Pocket Gettysburg – Search for a Monument

Here’s a common question by users of our popular app, Pocket Gettysburg for iPhone/iPad.

“Where can I find the monument to the 83rd New York Infantry?” (for instance)

The easy answer is…

From the opening screen, tap on the “All Monuments” icon on the bottom.

From the list of All Monuments, tap on the search icon in the top-right.  Then type “83” in the search field and tap on “Search” in the bottom-right.

That gives you a list of three monuments that have “83” in its name.  Tap on the monument to the 83rd New York …

…to see the details of that monument, including its photo, inscription, etc. Then tap on “Map” at the bottom… 

…to see its place on the battlefield. (Here I happen to have chosen the Hybrid version of the map)

BUT keep in mind that this method searches the MONUMENT list for those monuments that have “83” in their name (i.e., as written on the physical monument).  That will usually work – but if the face of the monument happens to have the name of the regiment spelled out in words or it uses a nickname for the unit, then this method will not find it!

So, for instance, searching the MONUMENT list for “9” will not find the MONUMENT called the “Ninth New York Battery”.

So instead of looking for a monument with a certain name written on it, it is a better to get in the habit of finding the UNIT that you want.  Then with one more click, you can look at the list of the monuments that are connected to that UNIT.

The process is the same as outlined above except that, instead of starting with the list of monuments, you’ll start by searching the list of UNITS.  

From the opening screen, click on “All Units“.

Then when you tap on the Search icon, you’ll be searching for a UNIT (i.e., a regiment) with “83” in its name.  From the list, you’ll choose “83rd New York Infantry” and that will show you all of the details of that unit, including commander(s) at Gettysburg, strengths and losses, armament, nicknames, regimental history, etc.

Notice that the icons at the bottom have now changed and you can click to see the “9 monuments” that are connected to the 83rd New York Infantry.

That process takes an extra step but (1) it doesn’t care what is written on the monument and (2) it has the benefit of also showing you monuments to the regiment’s State, Brigade, Division, and Corps, regardless of what those physical monuments happen to be called.  (Scroll down the list to see all of them.)  You may be surprised to find that Pocket Gettysburg even tells you about a monument to the 83rd NY Inf. (aka the 9th NY State Militia) in downtown New York City.

As before, you can then map the set of monuments … or select one of them and then Map it alone.

The lesson here is that searching for a MONUMENT with a certain name will produce different results than searching for a UNIT with a certain name … and then looking at the monuments that are connected to that unit.

There’s a lot of power under the hood of Pocket Gettysburg.  It just requires you to take a moment to consider carefully what you really want before you start searching.