BETWEEN JUNE 1864 AND APRIL 1865 the two great Civil War armies in Virginia fought a protracted series of battles around Petersburg. The duration and complexity of the campaign for “the Cockade City” is so daunting that it receives far less attention today than it deserves. Worse yet, the popular notion is that Grant and Lee did not fight traditional battles around Petersburg, instead settling for the monotony of trench warfare.

This revealing tour will visit the key surviving sites associated with this neglected campaign. Tour leader Robert E. L. Krick will guide the group to nearly ten battlefields around Petersburg with the purpose of walking the ground where the heaviest action occurred and learning the geography of the sites. Half our stops are outside the national park at Petersburg and well off the normal tourist routes. Recent preservation successes have made several of these battlefields more accessible.

On the first day of our tour, Friday, we will explore a mixture of familiar and remote battlefields. In the morning we will visit Battery #5, where the first Union assaults hit Petersburg’s defenses in June 1864. From there we will tour Fort Stedman, scene of the last major tactical offensive in the long history of the Army of Northern Virginia. Walking the ground around the Crater we will see that it was not just a dramatic explosion; more than any other action around Petersburg it demonstrated the disharmony in the Union high command that helped prolong the war in Virginia. Also on our first day we will sort out the details of the three-day fight at the Weldon Railroad in August 1864. The ground is nearly unchanged there (for the time being), allowing for a close view of the critical action that deprived Lee of one of his prized railroad lines from the Deep South. The Battle of Reams’s Station (August 25, 1864) was a corollary to the Weldon Railroad. The Civil War Preservation Trust has purchased most of that battlefield, allowing unrestricted access to the bend in the Union entrenchments there where Confederate frontal assaults dislodged Winfield Hancock’s legendary Second Corps and administered that corps’ worst defeat of the war.

 

On the second day of our tour, Saturday, we will concentrate primarily on the late-winter and early-spring episodes that led to the collapse of Lee’s lines southwest of Petersburg. Lewis’s Farm, White Oak Road, Dinwiddie Court House, Chamberlain’s Creek, and Five Forks all retain their original rustic appearance and make for splendid battlefield touring. At Five Forks we will stand at another famous junction of earthworks - this one the spot where Sheridan’s cavalry stormed over the angle in the Confederate lines on the way to crushing Pickett’s Division and compromising Lee’s lines west of Petersburg. Our final stops include the site where Confederate corps commander A. P. Hill was killed (commemorated by a small marker in the woods behind a trailer park) and Fort Gregg, the scene of a chilling “last stand” by a few hundred Confederates against John Gibbon’s Twenty-Fourth Corps on April 2.

 

We Hope You’ll Join us in October for this intriguing and detailed tour of the critical campaign for Petersburg!

 

ABOUT OUR TOUR LEADER

 

Robert E. L. Krick is one of the most experienced and popular battlefield tour guides of the Civil War in the Eastern Theater.  He is the author of The 40^th Virginia Infantry and Staff Officers in Gray, a biographical register of the staff officers of the Army of Northern Virginia.

Friday, October 22

8:00 AM           Depart from Hampton Inn Petersburg-Fort Lee and Begin Tour

4:30 PM               Arrive Back at Hampton Inn Petersburg-Fort Lee

Saturday, October 23

8:00 AM           Depart from Hampton Inn Petersburg-Fort Lee and Continue Tour

4:30 PM               Arrive Back at Hampton Inn Petersburg-Fort Lee

 

 

Registration Fee: $325

If You Must Cancel: Your registration fee will be 100% refunded.

 

What is Included in your Registration:

·        the services of an expert historian chosen for his knowledge and experience

·        transportation to all sites visited

·        Friday and Saturday  lunches

·        refreshments and snacks during the tour        

·         map package                                    

           

 

Base Location & Lodging:
We will be based at the Hampton Inn Petersburg-Fort Lee, 11909 South Crater Road (I-95 at Exit 45) Petersburg, Virginia where we have reserved a block of rooms at the special nightly rate of $79.00 – Single or Double. To reserve a room under our block, call 804-732-1400 and identify yourself as a registrant for the CWEA tour. For other nearby lodging try:

·        Comfort Inn Petersburg – 804-732-2000

·        Steven Kent Inn – 800-230-4134