Update: Friends of Fort Ward 'Grapes of Wrath' Tour Cancelled

Update: This tour has been cancelled due to low enrollment.

Friends of Fort Ward are headed to the Valley of Virginia on the “Grapes of Wrath Tour 2” to explore Stonewall Jackson’s 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign and enjoy a local winery. 

Guide and military historican Col. Robert Hudson will lead the Saturday, May 7 tour of Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s campaign, which is often cited as an excellent battletime example of a numerically inferior force defeating a superior adversary.

Jackson was charged with creating a distraction and preventing reinforcements from being sent to Union Gen. George McClellan on the outskirts of Richmond. He exceeded beyond expectations, using speed, surprise, and maneuver to defeat exposed elements of three separate Union armies, according to the Office of Historic Alexandria.

The tour will visit Pritchard Farm and Rose Hill, two sites associated with the First Battle of Kernstown, Jackson’s only loss in the campaign. The tour will make several stops at sites related to the Battle of Front Royal, which featured the Confederate spy Belle Boyd and pitted the 1st Maryland (Union) against the 1st Maryland (Confederate). The battles of McDowell, Winchester, Cross Keys and Port Republic also will be discussed.

The tour will visit the Philip Carter Winery in Hume, Va., for a wine tasting. The Philip Carter Winery was established in 2008 by Philip Carter Strother, a direct descendant of the pioneering Carter family, who were among the first Virginians to grow vines and produce wine in the early 1760s.

Advance tour registration is required. The registration fee is $130 before April 22, and $140 after that date. Fee includes transportation, guide and admission fees, box lunch, snacks, and wine tasting, and non-members receive a one-year enrollment in the Friends of Fort Ward.

For more information or to register, please contact the Ford Ward Museum at 703-746-4848.