Gettysburg, Pennsylvania is the site of America’s bloodiest battle, and a deeply moving place to visit for anyone who is even a little familiar with the Civil War. However, there are a few things you can do before and during your visit to Gettysburg National Military Park to ensure that you and your kids get the most of your trip to this somber place.

Do familiarize yourself with the 3-day battle.

Read a book, watch a documentary, or have a family movie night with the 4-hour Gettysburg. Do something so that everyone who will be visiting has at least a rudimentary knowledge of what happened in these Pennsylvania hayfields 150 years ago. Although ranger tours are available to help fill in the gaps, a minimal background will help put the scenery in context, especially for young visitors.

Don’t stay in your car.

Posted signs will help you navigate a self-guided auto tour through the park and a number of CDs available in the gift shop will narrate the tour for a fraction of the cost of a bus tour. While this is a viable option, do take the time to stop along the route and get out of the car – even if it’s raining. You can’t really fathom a war fought in the mid 1800’s from the comfort of your 21st century automobile.

Do plan for at least four hours.

Gettysburg is an all day visit. If you have young kids, plan for a lunch and possibly snack break between the various monuments and look-out points. That being said, this is one tourist attraction that isn’t overrun with vendors, so pack a picnic and plenty of water.

Don’t skip the in-town sites.

While the bulk of the fighting happened well outside of town in the fields, there’s no doubt that Gettysburg itself played a role during and after the battle. Checkout headquarters and homes that were turned into makeshift hospitals in the days after the fighting. An impressive number of buildings in the small town date back to the Civil War and earlier, giving a modern-day visitor a keen sense of what the soldiers saw when they came to Gettysburg that fateful July.

Do take your time in the cemetery.

Listed as almost an afterthought on many of the published tour guides, the Gettysburg National Cemetery should not be missed. In fact, this writer would argue that the cemetery is even more important to visit than the battlefields themselves. It is hear where the agents of war are honored and where the cost is really felt. It is here where the reality of the term Civil War becomes less about battles listed in textbooks and more about brothers and sacrifice and country. Pay your respects here.

Photos by Britt Reints