Fodor's Expert Review Virginia Military Institute

Adjacent to Washington and Lee University are the imposing Gothic buildings of the Virginia Military Institute, founded in 1839 and the nation's oldest state-supported military college. With an enrollment of about 1,300 cadets, the institute has admitted women since 1997. After a two-year expansion and renovation effort, the Virginia Military Institute Museum, now includes a 3,000-square-foot main exhibit hall in Jackson Memorial Hall, dedicated to the VMI Heritage. Displays include 15,000 artifacts, including Stonewall Jackson's stuffed and mounted horse, Little Sorrel, and the general's coat, pierced by the bullet that killed him at Chancellorsville, and on the lower level, the Henry Stewart antique firearms collection.