As I was planning my trip around the Eastern Time Zone last summer, I knew that one of my must-sees was going to be Gettysburg. I’m a history geek, and my pre-trip research quickly led me to the conclusion that it would be worth the drive from Baltimore, where I was planning to spend the better part of a week.

And so, I booked a car rental, enlisted my sister as navigator, and off we went for a drive through the Pennsylvania countryside. Both of us came away rather impressed with what we saw and learned. Since this week was the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, I thought it would be a timely blog post for the Fourth of July.

There are a number of ways to tour Gettysburg National Military Park. We opted for the Self-Guiding Auto Tour, where you are supplied with a map showing the location of more than a dozen stops throughout the park, each one of which has a viewpoint and a marker explaining its significance. If you lack a capable navigator such as I had, the Visitor Center sells CDs you can pop into your car’s stereo system while you drive, or you can take a guided bus tour.

What you can’t do ― not in an afternoon, that is ― is tour the battlegrounds on foot. At 6000 acres, the park is massive and completely surrounds the town of Gettysburg.

Now, if history isn’t your thing, you should skip on to the photos at the end of this post. But if you want a little background, read on.

In June 1863, General Robert E. Lee was the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. He’d spent most of the month moving his 93,000 soldiers north into Pennsylvania so they’d be in a position to push the Union forces out into the open and into battle. Once he decimated them (so he figured, based on his recent successes), it would bring about the end of the war.

The 75,000-strong Union Army of the Potomac shadowed Lee’s movements, but at a slower pace to make sure they were always in position to protect Washington DC from the Confederate forces. On June 28, 1863, General George G. Meade took command of the Army of the Potomac.

Both generals were angling for a favourable spot for a battle ― what is ironic about when they finally met is that the Confederate Army was moving south and the Union Army was moving north. Neither army was aiming for Gettysburg, either. But when Confederate soldiers chanced upon and were attacked by Union soldiers on July 1 ― an attack the Confederates successfully defended ― Lee realized if he acted fast he could fight the Union forces before they had finished assembling. He decided to use the chance meeting as an excuse to start a major battle.

By the morning of July 2, the Union forces had retreated from the northwest of Gettysburg, where the previous day’s fighting had occurred, to the southwest of Gettysburg. Despite their retreat, their position was good ― they occupied a series of hills and ridges in a semicircular position. The Confederate forces had no choice but to attack from below, which they did at both ends of the Union line. The Confederate forces gained a bit of ground, but losses were high and on the evening of July 2, the Union forces still occupied the high ground.

Because the Union forces had successfully repelled the Confederate attacks at either end of their line, Lee was convinced that Meade had concentrated his forces on his flanks. On July 3, Lee ordered an attack on the centre of the Union line, which he thought would be the weakest point.

The Confederate artillery fired on the Union position for several hours. The Union artillery answered back with its own volley, but eventually went quiet. Lee assumed the Union guns been knocked out. He ordered the advance of some 12,000 Confederate soldiers toward the 7000 waiting Union soldiers. This attack, which came to be known as Pickett’s Charge, required the Confederate forces to march across almost a mile of open ground. While they were in the open, Union artillery ― which had not been destroyed after all ― again took up their firing.

Union losses that day were about 1500 killed or wounded, but the Confederate casualty rate was much higher ― almost 50 percent. Total losses from both armies over the three-day battle was more than 50,000. Lee admitted defeat and began his retreat from Pennsylvania the next day. By the time Meade realized Lee was retreating all the way to Virginia, not merely heading back into the mountains, it was too late for him to catch up.

Most historians consider Gettysburg to be the turning point of the Civil War ― and the battle that saved the Union. Pickett’s Charge is called the High Water Mark of the Confederacy because it was the furthest line of advance made by the Confederate Army, but the Union victory at Gettysburg ensured that Lee’s invasion of the North was over.

If you’re still with me, all I want you to take from what I’ve written above is that it immediately becomes clear as you drive around Gettysburg Park what role the terrain this corner of Pennsylvania played in the outcome of the battle. The establishment of the park in 1895 (initially maintained by the War Department, now by the National Park Service) means that the entire battleground still looks, for the most part, as it did in 1863.

And so, you can see (just barely through the trees) the cupola of the Old Dorm of the Lutheran Theological Seminary, which provided a crucial observation post on the night of June 30 as the Union generals surveyed the landscape and chose where to place their troops. You can stand at the rocky summit of Little Round Top and imagine the fierce battle that took place on its slopes as Confederate soldiers tried to overtake it on July 2. You can survey from various viewpoints the hilly terrain that frames either side of the fields the Confederate soldiers marched across during Pickett’s Charge on the afternoon of July 3. And you can stand where the Confederate soldiers stood, and look across the same fields they looked across, and see the copse of trees where the Union soldiers were waiting for them.

And now, as promised, here is a photo tour of Gettysburg National Military Park. (Click on the first photo at top left to open the slide show.)

General Robert E. Lee led his Confederate soldiers north into Pennsylvania alongside those hills in the distance.

The cupola of the Old Dorm of Lutheran Theological Seminary is now hidden by the trees, but on the night of June 30 it provided the Union generals with a much-needed lookout. (The steeple visible in this photo is from a church built in the 1940s.)

Many of the farm buildings in the fields surrounding Gettysburg in 1863 are still standing.

Some are even still in use, like the McPherson Barn, which was at the centre of intense fighting on July 1.

General Warren of the Union army recognized the strategic significance of Little Round Top and ordered his soldiers to defend it.

Looking down from Little Round Top, which was the southern end of the Union line.

This was the view the Confederate soldiers had as they attempted to take Little Round Top.

Many of the guns on display at Gettysburg have been placed at or near the same position where guns were in use during the battle. This is a Confederate gun.

This is what the Confederate soldiers looked on as they waited to begin their charge on the Union line on July 3.

And this is what the Union soldiers looked on as they waited for the Confederate soldiers.

The Union guns fired on the Confederate soldiers when they began their charge on July 3.

The High Water Mark of the Confederacy is the furthest point of the Confederate advance during the Civil War.

Many of the monuments in Gettysburg Park were erected by veterans or their descendants.

The largest monument in the park is this one, erected by the State of Pennsylvania and dedicated in 1910.

And then there are the statues of the generals. This is General George G. Meade, commander of the Union Army of the Potomac.

For most of the equestrian statues at Gettysburg, two raised hooves signify that the rider was killed, one raised hoof that the rider was wounded, and if all four hooves are on the ground, the rider was unharmed in the battle. But General James Longstreet of the Confederate Army was neither killed nor wounded, so his statue, erected in 1998, breaks the pattern.

This is General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

A close-up of the soldiers at the base of the statue of General Lee.

A close-up of the soldiers of the North Carolina monument.

Some of the monuments get across the brutality of the battle.

The monument at the Soldiers National Cemetery, where President Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address at the cemetery’s dedication on November 19, 1863.