Top 10 Civil War Books on the Campaign and Battle of Gettysburg Civil War Blogs Series

After recently writing a bog entry on the Top 5 Civil War Books on the Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign of 1862, I decided to write out a Top 10 list for the campaign and battle of Gettysburg.  However, Gettysburg is a completely different proposition than any other Civil War battle.  Literally thousands of books have been written about countless aspects of the campaign, the battle, and its aftermath.  With that in mind, I decided to invite other Civil War bloggers to join me in listing their own Top 10 books on the campaign and battle of Gettysburg.  This will result in quite a few more than ten just choices and will give readers of Gettysburg books a much larger pool of books to choose from.

I had initially wanted all of the participating bloggers to release their posts over the three day anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, on July 1-3, 2009.  However, Mark Grimsley and Ethan Rafuse of Civil Warriors asked if they could jump the gun a bit because their own top 10 Gettysburg lists will tie in nicely with some current posts at their own group Civil War Blog.  Look for Mark and Ethan’s lists starting next week, with  the rest of the participating bloggers’ lists appearing over the anniversary of the battle on the first three days of July 2009.

Please note that we are keeping the Top 10 Gettysburg books criteria intentionally vague. It could be that blogger’s ten favorite Gettysburg books, the ten Gettysburg books they believe are the most important, the ten books on Gettysburg they believe Civil War readers will enjoy, or really any other rationalization they want to use.  The more books which appear the better, especially considering the sheer numbers we have to choose from.

In addition to Ethan and Mark, the following bloggers have agreed to participate in this Top 10 Gettysburg books venture (in order of acceptance):

• Brett Schulte of TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog
• Eric Wittenberg of Rantings of a Civil War Historian
• Drew Wagenhoffer of Civil War Books and Authors
• John Hoptak of The 48th Pennsylvania Infantry/Civil War Musings
• Harry Smeltzer of Bull Runnings
• Craig Swain of To the Sound of the Guns
• Nick Kurtz of Battlefield Wanderings
• Chris Wehner of Blog 4 History

Note: If you are a Civil War blogger and you would like to participate in this series, use the Contact Us link in the menu at the top of the page.

A permanent page to host all of the Top 10 Civil War Books on the Campaign and Battle of Gettysburg has been created.  Initially, it will show the scheduled publication dates for each bloggers’ picks.  Once each post goes live at the individual Civil War blogs, the link will be posted on the permanent page.  My hope is that we can create a useful information page for those looking to approach the study of this massively popular battle for the first time.   If you are a Civil War blogger reading this after July 3, 2009 and you would like to add your own list to the group, use the Contact Us form and we’ll add your picks to the list.

If you are reading this post and those in this series, feel free to comment on your own top 10 Gettysburg books at the permanent page for these lists.  We want to hear from you!

Update: Elektratig, being more interested in antebellum America, is going to do a Top 10 Books prior to the Civil War, calling it “The Road to the Road to Gettysburg.”

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