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My bride and I are headed to Gettysburg to see the battlefield next week if the Government doesn't shut it down out of spite. Any suggestions on touring, what to see, and if anyone knows of a personal guide that would get into the vehicle with us please message me.

My wife has at most 3 days up there and I have to deposit her at the Lancaster airport to go back to work since unlike me she is employed and refuses to retire. I can go back after that.

Also I plan to return home through Hatfield-McCoy territory in the Tug Fork boundary if anyone has suggestions. I have someone to watch the cows so I don't have to get back until mid-November.

Start off at the visitors center/musuem administered by the National Park Service. The museum and especially the Cyclorama are worth seeing. You can find a guided tour here as well, including guides that ride with you. As I recommended in a prior post on this doing a tour with a licensed guide first to give you the "lay of the land" and then you can return to explore areas of interest yourself later. The battlefield is easily navigated by car with areas to park and walk to see what you want. HIGHLY recommended is the PA monument which has a spiral staircase inside to access the top where you can get a great lookout over the battlefield! Feel free to PM any other questions you may have and I will try to help you out.

Is it easy to see where Dan Sickles made his foray? I understand he claims to have saved the day and others claim he nearly caused a Union disaster. How far away from the main battlefield was the Custer-Stuart cavalry clash?

Pretty far away, like a couple miles, and isn't well marked.

Go to east cemetery hill for some Louisiana history being your from there.I’m partial to the Virginia monument two gg grand dads was there July 3 under Pickett.

Have dinner at the Dobbin House Tavern. Go a bit late so you can walk around the place after most folks have left. You will thank me later!

I appreciate any pointers I can get. I have been to Little Bighorn several times and this battle is in comparison huge. We are studying the battle and the maps we can find.

I've wanted to go for years but eastern USA being heavily populated with all the concurrent traffic has dissuaded me. Maybe October will make for lesser crowds although the homeschool folks tend to go whenever I want to go.

I hate heavy traffic.

American Battlefield museum is a must see

I wouldn’t let traffic keep you from special places like Gettysburg. There is lots to see in that region of the country. All Americans should see Gettysburg at some point, IMHO. Southerners in particular seem absent from the place. I actually have that same opinion regarding many of the Civil War sites. Folks are not doing a good job of passing history down to the younger generations. Pretty sad. I guess it is easier to let the kids play video games. We don’t roll that way around here.

Once your wife is safely out of sight, checkout Redding’s Hardware and Sporting Goods. Used to be a pretty good store, as was Sell’s in nearby Hanover.

Agree, dont let traffic stop you. But...its heavy this time of year. Yesterday drove over to see my nephew. He lives and works in Gettysburg(realtor). Traffic was bad in the afternoon. Evening I came through again Littlestown way from seein other family and trafffic was worse. Whole damn ghost tour walked right in front of me. Have be ready hit the breaks quick in town.

Im 40 minutes east across 30 there abouts and traffics iffy everywhere round here...parades.. halloween stuff...give yourself plenty of time.

Reddings isnt what it used to be...same as Sells. But Dave usually has some powders on the shelf at Sells when I cant find it anywhere else.

I'm going to bite the bullet and fight the traffic. I would love to go to Boston but I'll have to save that for a bus tour. Same for Philadelphia.

Sickles being where he was certainly threw a wrench in the Confederate game plan on Day 2. One of a number of things that went wrong for them that day.

I concur with the advice to take a guided tour first.

Longstreet drug his feet day 2 should of been there earlier

I've heard that and then there are those that claim Longstreet has been maligned for cooperating with the Yankees after the war. Confederate General Joe Wheeler was not similarly condemned for fighting with the Yankees in the Spanish-American war. Enough time had passed I guess.

I’ve been twice, once on July 4th week and traffic and crowds we never a problem. We took the bus tour to start, then the visitor center. We bought a CD to play in the car that guided us through the battle sights and you can go at your own pace. Lack of CD player in most cars these days may hamper that. We found three days to be plenty of time.

Big fiasco happened he wanted to replace Gen. Bragg it pretty much stems from Gettysburg day 2

If they still have them this time of year, go on a ranger tour. Very informative

The Peach Orchard. And Sickles nearly cost a disaster putting a hole in the Union lines that Longstreet darn near exploited.
Cavalry field is about a 20 minute drive from the main battlefield