Preview: C-SPAN’s coverage of Gettysburg 150th Anniversary

[This article is crossposted at UNCPressCivilWar150.com.]

July 1st marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. As a leading publisher in the field of Civil War history, UNC Press has lots of great resources for you to learn more about this crucial battle in the war. We’ve compiled a selection of books about the battle and its aftermath to help get you started.

This weekend as we head into the sesquicentennial, C-SPAN’s American History TV will be live all day long from the battlefield on June 30th. They will be covering the weekend-long event, hosted by the National Park Service, where authors and historians will be sharing their insight into the momentous occasion. UNC Press authors Carol Reardon and Tom Vossler, authors of A Field Guide to Gettysburg: Experiencing the Battlefield through Its History, Places, and People, will be featured throughout the day. Specifically, the network’s weekly program “American Artifacts” has produced a 30-minute special where Reardon and Vossler take viewers around Gettysburg and showcase nine of their favorite monuments. The special, “The Monuments at Gettysburg,” will air Sunday June 30th at 8:00 am ET and again at 7:00 pm.

Excerpts from “The Monuments at Gettysburg” will be used throughout American History TV’s day-long coverage. In case you forget to set your DVR, a copy of the Reardon and Vossler’s A Field Guide to Gettysburg is a perfect way to mark the occasion.

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In this lively guide to the Gettysburg battlefield, Carol Reardon and Tom Vossler invite readers to participate in a tour of this hallowed ground. Ideal for carrying on trips through the park as well as for the armchair historian, this book includes comprehensive maps and deft descriptions of the action that situate visitors in time and place. Crisp narratives introduce key figures and events, and eye-opening vignettes help readers more fully comprehend the import of what happened and why. A wide variety of contemporary and postwar source materials offer colorful stories and present interesting interpretations that have shaped–or reshaped–our understanding of Gettysburg today.

Carol Reardon is George Winfree Professor of American History at Pennsylvania State University and author of four books, including With a Sword in One Hand and Jomini in the Other: The Problem of Military Thought in the Civil War North.  She has taught at West Point and the U.S. Army War College, and she leads staff rides and tours of Gettysburg for many military and civilian groups. Tom Vossler, a combat veteran and retired U.S. Army colonel, is former director of the U.S. Army Military History Institute. As a licensed battlefield guide, he leads over one hundred battlefield tours and leadership seminars each year. Both authors live in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.