Spotsylvania Civil War Blog: Battlefield Guide Services

As of January 1, 2022, I have retired from providing private tours of the battlefields.

After over 20 years of doing so, I look back with fondness and gratitude for all my clients.

Many thanks to everyone of you.

My name is John Cummings, and I would like to share with you my lifelong passion for Civil War history and the human experiences that shaped our region and nation. I have conducted tours since 1994, and have focused my research over the past eighteen years on the Spotsylvania area. I am the author of three books on the local history and have written numerous articles for national publication. My concentration of study has been on the visual record of the war, produced in photographs chiefly, and also in the works of newspaper "Special Artists" who sketched the scenes of battle on the ground, as it happened.

Come out for a two hour tour of the Spotsylvania Courthouse neighborhood and battlefield. The basic tour rates start at just $67.50 and will provide a fast-paced look at how the citizens, and the soldiers fared during the two week struggle of May 1864. Do you have an ancestor who fought here? I can customize your tour to allow you to walk in their footsteps, dependent on property accessibility. Give me at least one week notice and I will make the arrangements. Send me an email at spotsylvaniacwblog@gmail.com, or call 540-455-0228. All tours start from the historic Spotsylvania Court House area, where Confederate forces dug in to protect the vital crossroad from the advancing Federal Army of the Potomac.

Visits to Chancellorsville and the Wilderness battlefields are also available with advance notice.

Walk where the armies advanced, and struggled to gain ground.

Hear the stories of the people who lived here before war's intrusion.

Experience "then and now" imagery, and see how much has changed.

See what the passage of one hundred and fifty years has done to the community.

Learn the truth behind the scenes.

Walk away with a better understanding of the field of battle.

Stand on the very ground where history was recorded.

Why I am here:

I am the owner of Spotsylvania Commemorative. For over 20 years I provided battlefield guide services, but as of January 1, 2022, I have retired from that aspect of my work. I continue to conduct historical research and assist and advise fellow historians. Living on the Spotsylvania battlefield has its advantages. The most important to me is that I am right on the ground that played an important but usually disregarded role in the campaign. The actions of May 14, 1864 resulted in the near capture of General George Gordon Meade while it also helped to anchor a new Federal left wing. Known as the battle of Myer's Hill, it focused on what was until recently a wooded summit, one half mile southeast from my driveway. There remains close to 75 acres of land which includes the Myer house site. In 1864 it was a 400 acre farm. I advocated for 20 years to influence the preservation of this property. During this time I sadly witnessed the destruction of some of the cultural resources on the site by deforesting, including what was a beautifully preserved trenchline built by the Federal 6th Corps. Seeing an imminent threat to the house site, I personally negotiated with the logging company and minimized the damage, while the surrounding acres were clear cut.
I have come to know the story of John Henry Myer and his family and the struggle for the farm site they called home. Myer, conscripted into the 40th VA Infantry, watched helpless from the Confederate trenches on May 15, 1864 as his home was destroyed by the Union occupants. It had been intended as a sanctuary from the ravages of war.
Their story, and those of countless others, is my inspiration. Thankfully, in 2018, the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust did purchase, and now aims to interpret, the Myer's Hill battlefield. I shall continue to advocate and assist where I can.