Random OT: Civil War Battlefields

Vicksburg 

Great thread!  Can’t help you but I’m going to steal some of the responses for my future trip plans.

We have (had) a diary from my GG grandfather’s time in the 7th M cavalry.  The original was donated to the University a few years back but it makes fascinating reading.  The short version?  A lot of horses died.  

As a boy, visiting a colleague of my mom's in MD, we took a trip to Gettysburg. To see how far Pickett's charge had to go in the open was mind boggling.

Andersonville prison in Georgia. There was a straight to TV movie on TNT back in the 90s called Andersonville. Check it out. Frederick Coffin from Detroit and a Michigan alum is in it 

Love this post. 
 

A quick but scenic and fun stop along the way if you're in the SE PA area is the Battle of the Brandywine, the largest battle of the Revolutionary War.
 

Washington’s position was airtight until it wasn't, don't want to spoil too much for you. All the other recs, especially Antietam are on point. Gettysburg is well worth a second, third, and forth look. So much to see 

I live in the Fredericksburg, VA area, and there are so many battlefields around here it makes your head spin.  None of them are really set up like Antietam (which is a must see if you pass by within an hour of it) or Gettysburg, but there's so much.  And the visitor guides will take you right to them.  It's a cute little city, too!

Bull Run is cool and easy to visualize and learn while there. 
 

Shiloh is best one ive ever been to. Nothing like it. Eerie and untouched. 

The Capital Crescent Trail (Georgetown to Bethesda) has some of the Civil War Era fortifications.  

Antietam is kinda on the way from Michigan to Gettysburg. 

Any of the Virginia battlefields, while geographically close to DC, require going through some of the worst traffic of the 95 corridor including NJ/NYC.  Be prepared 

Harpers Ferry National Historic Park. Not the grandest civil war park but there's a lot to do near the park if your kids like hiking or river tubing. From there it's an hour South to Manassas and the Bull Run Battlefield. A day at Bull Run and then dinner in Old Town Manassas is a full day. Lots of lodging in Manassas.

Battle of Franklin(Tennessee)has a house with hundreds of bullet holes in its side as well as a bullet in a railing and bayonet damage to inside of porch roof.

Fredericksburg and Marye’s Heights is great too.

The story/setting for both Vicksburg and Chattanooga/Lookout Mtn are very memorable 

Not for this trip, but if you ever make it down to Key West - Fort Zachary Taylor.  
it wasn’t a battlefield where hundreds and thousands died but interesting.  After the attack on Fort Sumpter, the local Union garrison crossed the causeway and took over the fort. It was a key part of the Union naval blockade of the confederacy. 
 

while you are here, you can take a ferry or a seaplane (take the plane- landing on the ocean is spectacular) Fort Jefferson National Park - also part of the naval blockade and also a prison that, among others, housed Dr Samuel Mudd - the doctor that treated John Wilkes Booth after he shot President Lincoln - very scenic / great snorkeling!

and you can always visit Sloppy Joes and Ernest Hemingway’s house while here in Key West

Robert e Lee’s old homestead.

I am partial to Gettysburg because I live near there, and I even have a photo with Jim Harbaugh from when the team toured the battlefield last spring, but the monuments can be distracting and Little Round Top is undergoing a lengthy renovation. Wide open battlefields inspire more imagination - Antietam does that and nearby Harpers Ferry makes for a nice historical twofer.

Definitely get a guided tour.  Well worth the cost.  Had guided tours at Gettysburg & Shiloh.  Greatly enhanced the experience.

In the Fredericksburg Virginia area, you have three major battlefield sites which happened under three different Union Commanders. 

FREDERICKSBURG:

There is a small museum and walking path at the base of the Sunken Road and then up to Marye's Heights. Next to the Heights is the Fredericksburg National Cemetery. A short drive away is Chatham Manor, a Southern plantation with a museum and a walking path. 

There are also a few places such as Lee's Hill, which was the HQ for Lee while in Fredericksburg.  Prospect Hill, where Stonewall Jackson was positioned and a few others. 

CHANCELLORSVILLE

Just on the outskirts of Fredericksburg, is the Chancellorsville battle site. There is a small museum at the Visitor Center. While at the center, you can walk to see the spot where Stonewall Jackson was shot by his own men. There is a second longer walk around the woods which basically shows trench line. 

From there, there is a driving tour where you can stop and get out and look at the actual Chancellor House site as well as visit various places which happened during the battle.

WILDERNESS

About 20 minutes out from Fredericksburg, you can go to the Wilderness Battlefield Exhibit Center. It is near where the Overland Campaign started. There is a two-mile or so walk through the woods if you want, showing trench line and various skirmish points. 

SPOTSYLVANIA

From the Wilderness Battlefield Exhibit, it is easy to find the Spotsylvania driving tour where like the Chancellorsville drive, you can decide whether to get out and view the area or drive on to the next one. Most people stop and see the Bloody Angle. 

After viewing those areas, you can continue on and follow the Overland Campaign south towards Richmond or drive north and see Bull Run as well as smaller sites like Brandy Station. You can also decide to just go and visit either Washington, DC or Richmond, Virginia and all of the things to do there. 

The traffic between Washington, DC and Richmond, Virginia is some of the worst in the country. Getting off the expressways and visiting the battlefield areas is easier but if you are on a schedule, factor traffic into your planning. The DC area is expensive, so factor that into your planning. Make sure you know where you are staying, meaning read reviews and such about the hotels/motels you book. For the most part, you should be fine, but if you are trying to do things on a budget, there are some shady places in the DC area which you would be better avoiding. 

Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, Chickamauga/Fort Oglethorpe.  Manassas/Bull Run.

I live in Elizabethtown, KY and while it's not a great battlefield there's quite a bit of history around town on the Christmas day battle that took place here, including a cannonball that got stuck in a wall of a building downtown and is still there.

It may sound boring and you can probably get through most of the history in about a half a day, which leaves plenty of time to visit all the bourbon distilleries that are within an hour of here!

Fort Fisher, near Wilmington, NC is a really cool site to visit, that's pretty unique from other Civil War sites I've visited. It's a fort that was used to protect boat access to Wilmington from the Union blockade. They have a museum that you can walk through and learn the story of the fort in chronological order, then you can go outside and walk around the fort, and they even have one spot where you can go up on top of the wall. It also looks kind of cool, because it was built out of sand, and now has grass growing all over it. It probably wouldn't take even a half a day to experience, but the area around it is a beach town, so you could spend some time on the beach, if you wanted to.

Another cool one is Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, TN. I would go to Cravens House, you can park there, and then there is a whole trail system there, and a bunch of monuments. When I was there, I was more just walking on the trail system, not experiencing a Civil War battle site, so I don't know quite so much about how well it presents the history. Lookout Mountain is a beautiful place, and Chattanooga is a fun city to visit.

I've been to a bunch, and can co-sign a lot of the ones that have been mentioned already. I'll add a few more though.

• If you're in the Nashville area, Stones River and Fort Donelson are not too far away (about 40 minutes to Stones River and 90 minutes to Fort Donelson).
  • Stones River has a great marker erected by the state of Michigan to honor its soldiers who fought there, and had the highest proportion of casualties of any of the major battles of the war. It also has the oldest Civil War monument that is still in its original location, the Hazen Brigade Monument that was erected by the US veterans of that brigade after the battle.
  • Fort Donelson of course helped put Grant's name on the map and there are many intact earthworks. It also has the only major surrender site of the war that is both largely original and in its original place.
• If you're in the Lexington, Kentucky area, Perryville is about a 30 minute drive. It's not super well known, but was an incredibly important battle that ultimately ended the Confederate invasion of Kentucky in the fall of 1862. It's also one of the most complete battlefields and one of the best preserved--the American Battlefield Trust estimates that more than 90% of the battlefield is intact.
• Kennesaw Mountain is in the Atlanta area (on the west side of Marietta). Wonderful trails to hike, and another place where you understand the folly of frontal assaults just by walking the ground. It's also a good opportunity to see the locomotives from the Great Locomotive Chase--the General is in a railroad museum in Kennesaw and the Texas is in the Atlanta History Center (which itself has maybe the best Civil War exhibit I've seen).
• Others have mentioned Chattanooga, but that has to include Chickamauga. Walking at Kelly's Field and Snodgrass Hill and imagining those US soldiers standing firm as they threw back attack after attack after attack and saved the Army of the Cumberland (and earned George Thomas his nickname "The Rock of Chickamauga."). Goosebumps.
• Bentonville in North Carolina was the site of the last major battle between the western armies as Joseph Johnston launched an attack trying vainly to stop Sherman's march north through the Carolinas. You can also go to Durham to visit the Bennett Place where Johnston surrendered to Sherman--the largest Confederate surrender of the war.
• If you're in Charleston, Fort Sumter is a must-see. From the fort you can also see the northern end of nearby Morris Island which was where Battery Wagner was (although the site is now underwater) and honor the memory of the 54th Massachusetts.

Antietam. Particularly if you can get there on the day they light the lanterns after sunset to honor the fallen. It's powerful.

It's called War of Rights???

That's like 1 step away from calling it the 'War of Northern Aggression'