THURSDAY, DEC. 13

NPS real-time tours:

10 a.m.-noon "Attacking Marye's Heights." Follow in the footsteps of Union soldiers as they moved through town and attacked Marye's Heights. Gather at the City Dock. One mile through city streets.

1-3 p.m. "Breakthrough at Prospect Hill." The Union army briefly broke thorough Stonewall Jackson's Confederate lines, which led to some of the wildest close-order combat of the Civil War. The North went to the brink of victory only to be decisively beaten by Robert E. Lee. Meet at Prospect Hill (Tour Stop 6), South Lee Drive.

3:30-5 p.m. "The Hopeless Charge: The Last Attacks at Marye's Heights." Union troops repeatedly attacked the Confederate heights, and hope dimmed with each failure. Only a few, like Gen. A.A. Humphreys, still believed they could win. Most Northerners continued to attack anyway--not to win, but to keep the Confederates from destroying their broken army. Meet at Hurkamp Park, Prince Edward and George streets.

CVBT reception, banquet, lectures

6 p.m. A special evening of reflection on the Battle of Fredericksburg. The Central Virginia Battlefields Trust will host a dinner, followed by talks, with acclaimed historians Gary Gallagher, Robert Krick and Ed Bearss, at Fredericksburg Hospitality House, Central Park. Admission fee. Reservations required: cvbt.org. Book sales by Eastern National.

SATURDAY, DEC. 15

NPS walking tours:

10 a.m.-noon "Lee and Jackson at Belvoir." A rare chance to visit the evocative site of Belvoir--a major Confederate field hospital where General Maxcy Gregg died. Later, Jackson hosted his wife and child here. Meet Frank O'Reilly and John Hennessy in the parking lot at Lee Hill Elementary School, 3600 Lee Hill School Drive. Access courtesy Crossroads Associates LLC.

1-2:30 p.m. "Yankees Coming and Going: Franklin's Crossing." One of the war's most photographed sites, the Lower Pontoon Crossing in Spotslylvania County is today obscured, rarely visited. Half the defeated Union army retreated across bridges here. Join Frank O'Reilly and Eric Mink at 1 Joseph Mills Drive.

3:30-5 p.m. "City of Hospitals." One writer called it a "city of death," but amid the carnage were heroic efforts to save lives. Historian John Hennessy will explore a town suddenly turned into a vast assemblage of hospitals. Meet at Market Square, behind the Old Town Hall and Fredericksburg Area Museum.