A tour of Civil War battlefields, mostly in Virginia. Starting at Gettysburg, then to Antietam (or Sharpsburg as it is still known in the South), and on to Harper’s Ferry, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Chancellorsville… taking in Grant’s HQ at City Point (at the confluence of the James and Appomattox rivers) on the way to Petersburg and the famous Crater (rather smaller than craters at Ypres). Thence to Appomattox Court House, and the recreated Maclean House where the Surrender was signed. After admiring the preserved village (all but two of the buildings are original), we motor on to Jefferson’s Monticello, the Shenandoah Valley, and eventually Bull Run (or Manassas).

Pictures and maps give no impression of scale – there is no substitute for standing on ‘hallowed ground’. The famous Malvern Hill is actually hardly a hill, more a plateau, for example. Bull Run is many separate actions, quite widely spaced; Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg seems even crazier – or bolder – when you stand at The Angle and see the open space that the attackers had to cover under cannon and musket fire.

The Shenandoah Valley is stunning, lush and green, with stud farms and wineries on the slopes of the hills. We stay at old plantations or in houses on their estates. Rural Virginia is lovely, with the Crepe myrtle in bloom. There is no substitute for standing on hallowed ground where so many died. Like that ‘vortex of hell’ at Second Bull Run where 5th New York Zouaves, in their brilliant red and blue, were all but destroyed. The plaque on the monument tells the story:

‘Here, about 4 p.m. August 30, 1862, the regiment, 482 strong, supported Hazlett’s Battery, “D” 5th U.S. Artillery, when attacked by a Division of the victorious Confederates. The Regiment stubbornly withstood this force, and checked its advance, until the Battery had withdrawn. In holding this position, the regiment suffered the greatest loss of life sustained by any infantry regiment, in any battle, during the entire Civil War. The casualties were: killed or mortally wounded, 124; wounded 223. Both color bearers, and seven out of eight of the color guard were killed; but the colors were brought with honor, off the field.’