About an hour north of Staunton, on May 11, 1864, more than 250 VMI cadets began a rainy four-day march to New Market, 80 miles north of Lexington. Their objective was to bolster a small Confederate force defending the Shenandoah Valley. Ten cadets lost their lives. The Virginia Museum of the Civil War and self-guided battlefield tour bring the human scale of that day into focus

A National Historic Landmark, the University Chapel was built in 1868 under the leadership of Robert E. Lee, who served as president of Washington College. The chapel includes a museum with rotating exhibits and features the famous Recumbent Lee statue by Edward Valentine. The Lexington Carriage Company offers horse-drawn tours linking the main Civil War sites in town.

The museum houses the uniform in which Jackson earned his nickname and the uniform he was wearing when he was mortally wounded by his own men. His horse, Little Sorrel, is mounted and on exhibit. The VMI Museum is free and open seven days a week. The Stonewall Jackson House nearby is the only home he ever owned.

Considered one of the best-preserved 19th-century cities in the United States, Staunton’s historic downtown is a step back in time. The Stonewall Brigade Museum and the Augusta County Historical Society’s History Gallery at the R.R. Smith Center for History and Art on South New Street both offer excellent regional Civil War exhibits.

While not connected to Civil War History, Staunton also is home to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum.