This attractively produced volume offers 180 color maps, 70 of which are full page. Accompanying pages of narrative text lead the reader through the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. A foreword explains the symbols used to depict movement and combat and the colors and styles of type used to identify individual units. The maps clearly convey the terrain and unit positions. With a few exceptions, the smallest units indicated are brigades. The maps follow the course of the battle, so those illustrating smaller actions are more detailed and of a larger scale than later depictions of the field when both complete armies were present. One disadvantage of this approach is that the maps can give only general positions of individual units. The advantage, however, is that the reader gets a comprehensive picture of the battle at a given time (e.g., "July 1, Late Afternoon"). Unfortunately, the prose that accompanies the maps is written in an over-the-top style, in the present tense, and with wide variations in tone. A dispassionate recitation will suddenly veer into purple prose (e.g., "Near the darkling swale of Plum Run, Barksdale is discovered...."), complete with mixed metaphors (e.g., "Like a mighty breaker exhausting to froth, the Confederate sweep eastward has run out of steam"). VERDICT Suitable for enthusiastic Civil War buffs and reenactors. The maps will also have utility for players or designers of war games.-Richard Fraser, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, Libs. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.