COMPLETE GETTYSBURG GUIDE: Walking and Driving Tours of the Battlefield, Town, Cemeteries, Field Hospital Sites, and other Topics of Historical Interest [Hardcover]

J. David Petruzzi (Author), Steven Stanley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2009

Winner of The Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award, for Reference, 2009.

Some two million people visit the battlefield at Gettysburg each year. It is one of the most popular historical destinations in the United States. Most visitors tour the field by following the National Park Service's suggested auto tour. The standard tour, however, skips crucial monuments, markers, battle actions, town sites, hospital locations, and other hidden historical gems that should be experienced by everyone. These serious oversights are fully rectified in The Complete Gettysburg Guide, penned by noted Gettysburg historian J. David Petruzzi and illustrated with the lavish, full-color photography and maps (70) of Civil War cartographer Steven Stanley.

Complete, detailed, and up-to-date, The Complete Gettysburg Guide: Walking and Driving Tours of the Battlefield, Town, Cemeteries, Field Hospital Sites, and other Topics of Historical Interest includes:

- Detailed driving and walking tours of the entire battlefield (including obscure sites that even veteran visitors miss or never hear about); - A tour of every identified field hospital site for both armies; - Tours of the National Cemetery and the town's Evergreen Cemetery; - A tour of the town of Gettysburg, including sites of historical interest before and after the battle;- Outlying battlefields including the June 26, 1863 skirmish site, East Cavalry Field, South Cavalry Field, Hunterstown, Hanover, and Fairfield; - And a special tour of the various rock carvings on the battlefield, many of which were created by returning veterans and pre-date most of the monuments.

Every student of Gettysburg, novice and expert alike, will want to learn from, enjoy, and treasure The Complete Gettysburg Guide. No visitor to Gettysburg will want to be without it.

About the Authors: J. David Petruzzi is widely recognized as one of the country's leading Gettysburg experts. In addition to his numerous articles for a wide variety of publications, he is the author (with Eric Wittenberg) of bestsellers Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart's Controversial Ride to Gettysburg (Savas Beatie, 2006) and (with Wittenberg and Michael Nugent) One Continuous Fight: The Retreat From Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, July 4-14, 1863 (Savas Beatie, 2008). Petruzzi is also a popular speaker on the Civil War Roundtable circuit and regularly conducts tours of Civil War battlefields.

Steven Stanley lives in Gettysburg and is a graphic artist specializing in historical map design and battlefield photography. His maps, considered among the best in historical cartography, have been a longtime staple of the Civil War Preservation Trust and have helped raised millions of dollars for the Trust through their preservation appeals and interpretation projects. Steve's maps have appeared in a wide variety of publications.

REVIEWS

WINNER FOR REFERENCE, 2009, ARMY HISTORICAL FOUNDATION DISTINGUISHED BOOK AWARD"Together, the text and maps contained in The Complete Gettysburg Guide create one of the most useful and comprehensive guides of America's largest and bloodiest battlefield available today."Eric A. Campbell, Park Ranger-Historian, Gettysburg National Military Park

"The Complete Gettysburg Guide has something for everyone, whether they are a serious student of the battle or visiting the battlefield for the first time. The easy-to-understand guidebook not only provides readers with a comprehensive history of the battle, but also enables visitors to see some of the unusual or often overlooked features the National Park has to offer. Further, the accompanying images and well-researched maps bring the 3-day struggle to life for the modern battlefield traveler."Jim Campi, Policy and Communications Director, Civil War Preservation Trust

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Savas Beatie; 1st edition, edition (June 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932714634
• ISBN-13: 978-1932714630
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.8 x 4.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #50,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #59 in Books > Travel > Reference & Tips > Tourist Destinations & Museums
  • #97 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Hiking & Camping > Excursion Guides

More About the Author

J. David Petruzzi is a long-time student of American history, specializing in the Civil War. He was recently named the Historical Advisor for the upcoming 8-part TV miniseries "To Appomattox" (scheduled to be released during the summer of 2013).

He is the author of many articles in magazines such as America's Civil War, Civil War Times, Blue&Gray, and North and South. In 2006, his first book (with Eric Wittenberg) appeared, and is a best-selling narrative of Jeb Stuart's advance to Gettysburg titled "Plenty of Blame To Go Around." In 2008 his second book, "One Continuous Fight" (with Wittenberg and Michael Nugent), a narrative of the retreat from Gettysburg, is also a best-seller. In 2009, Petruzzi's third book, featuring maps and a complete design by acclaimed cartographer/graphic designer Steven Stanley, is titled "The Complete Gettysburg Guide." It opened to rave reviews, and won the US Army's Award for Excellence in the Reference category. As a followup, Petruzzi narrated an audio guide to the Gettysburg battlefield. Featuring packaging and maps designed by Stanley, it is one of the most popular audio guides to the field. "The New Gettysburg Campaign Handbook" by Petruzzi and Stanley was released in June 2011 and as a companion to their Gettysburg Guide, it is packed with a narrative, trivia and facts of entire campaign. Featuring a design and maps by Stanley, the book has likewise become a best-seller.

Appearing in June 2012 is Petruzzi and Stanley's newest book, "The Gettysburg Campaign in Numbers and Losses." Featuring over 60 new maps of the entire campaign by Stanley, the book contains Orders of Battle, Strengths, and Losses for 42 engagements of the campaign from June 9 through July 14. Now readers will be able to see the exact losses each army suffered throughout the campaign at each engagement, as well as the total losses for the five-week period.

Petruzzi is currently working on several book projects, including a guide to the 1862 Maryland Campaign (will be released summer 2012), as well as several other Gettysburg-related projects. In 2009, following the release of the Gettysburg guide, he was a featured author on the Pennsylvania Cable Network's "PA Books" Show, which was viewed by several million subscribers across several states. He has also been a guest on several radio talk shows, as well as a historical advisor to documentary films that have appeared on national television such as History and PBS.

In addition to studying history and speaking to various historical groups and Civil War Rountables, Petruzzi enjoys outdoor pursuits such as gardening, fishing, and traveling. He lives in northwest Pennsylvania with his wife Karen.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great guide for any visitor to Gettysburg!, June 2, 2009

By 

Kevin Killingsworth - See all my reviews
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This review is from: COMPLETE GETTYSBURG GUIDE: Walking and Driving Tours of the Battlefield, Town, Cemeteries, Field Hospital Sites, and other Topics of Historical Interest (Hardcover)

During my visit to Gettysburg the week prior to Memorial Day, I was fortunate to obtain a copy of "The Complete Gettysburg Guide". I have traveled to Gettysburg before and used one of the popular CD auto tour guides to see the battlefield. While that is an excellent way to get a very broad overview of the fighting at each tour stop on the battlefield, I found that it lacked much depth and provided very few human interest stories. For this most recent trip to the battlefield, I was determined to learn more than what is provided in the CD auto tour. After much searching on the internet, the description of "The Complete Gettysburg Guide" really caught my attention.

The book more or less covers the following touring topics: 1) The main battlefield 2) Outlying battlefields (the Calvary battlefields, Fairfield, Hunterstown, etc) 3) Field Hospital Sites 4) National and Evergreen Cemeteries 5) Town of Gettysburg and 6) Rock Carvings. Of the 284 pages, less than half (109 pages) focus on the main battlefield tour. The other 175 pages cover the other five topics. While the book goes into very good detail on the main battlefield, one of its main strengths is giving the other additional educational tours of the area to provide a very well rounded and more in depth education than any other tour guide I have seen on Gettysburg. I found the book to be most beneficial when touring the areas of the Longstreet's assault on July 2nd, in particular the Wheatfield. Most people I think spend about twice as much time staring off the summit of Little Round Top than they do touring the Wheatfield. As any Gettysburg enthusiast knows, the Wheatfield was by far one of the more bloody and heavily contested pieces of land of the whole battle (Little Round Top was a skirmish compared to the Wheatfield). The battle waged back and forth over the area of the Wheatfield and the surrounding outlying areas. The book gives very good information on what happed in this area by stages of battle. The color maps were very informative and provided an extra level of detail that you can not find on the standard black and white maps in most tour books.

While my main focus was the main battlefield, I was able to do portions of the other tour topics and found them to be a great experience (in particular the Cemeteries tour). When I visit Gettysburg again, I would like to do more of the town tour and the outlying battlefields tours.

If your main interest is in the main battlefield only, I would still strongly recommend this book. The main battlefield tour is divided into two sections: July 1st and July 2nd-3rd. The July 1st tour has 12 tour stops, and the July 2nd-3rd tour has 18 tour stops.. The book gives great background information at each tour stop and the maps are fantastic in helping someone understand the movement of troups at each stop. The book also gives multiple stories of the personal lives that were affected by the battle in various ways. These human interest stories add a lot to the learning experience of the tour.

Whether you are looking for a casual tour of the battlefield or something more in depth, I would strongly recommend this book. While it is laid out in a simple to follow format, it provides very good depth in its writing and quantity of maps to make your touring experience most enjoyable and educational.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tour-Tested Success, September 7, 2009

By 

Bob "Lee's Lieutenant" (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: COMPLETE GETTYSBURG GUIDE: Walking and Driving Tours of the Battlefield, Town, Cemeteries, Field Hospital Sites, and other Topics of Historical Interest (Hardcover)

I recently spent a weekend in Gettysburg with a fellow Civil Warrior and this book. The book was invaluable and the best thing we did in connection with the trip. We spent Friday afternoon doing the July 1 tour, Saturday on July 2-3, and Sunday doing the visitor center, East Cavalry Field, and Hunterstown.

I really appreciated the excellent maps and the insights into a number of locations that I never would have known without this guide, aside from reading about them in books. For example, seeing where Brinkerhoff's Ridge was and how it fit in was instructive, and other highlights that were a bit off the beaten path included Willoughby's Run, Pegram's deployment in the Chambersburg Pike, sit of the opening shot, finally finding Iverson's attack, Pitzer's Woods, Big Round Top and Farnsworth's charge sites, the stone wall where Benning's men took cover while attacking the Devil's Den area, the Brickyard Fight in the town, and Benner's Hill. I've been to Gettysburg several times over a 20 year period but never seen the real battlefield in depth like this. This book provides a great service to Gettysburg scholarship.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grand for browsing, too, not just touring, June 24, 2009

By 

Bruce Trinque (Amston, CT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: COMPLETE GETTYSBURG GUIDE: Walking and Driving Tours of the Battlefield, Town, Cemeteries, Field Hospital Sites, and other Topics of Historical Interest (Hardcover)

"The Complete Gettysburg Guide" by J. David Petruzzi (text) and Steven Stanley (maps) pretty well lives up to its name -- it covers the Battle of Gettysburg in considerable detail, not just the battle itself, but also peripheral matters such as the town itself, the field hospitals used after the battle, related fights at Hunterstown and Fairfiled, and even rock carvings (and dinosaur footprints!) to be found on the Battlefield. The maps are highly detailed, but clear and easy to follow. And the text gives a comprehensive view of the battle.

Obviously, this is a volume that would prove valuable in driving or walking across the Gettysburg Battlefield, but it is also evident that it is more than that: this is a volume which deserves a permanent spot on the bookshelves of Civil War enthusiasts as a ready reference to the battle. Numerous photographs, mostly modern but some contemporary, illustrate the text, beyond the glorious profusion of detailed topographical maps.