Additional Reading
Internet Resources
There is a vast amount of material available on the Internet dealing with the Civil War. Here are some general references, followed by more particular links to the Gettysburg site. From any one of these sites there are, of course, numerous branches, so you may wish to come back here repeatedly.The Gettysburg National Military Park Home Page is probably the best place to begin, although you may also wish to visit The Gettysburg Visitor's Center as well.
The American Civil War Homepage is a master collection of links, frequently updated; together with The United States Civil War Center at Louisiana State University these are the two chief portals for Civil War material.
The Civil War Artillery Page may have more than
you wanted to know about Civil War artillery, but it is worth visiting.
The American Memory Project at the Library of Congress has a number of relevant collections, including Civil War photographs, Mr. Lincoln's Virtual Library, a rich map collection, sheet music of the Civil War, a large collection of pamphlets related to African Americans before, after, and during the war and more.
Lincoln Net is the home of the Abraham Lincoln Digitization
Project; a growing site, it has a great deal of material.
Finally, check the
in Hagerstown, MD (about 25 miles away) before you go.
Additional Reading
All of the materials you need for the staff ride are in the packets you have received. But should you have an interest
in further exploration of the battle, here are some suggestions (titles link to Amazon.com):
Michael Shaara, The Killer
Angels (New York: Ballantine, 1993).< >A tremendously powerful fictional account of high command at Gettysburg,
and one of the greatest war novels in the English language. But remind yourself - its fiction!
Edwin B. Coddington, The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1968).< >Easily the best one-volume account.
Jay Luvaas and Harold W. Nelson, eds.,
The U.S. Army War College Guide to the Battle of Gettysburg (New York: Harper & Row, 1986). These collections of
essays summarize recent scholarship on various aspects of the Gettysburg campaign, and have particularly interesting
reappraisals of key commanders. Their scope is wider than one might think (for example, a discussion of Pickett's charge
in the American historical imagination).
William A. Frassanito,
Gettysburg: A Journey in Time. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1975). The author, an intelligence analyst turned
photographic historian, has assembled a wonderful collection of then-and-now shots of the battlefield.
Garry Wills, Lincoln at
Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992). Wills presents the history of Lincoln’s
Gettysburg Address, placing it in the context of other funeral orations in history, and painting Lincoln as embarked on
the self-conscious "refounding" of America.
Gabor S. Boritt, ed. Why the
Confederacy Lost, Lincoln the War President and Lincoln's Generals (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992, 1992,
1994). Three excellent collections of recent scholarship, on the themes indicated.
James M. McPherson and William J. Cooper, eds.,
Writing the Civil War: The Quest to Understand (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998). A fine
collection of essays by top scholars on central issues of dispute in the history of the Civil War.
Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic:
Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War (New York: Vintage, 1999). A wonderful book by a Pulitzer prize winner about
how the memory of the Civil War lingers, in hilarious and deeply disturbing ways.
War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol.. 27 (3 parts), Serial numbers
43-45 (Washington: Government Printing Office 1889).
Finally, if you are interested in a general study of high command in war, including a chapter on Abraham Lincoln, see
Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime by Eliot A. Cohen (New York: Free Press, 2002).