To mark the 150th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg, TIME has published a richly illustrated 192-page book, Gettysburg: Turning Point of the Civil War. To buy a copy, go to time.com/gettysburgbook
Gettysburg: In the Footsteps of Mathew Brady
Photographer Todd Harrington revisited the sites shown in images originally captured by Mathew Brady and Timothy O'Sullivan to reveal how the setting of the Civil War's most important turning point has evolved in the past century and a half.
1863: Eastern edge of McPherson’s Woods, looking toward Seminary Ridge. Brady, in hat on the right.
In his 2003 book, Hallowed Ground, A Walk at Gettysburg, historian James M. McPherson notes that Gettysburg was a great orchard town in 1863, but many of those orchards no longer exist. Furthermore, some 150 acres of battlefield land, previously forested, has now been cleared, while another 600 acres of woods now covers ground that was open fields 150 years ago, making it difficult for modern visitors to trace the movements of troops across the battlefield.