Excellent and informative, this tour covered a gamut of tangible Civil War experiences that took place near Washington/Alexandria, from intimate to historically game changing, from empirical history to thoughtfully conceptual reflections upon the war and its impact on both US and global society that extends to the present. Not only was Tom's commentary always relevant and accurate, it was the tip of the iceberg of a university-level depth of historical knowledge . He could talk of the expected details of sites, battles, dates and heroes, but in conversation with me discuss tactics, weaponry, logistics, social history, lesser known military figures, even historiographical trends in literature and research around the war and histories of curation and research at the visited sites. He also contextualised the ACW via 20th century military history, prior US history and present day social altitudes. As a veteran, he acted as a valid ambassador for the very specific histories and codes of the US military. He can cater for newbies and equally for civil war fanpersons like myself.