A Complete Hand-Book of the Monuments and Indications and Guide to the Positions on the Gettysburg Battlefield - There's a Book About It on Waymarking.com

This book is a terrific companion guide for a virtual tour of the park which would take several days if you tried to do it right. This book has a single unique characteristic which makes it indispensable. It was written in a time when monuments were being built, erected and dedicated. The author had first hand knowledge and first person sources of the events and services which happened and which were held as the battlefield became preserved and memorialized.

The author walked the Battlefield everyday since the battle and before. He was there when the war occurred. He talked to both sides of the conflict, visited the hospitals and pretty much was the eyes and ears of this town. This book, in fact, may be one of the most important first hand accounts of the war as seen through the monuments that has been ignored or unrecognized. I learned much from its pages.

So, the book was written and published in a time when the major and most important monuments were erected or about to be erected, being released in 1886, only twenty-three years after the end of the battle. Read the book and you will discover first hand accounts and descriptions of the monuments, their unveilings and dedications when most of them were brand new and the Battle of Gettysburg was only 23 years old. Imagine, living in a time when the Civil War was still a topic of relevance, read daily in the newspapers and the Battle of Gettysburg was something which 'just' happened. So cool!

Published 1886 by B.M. Sturgeon & Co. in Harrisburg, Penn