Gettysburg

yosemite, I'm not positive but it looks like guides for the military park must be licensed... which is what you should want anyway.

Did you see this page of the park website? It provides information for booking private auto tours.
https://www.nps.gov/gett/planyourvisit/fees.htm

"Licensed Battlefield Guides

Enhance your Gettysburg experience with a privately guided tour of the battlefield in your own vehicle with one of Gettysburg's renowned Licensed Battlefield Guides. Standard auto tours are two hours in length and available daily on a first come, first served basis. You may also make advance reservations by calling 1-877-874-2478. PLEASE NOTE: Advance reservations must be made at least three days prior to your scheduled visit to the park. New prices in effect as of January 1, 2017.

GUIDE FEES:
1-6 people per vehicle = $75.00
7-15 people per vehicle = $100.00
16+ people per vehicle = $150.00"

Just in case you're curious, this is what it takes to become a licensed park guide:
https://www.nps.gov/gett/getinvolved/workwithus.htm

I hear you, Barbara: free is always great, and we love the ranger walks-and-talks and other programs at the parks. In this case, though, as yosemite is willing to ante-up for a guide, it's nice payback for effort these guides went to get their licenses. :O)

Oh, and some of them just might be needy history students!

Thanks for all the information. It looks like I will have to make up my mind three days before I go to the park. I was there in 1978 when Jimmy Carter took Sadat and Begin. I was able to be with 6 feet of them and hear their conversations. Sadat was coming over to talk with me, but Carter called him away. I got great pictures until the White House Press Corp showed up about 15 minutes later and kicked us out of the area. I even got to look inside the Presidential limousine. I don't I will ever get that close to 3 heads of state again. Surprisingly, all tourists were scared away from the park and we had the whole park to ourselves when they left.

What a great story! It'll be hard to top THAT experience this time!

Well, they do say that the tours are available daily on a first come-first, served basis so you could take your chances? But even a 3-day notice is much shorter than two weeks if you must plan ahead. :O)

An alternative to a car guide is joining a Gettysbike tour: http://www.gettysbike.com/
While not a private guide tour we had 6 or 7 plus our licensed guide touring the Gettysburg site. Being on bikes we could stop in places other than car parks. We did the half day "Grand Tour" that extended to 5 hours as our guide got carried away with his descriptions and discussion of the battle.

And of course, don't miss the Visitors Center and the Gettysburg Cyclorama.

PS I should add that Gettysbike does offer private guide bike tours.
http://www.gettysbike.com/Tour-Packages

PRIVATE TOURS - Have your guide all to yourself and take a more
customized tour. These tours are great if you want to spend more time
and see more of the battlefield, if you want to focus on a particular
part of the field or unit that fought here, or if you just don’t want
to be on a tour with people you don’t know. You can determine how long
you want the tour to be and what you would like to see.

Several years ago I visited Gettysburg with my two teen sons. We hired one of the licensed guides and it was worth every penny. He was extremely knowledgeable, and passionate about his work. Because he drove my car, I was able to relax and pay attention to what I was seeing, rather than the traffic! He also customized the tour, making it interesting for the teens, and specially taking us to the Minnesota monument and describing Minnesota's role in the battle (because we are from Minnesota). It was more expensive than a group tour, but much better.

At the time, you could just walk into the visitor center and hire one of these guides, but I don't know if this is still true. Check the website mentioned above.