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Civil War Road Trip, Volume I: A Guide to Northern Virginia, Maryland & Pennsylvania, 1861-1863: First Manassas to Gettysburg
The new, amazingly detailed, and thorough guide from the author of The Complete Civil War Road Trip Guide . Although the Civil War was fought across America, the most captivating events for history buff s seem to be those that occurred in the relatively small region surrounding the two wartime capitals, Washington, DC, and Richmond, Virginia. In The Civil War Road A Guide to Northern Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania , author Michael Weeks takes you on complete tours of every major military campaign in the region during the first two years of the war, from First Manassas in 1861 to Gettysburg in 1863. Weeks has visited every site included here, learning their vibrant stories and driving thousands of miles to bring readers the most accurate information. Detailed directions and maps for your own road trip, along with a blow-by-blow history of each campaign, will guide you to and through some of the war’s most critical battlegrounds, including Fredericksburg, Antietam, and the Shenandoah Valley. Travel tips, historic lodging places, and further sources of information are also included. Fully up to date and thoroughly researched, this guidebook is indispensable for travelers interested in America’s history. 100 black-and-white photographs
512 pages, Paperback
First published June 6, 2011
About the author
Michael Weeks
19 books2 followersMichael Weeks is an amateur historian with a passion for the road. He has driven tens of thousands of miles across America in search of the living roots of U.S. history. Weeks lives in the South Loop area of Chicago, Illinois, with his wife, Charlotte, and works as an occupational health and safety consultant. Although Weeks is the author of a comprehensive road-trip guide, ironically, he does not own a car."
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 21, 2012
This book is very thorough but extremely poorly edited.
Positives -
- The directions from site to site are pretty precise, so using a GPS isn't required in most cases.
- He doesn't just focus on the big, well known sites. There are some fights that I had never heard about (like the battles in Maryland preceding Gettysburg).
- The descriptions of the battles have a good amount of detail, but not an overwhelming amount.
- There is a collection of resources, websites and addresses at the end of the book.
Negatives -
- VERY poorly edited. There are many minor historical errors. For example, within the same paragraph he will refer to a unit that a general is leading as both a brigade and a regiment. He also changes people's ranks during the same battle. There is also a section where he is recapping the casualties of a battle and he states that the Federals lost X men and the Union lost Y men. So, basically he's saying that the Federals were fighting themselves in that battle. Furthermore, on the page right before, there is a picture of a memorial on the battlefield, and the casualty figures are different than those he wrote out.
- The maps, in general, are of poor quality. They look like they were made using Microsoft Paint. For multi-day battles, like Gettysburg and 2nd Manassas, it is extremely confusing to tell where different units were on each day. Also, some of the place names are straight up wrong (for example... the city of Harrisonburg, is called "Harrisburg".
- I'm a northern Virginia native and I know that many of the driving directions he lists are not good. It seems like he is going for the scenic route, trying to avoid interstate highways at all costs. In some cases that might work, like around rush hour on a week day, but most of the time it's quicker to take the interstates.
- Some of the sites he picks I could honestly care less about (and this is coming from a history teacher who is a Civil War enthusiast). Why would I drive 25 miles out of the way to see where an army crossed the river, when there isn't even a historical marker, let alone a parking lot there?
Overall, not a horrible guidebook, and not bad as a general history of the first two years of the war in the east (assuming you can get past the horrible editing).
Positives -
- The directions from site to site are pretty precise, so using a GPS isn't required in most cases.
- He doesn't just focus on the big, well known sites. There are some fights that I had never heard about (like the battles in Maryland preceding Gettysburg).
- The descriptions of the battles have a good amount of detail, but not an overwhelming amount.
- There is a collection of resources, websites and addresses at the end of the book.
Negatives -
- VERY poorly edited. There are many minor historical errors. For example, within the same paragraph he will refer to a unit that a general is leading as both a brigade and a regiment. He also changes people's ranks during the same battle. There is also a section where he is recapping the casualties of a battle and he states that the Federals lost X men and the Union lost Y men. So, basically he's saying that the Federals were fighting themselves in that battle. Furthermore, on the page right before, there is a picture of a memorial on the battlefield, and the casualty figures are different than those he wrote out.
- The maps, in general, are of poor quality. They look like they were made using Microsoft Paint. For multi-day battles, like Gettysburg and 2nd Manassas, it is extremely confusing to tell where different units were on each day. Also, some of the place names are straight up wrong (for example... the city of Harrisonburg, is called "Harrisburg".
- I'm a northern Virginia native and I know that many of the driving directions he lists are not good. It seems like he is going for the scenic route, trying to avoid interstate highways at all costs. In some cases that might work, like around rush hour on a week day, but most of the time it's quicker to take the interstates.
- Some of the sites he picks I could honestly care less about (and this is coming from a history teacher who is a Civil War enthusiast). Why would I drive 25 miles out of the way to see where an army crossed the river, when there isn't even a historical marker, let alone a parking lot there?
Overall, not a horrible guidebook, and not bad as a general history of the first two years of the war in the east (assuming you can get past the horrible editing).
June 19, 2013
Helps you build a trip around Civil War sites, including discussions of nearby attractions and helpful directions.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews