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1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Gettysburg as seen through maps Sep 05, 2008
Gettysburg as seen through maps
Much has been written on the 3 days at Gettysburg, and excellent maps have been produced, but Bradley Gottfried concentrates on the battle through examining the various troop movement through detailed maps. He breaks down the entire 3 day battle into major combat segments giving concise accounts while showing the actual troops engaged and how they moved and fought the battle. By following Mr. Gottfried's precise maps one gets a better flavor of the ebb and flow of the battle. I liked how he had the entire map on the right side page, with NO crease breaks, and an explanation of the map on the facing page. That way you could read the battle description and follow along by glancing at the facing map: Excellent. I do have 2 relatively minor improvements for future editions. 1. Include more general overview maps of the general battle area under discussions. You can get a little lost around the Herbst Woods/Railroad Cut/ Oak Hill-Oak Ridge areas. I feel a general overview map of each day and general area would be nice. 2. A general time stamp on each map. That would better put the individual areas in a more understandable overview. These are minor and really do not detract that much from Mr. Gottfried's wonderful book.
This is a must have for any Civil War buff's library. I have already used it in conjunction with several other CW biographies I am currently reading. I hope this kind of cartographic examination will be done on other major CW battles.
All in all an outstanding addition to better understanding the complexities of Gettysburg. Well done Mr. Gottfried.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
An Atlas Of A Battle May 27, 2008
I can't begin to tell you how many descriptions of Civil War troop movements I've been frustrated by: this brigade moved here or that regiment moved there. I am a visual person, I learn best when I can visualize things... therefore I, by my nature, am a map person. Most books on Civil War battles contain only enough maps to cover the most basic aspects of troop movements in a particular battle. There are never enough maps for me.
Bradley Gottfried understands me and others like me and has authored nothing less than an atlas of the Gettysburg campaign. Like an oasis in the middle of the desert, The Maps of Gettysburg: An Atlas Of The Gettysburg Campaign, June 3 - July 13, 1863, has quenched my thirst for maps.
Mr. Gottfried's book contains 29 maps map sets, each containing between 2 & 21 maps, covering the advance to Gettysburg, the battle and the Confederate retreat. In all the 136 maps give nearly an hour by hour account of the three day battle that changed the course of American History. At last I am able to see and understand the fighting back and forth across the unfinished railroad cut on July 1st, the bloody, awful fighting in the Wheatfield and Peach Orchard on the 2nd and the breathtaking and awe inspiring lines of the Picket-Pettigrew-Trimble charge as they moved across the Emmitsburg Road on July 3rd.
Each map is accompanied on its left facing page by a descriptive text detailing the specificities of troop movements at the corps, division, brigade, regimental and some times even down to the company level.
My one and only criticism of Mr. Gottfried's book is there is almost no reference to time. A date/time stamp on each map would have been helpful, when moving from one map set to another in identifying events that were taking place on different areas the battlefield at approximately the same time. That is but a small flaw in an otherwise nearly perfect book.
The Maps of Gettysburg is without a doubt, an indispensable work on the Gettysburg Campaign. No library, Civil War historian or student of the war should be without a copy.
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Could have been better May 23, 2008
Althouth I loved the blow-by-blow, minute by minute (well, at least hour by hour) focus of the maps (the reason why I bought the book), I thought the maps could have been more interesting & appealing if they were in color (I would have paid the extra cost for the book!) and if they included the date & time range in the title or legend (without them you had to constantly refer to the text - maps should stand on their own). Also thought that there was very little devoted to the Union's retreat (re-deployment) through the town of Gettysburg, but I'll leave that to the experts on the battle.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 At last, enough maps Apr 17, 2008
If you have ever read a book detailing a battle such as Gettysburg, you may have found yourself wanting more maps than such books typically provide. This book is a great compliment to works like Pfanz's books on the first and second day. The major phases of the battle, to include the approach of the armies, and the retreat of the CS forces, are depicted. The battle segments show the postions and movements of the forces down to the regimental level, with accompanying text on the left, and the maps on the right. There are as many maps for each part of the battle as it takes to depict them.
There are a few typos in the text (a formation is said to have faced in one direction when the accompanying map shows them facing in another), and the symbols depicting the different types of fencing are shown in different scales on the symbol key vs. the map itself. Reading the symbol key requires a magnifying glass. Something to correct in the next edition.
These small things aside, this is a very handy work to have. If you ever visit the battlefield, I would take this along.
4 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Maps of Gettysburg Feb 23, 2008
Let's face it, grognards can never get enough maps. Even small engagements need lots of maps to understand, alongside the text. This book is incredible: the maps are clear and well marked, the text is quite good and is well written. If you had this book alone you would have a better grasp on the battle than the small minority of people. I wish it had times on it, that's my only gripe, and of course that it was bigger and had more maps. We always need more maps.
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