Travelling to Gettysburg soon, good travel books to bring?

Take "The Maps of Gettysburg" by Bradley M. Gottfried. Good maps together with good descriptions of the actions for each. When you get to Gettysburg there are some good bookshops (including one on the corner of Steinwehr Ave and Baltimore). Make sure you go to the Visitor Center which has a good bookstore.
 
Choose one of these:

Carol Reardon and Tom Vossler, A Field Guide to Gettysburg
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0807835250/?tag=civilwartalkc-20

JD Petruzzi and Steve Stanley, The Complete Gettysburg Guide
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1932714634/?tag=civilwartalkc-20

I always have one of those with me on the battlefield.

A brand new 2-volume edition of Phil Laino's Gettysburg Campaign Atlas has just been published. It will be the source for Gettysburg battle maps because it's specially designed to be taken out onto the battlefield with you. Right now it's only available from Gettysburg Publishing, which is located in the Gettysburg Village next door to the Battlefields and Beyond book store. $52, but it's two volumes.
 
So far, I agree with what everyone has posted. I would add "Gettysburg: The Story of the Battle With Maps" by Stackpole books. It looks like it doesn't have much to it, but it's soft cover, and it really does have good maps for easy access. And you won't feel bad when you get it muddy or torn up because it's not expensive.

Also, not a book, but I've downloaded multiple maps of the monuments from the Stone Sentinels website, and saved them as photos so I can access them on my phone or iPad, because on the battlefield you don't often have good internet access. For a book that locates monuments I use "Guide to Gettysburg Monuments" by Tom Huntington. It's small, and really good, and gives GPS coordinates, as well.
 
One more suggestion - I don't know how long you will be in Gettysburg or if this is you first visit but you can buy the "Gettysburg Expedition Guide" which has a couple of CD's you can play in your car as you follow the Auto Tour. This takes you around the whole battlefield starting at McPherson Ridge and ending at the Confederate High Water Mark on day 3. It's a good intro if you are new to the area.
 
It'll be my first trip probably be there for 2 days Kipling. Most likely I'm thinking around late may. I'm not sure how warm it is there in the early summer but probably not as hot and humid as here in NE.
 
And, as always, I highly suggest visiting the Civil War Trust site. If you're into apps....their Battlefield App for Gettysburg is really nice.

http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/gettysburg.html

And it's all absolutely free, although we obviously hope you will become a fan and make a donation to the battlefield of your choice. :smile:
 
And, as always, I highly suggest visiting the Civil War Trust site. If you're into apps....their Battlefield App for Gettysburg is really nice.

http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/gettysburg.html

And it's all absolutely free, although we obviously hope you will become a fan and make a donation to the battlefield of your choice. :smile:

They actually have a couple different battlefield apps, one for the battle, one for each day. I've used them all (there's a quiz/challenge that Gary Adelman put together, I think, in the Second a Day one that was a lot of fun to complete!). And you can download or print out their maps.
 
I highly recommend this monument guide, Dan!

51MXOanUrZL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
 
It'll be my first trip probably be there for 2 days Kipling. Most likely I'm thinking around late may. I'm not sure how warm it is there in the early summer but probably not as hot and humid as here in NE.
May should be a nice time to visit, not too warm - and not too cold!
 
Take "The Maps of Gettysburg" by Bradley M. Gottfried. Good maps together with good descriptions of the actions for each. When you get to Gettysburg there are some good bookshops (including one on the corner of Steinwehr Ave and Baltimore). Make sure you go to the Visitor Center which has a good bookstore.

This

Plus: When you go to the bookstore ask for "the large battlefield map on the waterproof paper" (great bookstore, but not that knowledgeable clerks) and use it for a reference along with Gottfried's book.

Another consideration: If this is your first time in Gettysburg I would highly recommend to get the book with the audio CD tour of the battlefield and do the audio tour before you do anything else. Takes a couple of hours or so, it is fairly basic, but it will give you a good solid basis of the battlefield and the battle as a whole, before you begin your digging in :smile:

Enjoy
 
E_just_E,
Will do! I'll print off this thread most likely so I'll have all of your ideas in hardcopy to look at. I'm really excited to go and I think it will really change the way I look at things. It will put images and places to the stories I have been reading which really add a hard dose of reality to to my studying. Can't wait! My wife asked me what vacation we should take and I said we're going to gettsyburg! :smile:
Kipling: Thanks for the weather verification!
 
One more thing, now that I am thinking about it: I suspect that since you are in NE you are flying over there. If you have not made any arrangements yet, I would suggest to look into flying to Harrisburg (MDT) instead of Philly and then drive down. You will probably get a better deal (albeit not a direct flight from OMA,) it is a shorter distance, and you will be able to retrace Ewell's and Stuart's steps to Gettysburg (from Carlisle and environs) driving there, if you do some homework before.
 
Gosh. Just realized this is in the Book and Movie Review tent....but there are a bunch of great threads on travel to Gettysburg in our Travel forum. Be sure and read those. You'll probably get some more good hints!
 
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