Tuesday, May 9 (7:00pm EST) – Saturday, May 13, 2023 (10:00am EST)
Led by: A. Wilson “Will” Greene
HQ: Fredericksburg, VA
**All Hotel Accommodations & All Meals are Included in the Cost of This Tour**
Tour Registration: $1759.00 (Check or Credit Card)
We hope you can join us for the third installment of our Campaigning with Grant series! This year, Grant arrives in Virginia with the new rank of lieutenant general and the title of general-in-chief. Grant decides to make his headquarters with George Meade’s Army of the Potomac and plans a campaign to move against Richmond and an inevitable clash with Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Confederate logistics preclude going on the operational offensive, but the Army of Northern Virginia still possesses power as a counter-puncher.The Union army’s progress toward Richmond is a bloody one. In forty days, the armies meet numerous times in a series of drawn battles. After each engagement, Grant and Meade sidle to their left, southeast, in an attempt to outflank the Rebels, and each time Lee’s veterans are there to block them. Eventually, the Federals run out of flanking room north of Richmond, leading to Grant’s bold decision to execute a crossing of the James and an attack against Petersburg.
at the Rapidan River’s Germanna Ford. From there we will explore the Wilderness Battlefield and then move south to Spotsylvania Court House and the two-week battle there, including the horrific Bloody Angle. We will then follow the armies to the North Anna River and visit some of the best-preserved Civil War fortifications anywhere, including a walk to a portion of the battlefield usually not open to the public. We next visit the large cavalry battle at Haw’s Shop and the fight along swampy Totopotomey Creek. The forces then descend on an obscure crossroads called Cold Harbor. Our last stop takes us to the banks of the mighty James River, where on June 14 the Union army began to cross and initiate the war’s final chapter.
Our host hotel is the Hampton Inn South, 4800 Market Street in Fredericksburg. We will enjoy two fine dinners in Fredericksburg and a final dinner at one of Richmond’s most popular eateries. All lunches and dinners are included in the tour and there is a full hot breakfast each morning at our hotel. This tour involves a good deal of walking (expect three to four miles each day) so that we can visit the actual places where the combat occurred.
The tour begins on May 9 at our hotel, where at 7:00 PM we will gather for introductions and a tour briefing. You may check into the Hampton Inn on May 9 as part of your tour fee. Your name will be on a master account with the hotel. You will be asked for a credit card for incidentals, but your room cost, including tax is included in the tour fee.
Bruce Venter will provide pick up and return to the airport, if you fly into Richmond (RIC.) Shuttles are available to Fredericksburg from DC airports.
The tour ends on the morning of May 13, with individual checkouts at the hotel. There are no battlefield tour activities on May 9 or May 13.
Will will prepare a reading list to be sent after each reservation is received.
As always, the tour includes all meals, admissions, and all hotel accommodations during the dates of the tour. Will Greene is looking forward to sharing his knowledge of and passion for these historic places. See you in May!
Please note that this tour is different from other tours offered by America’s History LLC because we are including hotel accommodations for four nights and three dinners as part of the registration fee, in addition to our usual hotel breakfasts, lunches and refreshment breaks. Alcoholic beverages are not included in the registration fee, but are not frowned upon. You must register for this tour by April 9, 2023 (how appropriate) to ensure that we will have hotel rooms available.
What’s included: motor coach transportation, hotel accommodations for four nights (single or double occupancy), three dinners, three lunches, four breakfasts, beverage and snack breaks, a map and materials package, all admissions and gratuities; and the services of an experienced tour /historian. Tour goes out rain or shine. Please see our policy page for information about cancellation.
Our Tour Guide/Historian: A. Wilson Greene was executive director of the Pamplin Historical Park and a very popular leader of Civil War tours for our company. In his early career, Will was a historian at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Battlefields Military Park. He is the author of more than 20 published works on Civil War military history, icluding Final Battles of the Petersburg Campaign: Breaking the Backbone of the Rebellion. His newest book, A Campaign of Giants: The Battle for Petersburg, was published in 2018 by the University of North Carolina Press as the first volume of a trilogy of the Petersburg campaign. It has won numerous awards, including the Society for Military History’s Annual Book Award.
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