"By the summer of 1861, Wilmer McLean had had enough. Two great armies were converging on his farm. What would be the first major battle of the Civil War, Bull Run (or Manassas, as the Confederates called it), would soon rage across the aging Virginian's farm, a Union shell going to far as to explode in the summer kitchen. Now, McLean moved his family away from Manassas, far south and west of Richmond, out of harm's way he prayed, to a dusty little crossroads called Appomattox Court House. And it was there, in his living room three and one-half years later, that Lee surrendered to Grant. Wilmer McLean could rightfully say that `The war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor.'"
"The Civil War"
A Florentine Films Production
Ken Burns and Ric Burns, Producers
When I was a child, my family and I visited Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and Chattanooga, Tennessee. As an adult, I have also visited Vicksburg, Mississippi. Having seen the Civil War battlefields at all these locations, I decided that I would begin to visit the battlefield sites in my native Virginia. I began in October, 1997, with The Valley Pike Tour.
I discovered a highly informative web site, "Guide to Virginia's Civil War Battlefields & Sites". This site breaks Virginia's Battlefields & Sites into several categories and suggests sites to visit within each category.
| My Tours of Civil War Battlefields |
| Reenactment | A Civil War battle was reenacted in an area near my home. |
| Central Virginia & the 1864 Overland Campaign | My October, 2001 tour of Central Virginia from Orange County to Petersburg, following the trail of the 1864 Overland Campaign. |
| The Battle of Cloyd's Mountain | The raid on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad |
| Saltville, Virginia | "The Salt Capital of the Confederacy" |
| The Valley Pike Tour | My October, 1997 tour of Virginia's beautiful Shenandoah Valley |
| Vicksburg | Photographs I made during visits to Vicksburg, Mississippi |
I will update this site as I tour additional Civil War battlefields.
