News---Gatehouse Press Offers Major Sale On Back Issues of Gettysburg Magazine

Gettysburg Magazine, the only magazine devoted to one battle is offering a significant temporary price reduction on its back issues and on it bound issues.  The publisher's notice states:

 

"As the 150th anniversary year of the Battle of Gettysburg begins, we are starting it off with a sale on The Gettysburg Magazine. Each issue is 128 pages with no advertising, so each issue is like a book on America's most famous battle. If you want to get some of the best material being published on the battle, now is a great time to do it.  Through the end of January, individual issues are just $4.00 each."

 

"We also have bound volumes. Each are newly printed books that contain eight issues of the magazine (1,024 pages). We have three bound volumes. Bound Volume 1 contains issues 1-8, Vol. 2 issues 9-16, and Vol. 3 issues 17-24. Regularly $80.00 each, the bound volumes are now on sale for just $50.00. That's a tremendous amount of great material on the battle, all for a great price."

 

Gettysburg Magazine is essential for all students of the battle. It covers major and small actions of the battle and campaign, significant artifacts and personalities, and major topics usually found few other places.  Many of the articles focus upon on brigades activities on the battlefield or campaign. Topics have included the Federal Signal Corps, prisoners of war,  Federal and Confederate field hospitals furing the battle, civilian farms and civilians during campaign and the Army of the Potomac's military intelligence staff.  Since its inception, Gettysburg Magazine has offered detailed maps on all segments of the campaign.

 

CWL has taken the magazine to the battlefield and has walked the routes of the soldiers as described in the articles.  These walks are very helpful and are similar to the walks presented by the park's rangers during the battle's anniversary. The magazine is essential for those preparing for the Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide examination.

 

Here is the link to Gettysburg Magazine's internet home page and here is the internet link to the magazine's publisher, Gatehouse Press.  Above image is the cover of the January 2013 issue; here is the table of contents for the issue.

 

Issue 46, January 2011

Introduction: "Gettysburg Revisited"
by Edwin C. Bearss

A Matter of Time: The Issuance of the Pipe Creek Circular
by Robert Himmer

Harry Heth and the First Morning at Gettysburg
by Mark Acres

"The Bravest of the Brave": Maj. Thomas Chamberlin, 150th Pennsylvania Volunteers
by John F. Krumweide

As Fate Would Have It: The Bible That Brought North and South Together
by Steven LaBarre

James A. Gardner and the Positions of Cooper's Battery at Gettysburg: A Quest for Truth
by Frank J. Piatek

If You Want To Go
by Sonny Fulks

"Don't Bury Me Among the ---- Yankees": Gettysburg's Confederate Soldier
by Chris J. Hartley

Lee's Illness Lost Gettysburg
by Carl Coppolino

The Last Action of Gettysburg
by David R. Wiltse

In Their Words: Recollections of Visitations at Gettysburg After the Great Battle in July, 1863
by Silas Felton

The Gettysburg Magazine Interview: Joanne M. Hanley, Gettysburg Foundation President

The Gettysburg Campaign Study Guide, Volume One: 700+ Questions and Answers For Students of the Battle [June 2008]

The Gettysburg Campaign Study Guide, Volume One: 700+ Questions and Answers For Students of the Battle, Rea Andrew Redd, CreateSpace, illustrations, 202 pages, 18.95.

The Gettysburg Campaign Study Guide, Volume One contains 700+ questions and answers regarding the armies, chronologies, maps, cemteries, and commanders of the 1863 Pennsylvania Campaign. The book's format and content help a student's exam performance.

 In 2006  I took the the Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide exam to find out how much knew about the Pennsylvania Campaign; in 2008 and 2010 I took the exam to find how much I  learned in past two years.   I offer the Gettysburg Campaign Study Guide as tool to those who seek to study the Pennsylvania Campaign for their personal enjoyment and satisfaction.


The questions and answers were developed from 2006 through 2011 in FlashCardMachine.com. Followers of my Civil War Librarian weblog [http://www.civilwarlibrarian.blogspot.com] are familiar with my discussion of the exam.


The book is available in Gettysburg book stores and on Amazon.com.  Here is the Amazon.com link: 


http://www.amazon.com/Gettysburg-Campaign-Study-Guide-Volume/dp/1470153688/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340641984&sr=1-1&keywords=gettysburg+campaign+study+guide

CWL Takes Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Exam

CWL arrived in Gettysburg Thursday 12.04.08 in the late afternoon for the Saturday test. Bivouacking in the Travelodge on Steinwehr, CWL took meals at The Avenue Diner. Twelve hundred flashcards, a three hour hike, one Guinness draft and 42 hours later, the test was wrapped up. In 2006, the test took CWL the full three hours; in 2008 2.5 hours. Maybe I know more than I did the first time through in 2006but maybe not enough in 2008 to get that 92% which would probably advance me to the oral exam. The 2006 score was 82%. This year I am hoping to get close to within a couple of points 90%.

In 2006, CWL probably identified two of the 21 monument pictures; this year 12 to 14 are probably right. It's tough; they are black and white photographs, with most of the text digitally chiseled off the monument, then photocopied. Pick from a list of possible answers; the list contains 4 more answers than monuments. So was it the 2nd or the 6th New Jersey monument? The 9th or the 11th Pennsylvania Reserves monument. (It was the 9th's monument; I am a reenactor in Co. A, 9th Pennsylvania Reserves.) In 2006, CWL aced the map and the portraits; ditto in 2008. Did well on the true and false, multiple choice and okay on the completion without a work bank.

About 250 people asked the Gettysburg NPS for materials to be mailed to them. Of those Close to 145 sent in the $50 registration fee and 135 showed up today to take the test. Less than 20 of the top scorers will be asked to attend a two and a half day seminar regarding the contents and style of tour giving. These then will be listed for the 2 hour oral exam in which they present their tour of the battlefield. In 2006, 21 people were eligible to take the oral exam, and only 10 of those passed the exam . Therefore, of the 250 people who requested information to take the test this year, possibly 10 will become Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guides before the December, 2010 examination.

In the top picture, NPS test creator and administrator Clyde Bell displays the 25+/- page test. In the middle picture (left) CWL is sitting in the aisle seat of the fourth table on the left, a furrowed brow resting on his left hand. In the bottom picture CWL is at the fourth table, in the black long sleeve tee shirt. To CWL's right and in the blue sweatshirt is police officer and firearms instructor Thaddeus Comer, whom used CWL's flashcards which were shared on the internet.

Image and Numbers Source: Gettysburg Daily.com, December 6th, 2008.

CWL---Studying for the LBG Exam's Questions on Monuments

On the 2006 Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide exam, there were 20 black and white, photocopied photos with all lettering digitally chiseled off the image. Test takers had to pick the name of the monument from a list of 22 or 24 monument names. I identified one equestrian monument and that was due to the tree in the background. I took the full amount of time on the Saturday morning test of 200+ questions.

So, that Saturday afternoon I started shopping in Gettysburg for photo album books, compact disks, and maps. Here's a short list of what I have bought in the past two years; the list is ranked from most helpful for test preparation.

1. Monumental Battlefields: Monuments and Markers at Gettysburg, Monumental Battlefields, Inc., 2002. The set consists of four compact disks, maps, and a booklet with lists of the monuments and markers with map and compact disk coordinates. The 3500 color photographs of all monuments taken from four sides, the avenue markers, the flank markers, the hospitals' markers, the headquarters' markers, distinct topographic features, artillery pieces and buildings and other miscellaneous items is probably the most comprehensive collection of all the many collections of Gettysburg battlefield.

Distinctive features include zoom-in features to read the engravings and moderately extensive maps with the locations of the monuments. Recalling that the price was a round $20, it is also probably the best buy. Relative to exam preparation, it is easy to use and allows for a quick review. I plan to spend a half an hour a night for three weeks compiling a list of the likely monuments to appear on the exam.

2. Stephen Recker's Virtual Gettysburg, by Stephen Recker, Another Software Miracle Inc., 2002. Is truly a marvelous preparation resource for the LBG exam. One compact disk is packed with tours, period photographs, and battlefield preservation history. The guided tour of the battlefield with LBG Gary Kross who gives the tour while you are looking at what he is point to. The tour also contains 99 panoramic (360 degrees) views of the battlefield. It is as if the viewer is standing beside Garry Kross and is able to turn completely around to see what is to the right, rear and left of the Kross. Also, There is an extensive collection of period photographs of the battlefield, the monuments, and maps. The entire Kross tour is also on three audio compact disks; CWL used them for a two hour automobile tour of the battlefield and then returned to the motel room, booted up the computer and took the same tour and reviewed the period photographs at the same time. A spiral bound book is included which contains the transcript of the tour and a map of the tour stops. For this exam taker, Virtual Gettysburg is essential. The price is $129 and for the dollar investment gives ample returns.

3.Gettysburg: The Complete Pictorial of Battlefield Monuments, D. Scott Hartwig and Ann Marie Hartwig, Thomas Publications, 2007. A reprint of the 1988 Granite House publication that was updated in 2003, this 72 page stable bound magazine size booklet has the essentials. All of the many monuments and markers are pictured: bronzes, Union and Confederate state memorials, commemorative monuments, regimental monuments, as well as the more recent additions up to 2003. Regimental markers are pictured by state. At $8.95 its a good buy. CWL has turned the book into a flashcard resource by using a bookmark to cover the photograph titles. Also, CWL notes that the photographs do not have the clarity of digital images and suspects that the photographs were take in the mid-1980s.


Top Image Source: William Bretzger, Gettysburg 365