My dad and I lucked into several nice tours yesterday of the Fredericksburg-area Civil War battlefields at The Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House. We walked through the woods at the first site, led by a tour guide with the Civil War Roundtable of Kingston, Ontario. Who knew the Canadians organized groups of Civil War buffs? They even have a website.
At Spotsylvania, the National Park historian told us fascinating stories about that nasty battle (including hours of hand-to-hand combat at “The Bloody Angle”) for about an hour. It really does help you understand the battles to walk the battlefield. I haven’t read a single Civil War book from cover to cover so far, but my old man is still teaching me new things.