National Park Service and RMCVB to Offer Civil War Battlefield Bus Tours

Date: March 17, 2009
Contact: Mike Andrus, 804 226-1981 x. 30

The National Park Service, in partnership with RMCVB, will offer a ranger guided bus tour of the Seven Days Battles on April 28, 2009 and Cold Harbor Campaign and battle sites on April 30, 2009. The cost per person is $40.00 per tour, and participants should bring a lunch. Refreshments will be provided. The bus will begin loading at 8:45 am downtown at 3rd and Marshall streets and will depart promptly at 9:00 am. Both tours conclude at approximately 4:45 pm. Reservations are required and must be made on-line.  Click here to go to the reservations page.

April 28: Seven Days Tour

In March 1862, Federal forces led by George B. McClellan landed near Fort Monroe and began a five month campaign against the Confederate capital. By June, the Union advance had stalled astride the Chickahominy River only six miles from Richmond. On June 26, General Robert E. Lee, commanding the Army of Northern Virginia, attacked McClellan in the first in a series of running battles known as the Seven Days, that succeeded in driving the Federal army away from Richmond. Join National Park Service staff historian Mike Gorman on this guided tour that includes visits to Lee's headquarters at Dabbs House, Chickahominy Bluff, and the battlefields at Beaver Dam Creek, Gaines' Mill, Savage's Station, White Oak Swamp, Glendale and Malvern Hill.

April 30: Cold Harbor Tour

The spring of 1864 brought Union General Ulysses S. Grant to Virginia and a renewed determination by Union forces to defeat Lee's army. For nearly two months, the two armies locked in a series of desperate struggles, producing casualties surpassing anything that either army had seen before. The climactic battle of the campaign took place just east of Richmond at a country crossroads called Old Cold Harbor. Join National Park Service staff historian Ed Sanders for this guided tour that includes visits to Nelson's Crossings on the Pamunkey River, Haw's Shop, Enon Church, Rural Plains at Totopotomoy Creek, Polegreen Church, Bethesda Church, Old Church and Cold Harbor.