Gettysburg Bibliography

Devil's Den at Gettysburg. You can see the scale and size of the rocks
 if you notice the man standing on top of one, left center. This isn't even a wide shot of all the huge boulders.

You may or may not read Wargames Soldiers & Strategy magazine but Mike Evans and I have written several articles for them. In the recent issue 66 we did a several articles and scenarios for the 1^st day’s fighting at Gettysburg. We had to trim a bit since in total it became too much to fit. The bibliography didn’t make it in due to space. We felt it was important but… you can’t fit 5 pounds of stuff into a 3 pound bag. I have included it below because I felt it would be invaluable for readers that might want to follow up and get details of the actual fighting. This especially true now that the 150^th anniversary is less than two months away. The list below is by no means complete. It is just the ‘first books’ you might want to read about the battle.  Enjoy!

We have another batch of scenarios and articles coming soon about Vicksburg so check it once it hits the newsstands.

40th New York monument facing Devil's Den

Bibliography.

The Battle of Gettysburg is one of the most written about battles in history. Here are just a few that we have used extensively to prepare these articles:

Bruce Catton:              Glory Road, Fairfield Press.

From the author of the essential Army of the Potomac trilogy. A Stillness at Appomattox is the 3^rd book in this trilogy. This book (the 2^nd book) deals with the political as well as military aspects of the war in Northern Virginia in 1863.  Recommended.

Eric J. Wittenberg:      Gettysburg’s Forgotten Cavalry Actions, Savas Beatie.

The book covers the South Cavalry battlefield, Farnsworth’s charge & the battle of Fairfield. If the cavalry interests you this is the book for you.

Eric J. Wittenberg:      Brinkerhoff ridge

Harry W. Pfanz:          Gettysburg the First Day,

Gettysburg the Second Day,

Gettysburg Culp’s Hill and Cemetary Hill,

All University of North Carolina Press.

Hugely detailed these are musts for the serious students of the battle. Great information for gamers because of this detail.

Noah A. Trudeau:       Gettysburg a Testing of Courage, Perennial.

A classic. Easy to read and highly recommended.

Bradley M. Gottfried: The Maps of Gettysburg, Savas Beatie

            Detailed maps outline troop movements through-out the campaign. The battle is covered in detail. Wargamers will find this a treasure trove for scenarios. Highly recommended.

Stephen W. Sears – Gettysburg,

Edwin B. Coddington – The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command,                                                          

Morningside House.               

            Was often sited as the book about the campaign when it was first published in 1963. In the past 20 years or so many additional books have come out and have uncovered new information about the battle. The book still holds up well but the newer books (above listed) are written with a fresher style.

"News from Home"

Wicked Spring film

Have you ever seen this film before? This is what Civil War soldiers are supposed to look like. This is almost a great painting guide by itself. The action is superb too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5ooBiCLlqA

I have never seen the film and know nothing about it but it LOOKS good. Must track this one down

Heading to Cold Wars

I will be marching through the cold weather to get to the HMG East's Cold Wars convention in Lancaster, PA. If you are going you might see me trying my rules out so stop by and say hello. I will try try try to remember to take lots of pictures. I always forget but... this time definitely! I also need to drop some cash in the Dealer's Hall to restock my semi-depleted reserves of lead. See ya there!

3rd Corps... DONE!

Whew... done! All Color Guards, Brigade officers, Regimental officers, Field Music and MEN painted and flocked... all done! Add to this I'm also totally done with 5th Corps brigades of Tilton and Sweitzer and ALL the brigades of Hood's and McLaws' brigades means I am on the home stretch. I still have to finish Caldwell's division, Willard's brigade and the two U.S. brigades of Day and Burbank is easy now. The artillery is about half way done. All 3rd Corps batteries are done so what remains are the scattered batteries of the Reserve Artillery. Hip hip hooray!!!

I also finished up all my peach orchard trees. Okay well... honestly I have to touch up the fruit and turn apples into peaches but... it goes down in my book as 99% done.

Gen. Phil Kearny charging at the battle of Williamsburg ahead of his men.

Gen. Sickles says, "I agree with whatever Gen. Kearny said!"

Gen. Butterfield says, "Yeah...I agree with whatever Gen. Kearny and Gen. Sickles says!"

Very intriguing....

Brig. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton

I spent about 2 hours combing through the Official Records tonight looking stuff up on a research project. I stumbled across telegraphs totally unrelated to what I was looking for. I found one really really cool thing. On June 12th 1863, there was a telegraph back and forth between Army of the Potomac Cavalry Corps commander Gen. Alfred Pleasonton to the Army of the Potomac Chief Quartermaster Gen. Rufus Ingalls.

Brig. Gen. Rufus Ingalls

 The exchange was about supplies and holding on to them around the various depots. CSA cavalry leader Col. Mosby was raiding and evading Union cavalry patrols even though Union cavalry was trying to pin him down into a trap. Mosby kept escaping. I don't know the exact particulars that precipitated this telegraph exchange but Pleasonton  wrote to Ingalls, 

"Your dispatch is received. Ask the General (don't know who this is) how much of a bribe he can stand to get Mosby's services. There is a chance  for him, and just  now he could do valuable service in the way of information as well as humbugging the enemy. 

There is no news. The Rebs are like that boy the Present tells about, who stumped his toe, and was too big to cry."

Gen. Ingalls replied, 

"I think your scheme can succeed in regard to Mosby, do not hesitate as to the matter of money. Use your own judgement, and do precisely what you think best for the public good."

Nothing in the Official Records that I can find follows this up. I don't know what they were talking about, what happened and who was this "General" in which Pleasonton speaks. Very intriguing....

Col. John Mosby, "The Gray Ghost"

Anyone have any ideas about this? I'd love to know more.

Another painting or collecting update

Color Guard of the 7th New Jersey

I have been a busy beaver trying to finish all the Color Guards I will need. It's tough work but someone has to do it! Above you will see the 7th NJ Color Guard. They were from Burling's brigade (3/2/III) at Gettysburg. Strangely enough the entire brigade wore Frock coats during the battle. I have left these on the back end of the painting schedule.

Recently I put an order (or 3) with Foundry for their Frock coated Union models. I had purchased the needed amount of Frock coats from Redoubt but... I was never in love with them. The heads are separate, they never really fit on very well, the hair styles are wrong in some cases, the mould line run over the FRONT of their faces (grrrrrr...) and the coats are either too short or just lousy models. The good thing is before I painted lots of them Foundry lowered their prices so I jumped on that. Now, they are a bit chunkier in stature (than Redoubt) and they suffer the same problems as all the Perry Civil War models face (both the old Foundry models and their OWN stuff recently) their equipment is not really to scale. It's annoying but honestly they just make my life a lot easier since I need well over 180 of them. In the pic above the standard bearers are Redoubt and the back two models are Foundry. Sadly the Perrys nor the Foundry have Frock coated Standard Bearers so I'm stuck with Redoubt for that.

This is my box of 100% done Color Guards.

For the Rebs it is all the brigades of Hood's and McLaws' divisions. There are also I think one or two from Wilcox's division as well. Mostly the III Corps is done (apart from Burling and 1 or 2 of Carr's) and most of Tilton and Sweitzer's V Corps brigades are done. I think I randomly did two II Corps regiments too.

Color Guards that need some touch-ups and Flocking.

Just thought I'd throw this pic in for giggles. It is a Brigade C.O. and his staff. Each brigade will eventually get this treatment when I get around to them.

Stuff in the early stages of painting. There are 6 more Color Guards and more Frock coated Burling's men.

Of course if you want to play a scenario of the Peach Orchard you need Peach trees. I need to base a bunch more. So far 6 are done. *sigh*  I'll get there.

I think after the latest batch of Color Guards (above) are finished I might switch off and get back to my Union artillery. They need loving too. It gets tedious to do the same thing all the time. Oh and BTW, all the flags are GMB. I love them.

Two Days of Gettysburg by Henry Edwin Tremain

Capt. James Smith's 4th NY Lt. Artillery battery on Devil's Den

I am in the process of reading the book, Two Days of Gettysburg by Maj. Henry Edwin Tremain. You may know that he was on Sickles' staff at Gettysburg. It is interesting to read his views and observations. Some of them not normally used in histories of the battle. They might seem of minor importance to most readers/historians but I always find these interesting to note.

He had an expression that seems to be quite common at least to his contemporaries. Being a staff officer he frequently was called upon to ride to other corps, division, brigade commanders and even army HQ’s with reports or requests for orders. The staff officers had a term that they used describing their reception and dealing with officers unknown to them. The term was “frosting”.

Before dawn on the first day of July, Tremain was instructed to ride north to ask Gen. Reynolds if he had any orders for Sickles. By the time he arrived in Gettysburg and met Reynolds the battle had begun but it was before the 1^st Corps infantry was engaged fully. Reynolds was sitting on his horse all by himself, without staff, and Tremain had never met him before. He rode up while Reynolds was looking through his binoculars and apparently did not sense or hear his approach. He remained quiet expecting the General to speak. Tremain said there was an awkward very long pause and not knowing Reynolds he didn’t know the correct etiquette and how he dealt with his staff. According to Tremain some Generals treated their staff as messengers only and some as confidants  Sickles was the type of man that always listened to comments in addition to reports so there was a by-play with his staff in a very familiar manner. Tremain said the pause was almost beyond awkward and he assumed Reynolds either didn't know he was there or was “frosting” him. He explained that to mean treating the other person coldly and belittling them. He gulped and was about to speak when Reynolds seemed to awaken from his concentration, excused himself and greeted him warmly. Tremain identified himself and asked for orders. He told Tremain to ride back to Sickles and have him bring the 3^rd corps up and continued with his field glass inspection.

statue of Maj. Gen. George G. Meade

On the 2^nd day he was instructed by Sickles to ride to army HQ and report to Gen Meade about the skirmish that took place on Seminary Ridge woods between Berdan’s sharpshooters and the 3^rd Maine with the Confederate column which we now know was the lead brigade of Hill’s corps. Again, he rode to Army HQ not having met Meade ever so he was unfamiliar with his HQ etiquette. He arrived at the widow Leister’s house (Meade’s HQ for the battle) and was met by Meade’s staff in the yard. Meade’s staff asked what it was he was reported and Tremain explained his mission and was told to go into the house to report his finding to the General himself since it was something he might want to hear directly from him and perhaps ask questions. As he stepped into the doorway he noticed Meade alone, stooped over a map spread out on the table.  Just like Reynolds Meade was intently scanning the map and did not notice him enter the room. After another awkward pause Meade looked up and half smiled and asked if he had any information for him. Tremain said he did and reported his findings adding that Sickles thought the recent development might mean that the Rebs were trying to flank the army on the left. . Meade thanked him and commented that every General thinks the enemy is getting set to attack their line in particular. He stated in his book that he felt “frosted” after Meade’s remarks.  Meade then said that he could ask Gen. Hunt for some additional artillery to be posted on his line if needed and that he would have cavalry posted on the left to patrol the area. He had no other order for Sickles so Tremain saluted and left.  After the War, Tremain in speaking with other officers on Reynolds’ and Meade’s staff that both Generals were genial fellows which did not normally “frost” junior officers.

Maj. Henry Edwin Tremain

The other interesting bit I read so far was the habit of knocking down all fences in front of and around their lines. This was done to alleviate the need in case of a future movement. The fencing always slowed their marches and having them out of the way made their movement faster and on the morning of the 2^nd Tremain asked and received permission to get all the fences pulled down, “before the troops moved than to be annoyed with fences wrecking while maneuvering.”

The Klingel farm viewed from southeast of the farm.

 Now as gamer designing scenarios, whether they are historical or otherwise, this brings up an interesting debate. Should you layout extensive fencing everywhere or not? If Tremain’s statement can be used as a ‘normal’ tactic then perhaps you should. If battles are more of a meeting engagement then more then likely not. Something to think about, eh?

Farm lane to Slyder farm at the western base of Big Round Top 

One last thing that I have been more excited about: my Kindle! I’ve had it for 2 years now. Previously I had never thought I’d get one. I love books and an electronic book just isn’t the same! Who would want it? It’s absurd. I bought one thinking maybe it might be more cost efficient for a few books since a Kindle version is cheaper, takes up less space on my overcrowded book shelf and if the book is not that interesting to keep long term why not buy a Kindle version? At first I bought only books that I’d never need for research, did not include an extensive photo and map section. In a way I still use this guideline but an unexpected development has entered the fray… the website Open Library.

Open Library is a God-send for people like me looking for old and out of print books. A good example of what is available is the Tremain book. That’s how I am reading it. You can’t buy this book unless you can get through a collector or some search library. The price to purchase this book would be very high and who knows what condition it but be in. Well you can download this book and read it in minutes! Just think of research possibilities! While giving my Gettysburg tour in April I was talking with 3 college Professors about this. They scoffed at E readers in general for the exact same reasons I had. I tried to explain how it can help find those obscure books but I don’t think I was very successful. Oh well, their loss.

There are books I would NOT buy with an E reader like Kindle though. For books that have charts, table, pictures and maps I think it might make it very difficult to flip back and forth. The bonus with the E reader is the very nice searchable tool built in and you can bookmark pages and/or passages. That’s a GREAT feature. As long as the book is mostly text it is an amazing way and cheap way to read new and old books. Sure I love the feel of a book and a new book smell but… I gotta say when you have no place to put books any more you need options.

Antietam

Monument of the 14th  Connecticut looking towards the Roulette farm

The Civil War Trust has just posted some really dynamite stuff on their website for the 150^th anniversary of the battle of Antietam. You have to check them out! The animated maps and the battlefield 360 tour is first rate. Of course this doesn’t mean that is all! Find out now!

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

While you have a chance please donate to the Civil War Trust to help save our battlefields. The CWT is a non-profit organization that does not keep a bunch of your money for them either. No no no… they pour that money back into saving land so developers don’t turn it into strip malls, Walmarts, McDonalds etc. I urge you to donate whatever you can before it is too late.

I am headed for Antietam myself next week and then on to Gettysburg again. 

Looking South and the Hagerstown Turnpike on the right