"American Civil War Express" - Adult Tour
Destinations:
Williamsburg, Petersburg, Hampton, Newport News and Yorktown
Three Days/Two Nights
Call us today at 800.378.1571 or request information.
Day 1 - Petersburg
2:00pm
Meet your Colonial Connections Tour Manager at Pamplin Park
2:00pm-5:00pm
Visit Pamplin Park
The Pamplin family has built what has become one of the finest historical sites in the South. The award-winning National Museum of the Civil War Soldier forms the Park’s centerpiece. Here, the story of the three million common soldiers who fought in America’s bloodiest conflict is told in breathtaking fashion using the latest museum technology. An impressive artifact collection is set amidst lifelike settings. The entire experience is keyed to an audio tour featuring the words and “voices” of real participants in the war.
6:30pm-7:30pm
Dinner at Golden Corral
Golden Corral family-style restaurants offer the biggest buffet and grill available anywhere. Their famous buffet contains an array of food choices including hot meat options, pasta, pizza, fresh vegetables, salad bar, a selection of carved meats and fresh baked goods and tempting desserts.
8:00m
Check-in to your Williamsburg hotel (includes round-trip baggage handling). Your Colonial Connections Tour Manager will meet you upon arrival.
Choose from limited to full-service properties with exterior or interior corridors, indoor or outdoor pools, with deluxe continental breakfast or full breakfast buffet, priced from budget and moderate to deluxe.
Day 2 - Hampton, Newport News
8:00am
Deluxe Continental breakfast provided at your Williamsburg hotel
9:00am
Depart for Hampton with your Colonial Connections Tour Manager for a full day of touring
10:00am-12:30pm
Cruise aboard the Miss Hampton II (lunch on own)
This double-decked tour boat provides narrated cruises of the Hampton Roads Harbor and Chesapeake Bay. As you enter the Harbor, you will sail the waters of Captain John Smith and the first Jamestown settlers. The tour continues past historic Fort Monroe and the Old Point Comfort Lighthouse, the oldest continuously operating lighthouse in America. After an awe-inspiring view of the Chesapeake Bay the cruise will stop for a 30-minute guided walking tour of the Civil War Island Fortress of Fort Wool. Afterwards, get an in-depth view of the lethal warships at the Norfolk Naval Base (the world’s largest naval base) home to aircraft carriers, nuclear-powered submarines and various types of support ships making up the United States Atlantic Fleet. The return trip to Hampton features a captivating narrative of the famous Battle of the Ironclads: the Monitor and the Virginia (Merrimac). Learn why that battle paved the way for the landing of the Army of the Potomac at Fort Monroe.
1:00pm-3:00pm
Guided tour of Fort Monroe
See where the campaign started. Visit the Casemate Museum, walk the ramparts, see where Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at the end of the war and where Lt. Robert E. Lee was billeted. See the beautiful Chapel of the Centurions with its Tiffany stained glass windows and the Lincoln Gun, a cannon of massive proportions, while learning the fascinating history of this moated fort.
3:00pm
Depart for Newport News
3:30pm-5:00pm
Explore the Warwick Line
This afternoon we’ll cross a bridge into history and explore Dam 1 along the Warwick River where we’ll walk through Confederate earthworks and learn how General Magruder fooled General McClellan and extended the Civil War for over two years.
5:30pm
Return to Williamsburg. Dinner and evening at leisure (on own). Colonial Connections Tour Manager departs.
Day 3 - Newport News, Yorktown, Williamsburg
7:00am
Deluxe Continental breakfast at your Williamsburg hotel. Colonial Connections Tour Manager rejoins group to facilitate check-out and baggage handling.
8:30am
Depart for Newport News with your Colonial Connections Tour Manager
9:00am-10:30am
Visit Lee Hall Mansion
Completed in 1859, Lee Hall Mansion was home to affluent planter Richard Decauter Lee, his wife Martha, and their children. One of the last remaining antebellum homes on the Virginia Peninsula, Lee Hall Mansion was used as a headquarters by Confederate generals Joseph E. Johnston and John B. Magruder during April and May of 1862. Hundreds of artifacts, including a tablecloth from the USS Monitor, are on display in the museum's 1862 Peninsula Campaign Gallery.
10:45am-12:15pm
Visit Endview Plantation
The three wars fought on American soil have all left their traces at Endview Plantation. The Revolutionary War brought 3,000 militia to its fresh water spring. The War of 1812 saw its use as a training ground, while the Civil War found Endview serving as a Confederate captain's home and a hospital for both sides. Built in 1769, Endview was home to members of the Harwood and Curtis families for over 200 years. An ongoing archaeological program and historic maps have identified the locations of several outbuildings, including a smokehouse, kitchen and barn. Artifacts from the site, as well as pictures and memorabilia of the Harwood family, are also on display.
12:30pm-2:00pm
Lunch in Historic Yorktown (on own)
2:00pm-2:45pm
Riding tour of the Yorktown Battlefield
Best known as the scene of the decisive battle of the American Revolutionary War where American victory was achieved, the Yorktown Battlefield was also the anchor of the Warwick Line during the Civil War. Both battles involved siege warfare and you’ll discover why one succeeded and the other failed.
2:45pm
Depart for Williamsburg
3:15pm-4:15pm
Visit Redoubt Park and Fort Magruder
At redoubts one and six (Fort Magruder) and the Bloody Ravine, we’ll observe how a spirited defense delayed a numerically superior army and allowed the Confederate troops to retreat to an area around Richmond. Once the retreat was complete, General Robert E. Lee took command and successfully defended the Confederate Capital which was not captured until the very end of the war in 1865.
4:15pm
Depart for home. Colonial Connections Tour Manager departs.
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