Top 16 Best Books On Gettysburg Updated 04 /2024

The Battle of Gettysburg is one of the most well-known battles of the Civil War because it was so important. People say there are more than 65,000 books about this famous battle.

Several of these books focus on specific events or people in the battle, like Pickett's Charge or the generals who led the soldiers on the field. Other books give a general overview of the three-day battle.

With so many books to choose from, it can be hard to start. To help you, I've put together a list of the best books about Gettysburg that you can read.

On Amazon and Goodreads, these books get good reviews. Many of them are best-sellers and they get good reviews from experts, too.

As someone who worked on this website, I can say that these books are among the best on the subject.

The following is a list of the best books about the Battle of Gettysburg:

The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command by Edwin Coddington

It was written by Edwin Coddington and came out in 1968. It talks about the people who led the fight at Gettysburg.

The book says that Gettysburg was a big victory for the Union because of the effective leadership of Union forces, not because of General Lee's mistakes, as most historians say.

Some people still think this book is the best one-volume history of this battle, even though it was written more than 50 years ago.

The book was well-received when it was first published. In the Journal of American History, they said it was going to be a standard work on the subject and that it was very good at paying attention to small things:

I think that the book written by the late Edwin Coddington will be important for many years, just because it is very well-written. It talks about the whole campaign, not just the battle. A third of the book talks about the operations before the first meeting of the armies at Gettysburg. It also pays a lot of attention to logistical issues and how many and how good the weapons and men on each side are.

They also said it would be a must-read on the subject.

It has led to a lot of books over the last 100 years, from silly books like Count Paris's to more serious works like Bruce Catton's and James Bellah's. Gettysburg: The Battle and its People, by William Coddington, must now be added to this group. This book is one of the best available on the subject, and it's one of the best because it's focused on the Battle as a "study in command," which gives a full picture of both the Battle itself, and the people who fought there, as well as how the Battle came to be. The author's prose isn't very clear, but there are so many good things about the book that it could become the "standard work" on the subject.

A review in the Pennsylvania History journal said that no other book on Gettysburg was as good as this one:

There is no other study of the campaign that goes as far as this one. It looks at both armies and their commanders in depth, and no other study of the campaign can match it. Coddington not only looked through the official records with the same care as Kenneth P. Williams, but he also went around the country to find manuscript collections and used them with a level of detail that isn't seen in any other history of this campaign.

One of Edwin B. Coddington's roles at Lafayette College was to be the history department chair.

Coddington wrote a lot of articles about the Civil War for historical journals, as well as his only book, The Gettysburg Campaign, which was published after he died, which was about the Gettysburg Battle.

Gettysburg by Stephen W. Sears

When Stephen W. Sears wrote a book about the Battle of Gettysburg in 2003, he talked about the three-day battle and how it changed the war.

The book was well-received when it came out. A review by Kirkus Reviews called it a "fine study, detailed, and challenging." Publisher's Weekly called it "an outstanding study of a battle."

Reviews in the New York Times said Sears gave us a wide view of the day, and in his vivid writing, the day unfolds in all its terrible detail.

It also said that Sears was good at telling stories.

"Gettysburg" shows that he's a great storyteller and a smart historian who can keep the experts happy. In his book, "Gettysburg Address," he gives us a broad picture of how the Confederate high command thought about how to win the war, from the start.

A review of the book in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography also said that it was both interesting and well-written:

In Gettysburg, Stephen W. Sears has shown that he is very good at studying campaigns. This book is a logical follow-up to his books on Antietam, the Peninsula, and Chancellorsville." His skillful writing makes history fans of all levels happy, even if they don't know a lot about it. The campaign study is a long one, but it's worth the read because it has an interesting style, vivid descriptions, and in-depth character analyses of the people who took part in it.

They said that it was the best book about Gettysburg that they had read.

"A first-class writer and a great historian, a combination that should be treasured, gives us the best book on the Battle of Gettysburg."

In his books about the Civil War, Stephen W. Sears talks about the Battle of Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Lincoln's Lieutenants: the High Command of the Army of the Potomac, among other things.

At the American Heritage Publishing Company, Sears was also an editor in charge of the Educational Department.

Pickett’s Charge: The Last Attack at Gettysburg by Earl J. Hess

It was written by Earl J. Ross in 2001, and it talks about the famous Pickett's Charge, which took place on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg and was a big deal.

In the preface, Hess says that the real events of Pickett's Charge have been changed over time, and his goal is to clear things up by writing a detailed case study.

"I want to look at it to see how it works in the military." Scholars and fans both know that there is a charge, but they tend to think it's already there. I want to write a "battle book" like military historians write about other battles, based on a lot of research in both primary and secondary sources, both published and not. My goal is not just to write a story about the attack, but also to give a few new ideas about how it happened, so that I can mix storytelling and analysis. Every part of the operation will be looked at, from the planning and preparation for the attack to the cleanup of the battlefield. Furthermore, the stories of the people who took part in the charge are important for understanding the huge human drama of the charge. It's important to know about their war experiences before July 3 and what happened to them after that day. "This book is a very detailed tactical study of the assault, with a lot of attention paid to combat morale."

The book was well-received when it came out. An old-fashioned battle book was the goal of the book Hess set out to write, and he did a good job.

It was a goal of Earl J. Hess, a history professor at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee, to write an old-fashioned "battle book." He used both primary and secondary sources to make a detailed study of what really happened during a three-day battle. His aim is right. The writing is clear and crisp. To add to your Civil War collection, "Pickett's Charge" is a good choice.

If you're a fan of the Battle of Gettysburg, you need to read this book:

As far as I know, this is the best book on Pickett's Charge that has been written so far." ... Hess's writing is very clear and lucid, and he talks a lot about the terrible conditions on the battlefield during this famous attack and repulse. It will be worth reading for a long time. As part of any collection about Gettysburg, this book should be on the list."

A review in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography had a few minor issues with the book, including that Pickett's charge was not the last attack at Gettysburg, as the title says, and that Hess dismisses some veterans' memories of the charge but accepts others without giving a clear reason why. The magazine still thought the book was a good one:

Despite these problems, Hess's work does give Civil War fans a solid single-volume work on a very popular subject. Hess, on the other hand, adds an interesting twist to the story. After reading the book, "Making Sense of Pickett's Charge," the author's rational opinions are given on some of the main points of debate in his field of study.

There are a lot of books about the Civil War that Earl J. Hess has written, like Pea Ridge: A History of the West, The Battle of Ezra Church, and the Battle for Atlanta, and Kennesaw Mountain: Sherman, Johnston, and the Battle for Atlanta.

Retreat from Gettysburg by Kent Masterson Brown

Kent Masterson Brown wrote this book about the Confederate's withdrawal from the Battle of Gettysburg in 2005. It talks about how the Confederates left the battle.

It doesn't matter how bad things turned out because Brown says that even though the Confederates lost the fight, they won because they were able to hold on to what they had left, which meant that the war would go on.

It isn't possible to say that Gettysburg was the turning point of the Civil War or even the turning point of the eastern theater of the war after Lee's amazing retreat from Gettysburg.

The book was well-received when it came out. A review in the Pennsylvania History journal said that the book was unique and well-researched:

This is a very well-researched, very well-documented study of Lee's retreat, and it comes with a lot of great maps. If you're a student of the Civil War, this is a book you should read. If you want to learn more about the Battle of Gettysburg or the Army of Northern Virginia, this is a must.

A review in the Journal of American History also praised the book for its great writing and research, as well as its unique point of view.

For both the idea and the way it was done are very good. When Brown makes his arguments, they're right on the money. "History hasn't paid enough attention to these things for far too long," he says.

A review in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography said that it was a must-read for anyone studying the Civil War because it was so interesting.

It "should be in the library of every student or scholar of Civil War history who wants to learn more."

When the Civil War broke out, Kent Masterson Brown was an attorney. He wrote three books about the Civil War: Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee and Logistics in Pennsylvania; Cushing of Gettysburg: The Story of a Union Artillery Commander, and Confederacy's First Battle Flag: The Story of the Southern Cross.

Gettysburg The Second Day by Harry W. Pfanz

In 1987, Harry W. Pfanz wrote the first book in a trilogy about the famous battle. It's called "The Battle of the Bulge," and it's thought to be the best of the three.

There is a book about the second day of the battle. It talks about why some soldiers did better than others and why that is. In the preface, Pfanz says that this is important to know because it will help you understand how to better motivate troops in the future wars:

"It seems to me that while it's important to know why a certain officer did or didn't act in a certain way, it's more important to know why people were motivated to fight well or poorly." This knowledge could then be used in the leadership of our armed forces today to help them. Knowing what our ancestors did on this field should help us see things in a different way, inspire us to be like them, and tell us to avoid the flaws that led some of our ancestors to make mistakes and ruin their reputations.

The book was well-received when it came out. A review in the New York Times said that the book had great research and a good story:

During his time as the chief historian of the National Park Service, Mr. Pfanz worked at Gettysburg for 10 years. He knows the ground there about as well it is possible to know it. He brings this knowledge to "Gettysburg: The Second Day," along with a lot of careful research and a strong, clear sense of narrative. A lot of time and effort went into his close tactical study of the events, but he never lost sight of the story he was telling. There is a lot more to military minutiae than you might think at first. This leads to a better understanding of why things happen the way they do in battle.

People who worked for the National Park Service called Harry W. Pfanz "chief historian." He wrote three books about Gettysburg: Gettysburg the First Day, Second Day, and Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. Pfanz died in 2015.

---