Starting a few days after the Battle of Gettysburg and continuing for the next several years, photographers descended upon the town to record the actual locations of the battle. (No photographs were taken of the battle itself.) Some of the photographers are well known, such as Mathew Brady; others deserve to be better known, such as the Tyson brothers. This book is based on their achievement, a sweeping visual record of the entire area where the battle was fought. "Gettysburg: a Journey Through Time," by employing a detailed examination of the most important of their photographs-taken from 1863 to 1866, while the battlefield remained basically the same, recreates the battle almost as if it were a contemporary news event. The reader is transported to the battlefield by the photographs and through the analysis of the photographs to the battle itself. We watch it unfold, action by action. In meticulous close-up fashion, with documentary force, we see the terrible encounters of men at war. By its merging of text and the "overwhelming reality" of photographs, "Gettysburg" makes history come vividly alive. It may be a unique book. It is undoubtedly an absorbing and powerful one.

The Gettysburg photographs : a new approach -- The problems of documentation -- Gardner and his men -- Mathew Brady -- The Tyson brothers -- Additional photographers -- The Battle of Gettysburg -- The presentation -- Group I : the first day's field -- Group II : Cemetery Hill -- Group III : Culp's Hill -- Group IV : Little Round Top and Devils Den -- Group VI : The Rose Farm -- The early photographs : a plea for reappraisal.