The Civil War started in 1861 at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. Battles raged all over the South during the next 4 years. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant took Vicksburg, Mississippi, after a long siege, and Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman burned Atlanta, but the most famous fighting took place within 100 miles of Washington, D.C. This area has more national battlefield parks than any other part of the country.

It won't be in chronological order, but you can tour them by starting at the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and The Wilderness in and near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Proceed north to the two Battles of Manassas (or Bull Run) southwest of Washington, then north across the Potomac River to the Battle of Antietam at Sharpsburg, Maryland. From there, go northwest through Harpers Ferry to the Battle of Gettysburg, the turning point of the war, in south central Pennsylvania. Gettysburg is perhaps the most moving and well-preserved of the battlegrounds. You'll also pass several battlefields driving through the Shenandoah Valley.