Passengers board a classic Yellowstone Park bus for Historic Tour Company’s (historictourcompany.com) Gettysburg tours. Tours are conducted in the order the battle took place to give visitors a better understanding of how the conflict played out. The company also has a tour for kids, a “greatest stories” tour of the town, winery tours and an extended side trip to the Antietam Battlefield and Harpers Ferry. Gettysburg Tour Center (gettysburgbattlefieldtours.com) has a double-decker bus tour accompanied by dramatic readings, battlefield sound effects and a Ghostly Walking Tour that ends in a haunted house.
The bookstore at the visitors center and shops around town sell cassette and CD audio tours of the battlefield. Tours hit the high spots of the battlefield and take about two hours to complete. Licensed battlefield guides ride in your car, or if you’re traveling as a group, in your tour bus, providing a personalized two-hour tour based on your interests. The National Park Service assigns guides on a first-come, first-served basis at the visitors center. Civil War Traveler (civilwartraveler.com), in cooperation with the park service, has a series of podcasts on its website with printable maps. Podcasts are narrated by park rangers as real-time explorations of the high spots of the battlefield.
If you have a basic understanding of how the battle unfolded, a self-guided tour is the best way to see the battlefield. You can stop at places that are significant to you rather than to tour operators, and spend as much time as you like at each site. Begin at the museum and visitors center for a map, an overview of the battlefield and a look at the 1884 Gettysburg Cyclorama, a painting depicting Pickett’s Charge. Check the day’s schedule for when and where park rangers are giving talks and answering questions. The park service schedules outdoor programs focusing on different aspects of the battle from mid-June through October. During the winter, the museum hosts indoor lectures.
The Soldier’s National Cemetery, a short walk from the visitors center, holds the graves of soldiers from all wars and was the site of Lincoln’s "Gettysburg Address." Two rooms at the David Wills House on the square in downtown Gettysburg, where Lincoln worked on the final draft of the address, appear as they did in 1863. A few blocks away, the Gettysburg Train Station serves as the convention and visitors bureau. The station was a hospital and a point of departure for wounded soldiers during the battle. Lincoln arrived here on Nov. 18, 1863.
