As the Gettysburg National Military Park commemorates the 149th anniversary of the great battle, we are happy to provide a public preview of a very exciting research tool and study guide that will be available soon. Whether you are walking the fields in Gettysburg or researching the battle from the comfort of your home, you can now have an electronic encyclopedia of Gettysburg in the palm of your hand!

Pocket Gettysburg is a smartphone application that contains detailed information about the monuments, military units, and people that are associated with the Battle of Gettysburg.

At its core, Pocket Gettysburg includes the locations, photos, and inscriptions of the more than 1200 battlefield monuments, historical markers, wayside signs, and plaques in the Gettysburg National Military Park and greater Adams County, Pennsylvania.

But Pocket Gettysburg is so much more than a database of monuments!

First, there’s the GPS-enabled map*.

But one can’t learn about the Battle of Gettysburg merely by looking at monuments. Any study of the battle requires an understanding of the military units and people whose actions are immortalized by those stones.

So Pocket Gettysburg includes a database of all 864 military units (regiment, brigade, division, corps, and army) that participated in the battle from both sides. Each monument is linked to its associated military unit(s).

Information about each military unit includes its full name, nickname(s), regimental history, and details about its participation at Gettysburg, including commanders, total strength, and losses (killed, wounded, missing/captured), among other details.

The searchable list of military units shows the succession of command of each unit as its commanders were killed, wounded, or captured over the course of the three-day battle. For Union brigades and higher, the list also shows battle flags and corps insignia. And, of course, there is a navigable Order of Battle for both armies.

But that’s just the beginning!

The real story of the Battle of Gettysburg isn’t about monuments or military units as much as it is about people.

So Pocket Gettysburg also includes an integrated searchable database of more than 42,000 people (and growing!) who are connected to the Battle of Gettysburg, including:

• Commanders of every military unit (regimental and above) in the two armies;
• Soldiers of any rank who are mentioned on any Gettysburg monument (including the Pennsylvania State Memorial);
• Recipients of the Medal of Honor or Confederate Medal of Honor for actions at Gettysburg;
• More than 6000 people who are buried in the Soldier’s National Cemetery in Gettysburg;
• …and 200 or so private citizens, politicians, famous residents, spouses, and others who are mentioned on a monument, witnessed the battle, or played a role in its aftermath.

For thousands of those individuals (including nearly all brigade commanders and above), the database includes birth, death, burial information and/or a photograph of the person.

For most soldiers, the Person View identifies the State and/or unit(s) in which the person served and, when appropriate, a linked list of units which he commanded at Gettysburg. Many also include nicknames, spelling variations, other pertinent comments, and the full text of citations, tombstone inscriptions, or other data.

Finally, in the case of surviving commanders, a citation is included to that officer’s “Official Report” (if any) after the Battle of Gettysburg. Over time, the full text of those Official Reports will be included, as demonstrated by a few included examples.

As we’re sure you’ll agree from this brief preview, Pocket Gettysburg is truly a massive collection of information about the monuments, military units, and people associated with the Battle of Gettysburg. It will be the ultimate electronic research companion and an indispensable tool for those who study the Battle of Gettysburg.

Pocket Gettysburg will be available for the iPhone and iPad within a few weeks with for the Android thereafter.

Watch this space for further announcements!

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Pocket Gettysburg is brought to you by SegTours, LLC – the same folks who provide tours of the Gettysburg Battlefield on Segway Personal Transporters(tm). “Experience History and Enjoy the Ride!”

Please visit www.SegTours.com for more information.

*GPS features require a GPS-enabled device.

[Some images were updated on 10 Sep 2012.]

In response to many requests, we now have SegTours of Gettysburg shirts available for purchase in our shop!

Three shirt designs are available.

Each of the graphics depicts the back of the shirt. The front reflects our company logo.

These shirts are available in sizes ranging from Small to 2XL. Stop by our shop at 22 Springs Avenue in Gettysburg to get your very own – or give us a call at 717-253-7987 for a quote on shipping.

We previously posted a rare video of the 1938 veterans reunion at Gettysburg which included the only known recording of the “Rebel yell”.

Now the Smithsonian has dug up a really remarkable video of a dozen or so Confederate veterans reacting the Rebel Yell as a group. Then nine of the old men take turns at the microphone to give individual reenactments of the yell.

It is a real gem of a video. Perhaps the most interesting part of the demonstration is how different the yell is when performed by each veteran!

Segway Tours of Gettysburg is now taking job applications for the 2012 tour season.

Full- and part-time positions for indoor staff and tour escorts are available. These are not tour guide positions and no knowledge of the battle of Gettysburg is necessary. Schedules are flexible but all applicants must be available to work during the busy Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day weekends.

For more information and to download a job application, please see http://www.segtours.com/jobs.htm.

The cold weather is here but what better gift could there be than a golden ticket to cruise the Gettysburg battlefield on a Segway?

A gift certificate from Segway Tours of Gettysburg is the perfect holiday gift! You can give the gift of specific Segway tour(s) or for any dollar amount that you choose.

We’ll ship the attractive gift certificate to you by mail or (if you waited until the last minute) we can even email it so that you can print it on your color printer.

Gift certificates can only be purchased by phone so call us today at 717-253-7987 and let us prepare the gift that your loved ones will be talking about until all winter!

Megan and her Segway tour today happened across Gary Casteel and his daughter at Pitzer Woods. Gary is the talented artist who sculpted of the statue of James Longstreet and his horse, Hero.

Gary regaled the tour participants with stories about “Jimmy” Longstreet and the statue. He explained, for instance, that he designed the statue to be at eye level so that people could really see and touch the General — whereas on most equestrian statues one can only see “whether the horse is a mare or a stallion”.

Gary left Megan with a signed copy of his book, “It’s About Time; Sculpting of the General James Longstreet Memorial” (Four Winds Studio, 1984).

Readers can find out more about Gary on his web site, www.garycasteel.com.

Thanks, Gary!

Despite being a little chilly, October is the third busiest month of the year (after July and August) for Segway tours in Gettysburg. That’s because the tree colors are at their most spectacular at this time of year.

But this year we were treated with a color we don’t often see on the trees in October — white! Like many others in the Northeast, we were hit last weekend with a freak snowstorm. The ice and snow even caused some trees and electrical lines to fall, resulting in many road closures in the Park.

It was the first time in anyone’s memory that we got snow in October and it made for some beautiful scenery but it didn’t last long. In fact, the snow is already gone and all Park roads are open again.

We regret that most of the tours were cancelled over the weekend but there are several weeks of the the tour season left so make your reservation now! Just come prepared for some brisk weather. If you don’t have some gloves, we even have some that you can borrow.

There a problem with the link to the video in the previous post but it is fixed now.

Here are some more photos from the 2011 Gettysburg Halloween Parade:

We’re still looking for a photo of Chuck … 🙁

Thanks to all the folks who came out to see the 2011 Halloween Parade in Gettysburg yesterday!

We had a lot of fun and we saw many friends in the crowd. We’re told that the parade was the largest one in town for many years — if not the largest ever. By our count, the procession was about 25 blocks long which is great except that the parade route was only about 20 blocks long. So the beginning of the procession had finished well before the last one even left the staging area.

Our Segway demonstration was a big hit. Staff members Bob, Cathy, Sherry, Meghan, Chuck, Gary, and Jessie wowed the crowd and handed out candy to the children. According to today’s Gettysburg Times, we won third place in the costume category.

Here’s a short video of our group. Sadly, it was after 9pm and there was very little street lighting so we apologize for the low visibility.

Representatives of SegTours will be in the Gettysburg Halloween parade tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct 25th) starting at 7:30pm. Come by to see us — in costume!

The parade begins at the Middle School and will travel north on Baltimore Street, onto Lincoln Square, east on York Street and south on Liberty, returning to the school. The rain date is Wednesday, October 26.

We need a volunteer to videotape us for posterity. If you’re able to help, please let us know. (We’ll provide the video camera).