The National Park Service provides a self-guided 24-mile auto tour map at the Gettysburg National Military Park Visitor Center in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The tour begins and ends at the visitor center parking lot on Washington Street, and visitors can break the tour into four distinctive components for four separate perspectives on the history of the Civil War battle.
Traveling West Middle Street to Reynolds Avenue, you'll find three key landmarks before making your way to Barlow Knoll. The battle commenced on McPherson Ridge, on Reynolds Avenue, at 8 a.m. on July 1, 1863. To the north, on Buford Avenue, the Eternal Peace Memorial stands on the spot from which the Confederates pressed their attack on Union forces later that afternoon. Just to the south-southeast, an observation tower on Doubleday Avenue offers an overview of Oak Ridge, where the Union troops made their final defensive stand of the day before falling back to Cemetery Ridge, to the south. The Barlow Knoll Loop, to the east, reveals the story of the Confederate breakthrough of the Union line that same afternoon.
Heading south on West Confederate Avenue from West Middle Street brings you along the Confederate line on Seminary Ridge. Passing through McMillan Woods, you'll find the North Carolina Memorial and the Virginia Memorial, standouts in a sea of state-sponsored markers placed in remembrance of the fighting men who died in the battle. Farther south, the Pitzer Woods and an observation tower mark the beginning of Warfield Ridge and the spot from which Lt. Gen. James Longstreet and his men launched their attack on the Union troops at 4 p.m. on July 2, 1863.
As West Confederate Avenue turns to the east, it becomes South Confederate Avenue. The southern end of the Union line commences at Big Round Top and continues to the north at Little Round Top, the site of the famous stand of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The driving tour turns left, looping through the battlefield landmarks known as the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard and Plum Run. On Hancock Avenue, the Pennsylvania Memorial towers over all others. A diversion to Spangler's Spring and East Cemetery Hill eventually loops back to the Copse of Trees, the Angle and the High Water Mark, where the Union men stood as they repulsed the 12,000-man Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863. The driving tour ends at the National Cemetery where President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863.
Two significant stops in downtown Gettysburg complete the story of the battle. The National Park Service and Main Street Gettysburg operate the home of David Willis, the local attorney who drove the creation of the National Cemetery as a historic site. Nearby, the Gettysburg Train Station served as the evacuation depot for wounded soldiers and the place where President Lincoln arrived before making his historic speech.
