Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

"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.

This is an awesome book and packed full of information! I absolutely love Gettysburg and this book definately fills you in on all the history and must see places. Very highly recomend to anyone going to Gettysburg either for the first time or returning visitors.

Quite possibly the BEST field guide ever written, in my opinion. This book is wonderfully illustrated and gives extremely easy to follow directions to each and every point of interest including quite a few that we would never have known about had we not bought this book. I could fill a page with praise for this book, but you really have to see it and use it to truly appreciate it. It will be our Gettysburg companion for every trip. 5 stars and A+++.

You must have this book if you study the civil war and can't quite get to the battlefields and it is a MUST HAVE for visiting Gettysburg. So complete and you can use it in so many ways to greatly enhance your Gettysburg experience. Easy to read and find the paths you want to take to find your favorite part of history. Wonderful and informative.

I have been going to Gettysburg for 15 years , and have read and purchased just about every guide book there is. This is the best so far. I have purchased two copies of this book. It gives you step by step directions to everywhere , and everything. It even gives you trivia about the monuments , and locations , and even GPS co-ordinates , for some of the hard to find locations. I recommended this book to a co-worker , who did purchase it , and like it. It is money worth spending

J. David Patruzzi has put together a wonderful book for Gettysburg historians and newbies alike. This work is not just a field guide but a terrific history too. The maps by Steven Stanley are some of the best in any Gettysburg book and are easily read and understood, while they show multiple positions for each unit. J.D. Patruzzi put in old photgraphs I have not seen before and they help show the terrain as the soldiers saw it. The hard back book is the highest quality and the pages are slick high stock paper. Now if all you Gettysburg historians buy this book, then maybe later we can get the Spiral paper back version to take in the field. This one is too nice to leave my library.

I own several Gettysburg tours, both in print and in audio format. In my opinion this is the best of those done in a printed format. Not only is there a first class treatment of the three days battle, there are also tours of the Marsh Creek skirmish as well as the battles of Hunterstown and Fairfield. If you're fortunate enough to spend several days in Gettysburg there are also tours of the town, Soldier's National Cemetery, Battlefield rock carvings, and hospital sites to take in. The maps and photography of Steve Stanley in addition to the text and driving instructions make this a "must have" reference for anyone ranging from the average tourist to the most seasoned battlefield enthusiast.~G

This book is beautifully laid out. It has excellent maps and thorough and informative information about the battle sites, historical figures and of the events. I also like the tour of the town. It was easy to follow and didn't have to be done in any particular order. I highly recommend this book. For a different look at Gettysburg and its surrounding area, check out the historical novel The Gettysburg Conspiracy