The National Park Service (NPS), in partnership with the Richmond Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau (RMCVB), is pleased to offer two ranger-guided bus tours in April. The Seven Days Battles tour will take place April 28 and the Cold Harbor Campaign and battle sites tour will take place April 30. The cost is $40 per person per tour. Buses will load at 8:45 a.m. and depart promptly at 9 a.m. Light refreshments will be provided; participants are asked to bring their own lunch. Reservations are required and can be made on the Virginia Civil War Sesquicentennial Web site at http://www.virginiacivilwar.org/2009conference_exclusive.php. Participants may also contact the National Park Service at 804-226-1981 to make reservations.

The two bus tours will take place before and after the April 29 conference America on the Eve of Civil War sponsored by the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission. At the conference, Dr. Edward L. Ayers will bring together nationally-recognized Civil War historians at the University of Richmond for an open dialogue about the state of the country in 1859.

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 Crossing on the Pamunkey River, Haw's Shop, Enon Church, Rural Plains at Totopotomoy Creek, Polegreen Church, Bethesda Church, Old Church and Cold Harbor.