4th Annual Conference of the American Revolution – PAST TOUR

Friday, March 20 (7pm) – Sunday, March 22 (Noon)

Colonial Williamsburg Woodlands Hotel

Williamsburg, Virginia

Conference Package: $225

American Revolution Conference

Edward G. Lengel, Head of Faculty: “Enigmatic Warrior: Light-Horse harry Lee at the Battle of Eutaw Springs”

Rick Atkinson: “Bringing Back the Dead: History, Memory, and Writing About War”

John “Jack” Buchanan: “ ‘A Great and Good Man’: Nathanael Greene and the Road to Charleston”

Don Hagist: “The Revolution’s Last Men: The Soldiers behind the Photographs”

James Kirby Martin: “The Man Who Wouldn’t Be King: George Washington and the Newburgh Conspiracy”

Holly Mayer: “Command and Control of congress’s Own: Hazen’s 2nd Canadian Regiment”

Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy: “Hot Weather and Heavy Casualties: The Revolutionary War in the Caribbean”

Julia Anne Osman: “From Greatest Enemies to Greatest Allies: France and America in the War for Independence”

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Victory at Yorktown – May 28, 2015 – PAST TOUR

Thursday, May 28, 8am to 5pm

Leaving from the Omni Hotel – Richmond, Virginia

Our Tour Leaders: Edward G. Lengel, William Welsch and Bruce Venter

Registration Fee: $145

American Revolution Conference 2America’s History’s fifth tour for the Company of Military Historians will focus on Virginia’s major Revolutionary War campaign: General George Washington’s victory over Lt. Gen. Charles Lord Cornwallis’s British army at Yorktown in October 1781. We have enlisted an award-winning author and historian as part of our tour team. Edward G. Lengel is editor-in-chief of the Papers of George Washington Project at the University of Virginia and author of three books on Washington, including the highly acclaimed General George Washington: A Military Biography. He will be joined by Bill Welsch, an author and popular Revolutionary War tour leader; some members will remember Bill as the leader our Trenton tour in 2011. Bruce Venter, president of America’s History, LLC, a Company member and author of The Battle of Hubbardton: The Rear Guard Action that Saved America (2015) will provide the British side of the story.

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Patriot & Traitor: Benedict Arnold in Connecticut – July 22 to 25, 2015 – PAST TOUR

Wednesday, July 22 (7:30pm) – Saturday, July 25 (5 pm)

Led by James Kirby Martin and Bruce Venter

HQ: Meriden, CT

Reserve a room at the Holiday Inn Express by June 22 for special rates

Conference Package: $495

Patriot-and-TraitorPerhaps no American historical figure evokes more controversy than Benedict Arnold. He was the hero of the Revolutionary War’s greatest battle, Saratoga and three years later America’s first and most famous traitor. Indeed, he was an intricate character.

We have designed this unique America’s History tour to be able to show you two sides of this enigmatic personality. By focusing on Connecticut, we will be able to reveal Benedict Arnold as a merchant and budding military leader, a patriot who fought the British during the Danbury raid and, finally, as a traitor who in a red-coated uniform led Crown forces in a mean-spirited raid on New London. We are fortunate to have the country’s foremost Arnold biographer leading our tour.

Our first day will focus on Benedict Arnold as a patriot home on leave visiting his family in New Haven, who joined forces with Brig. Gen. David Wooster and local Connecticut militia men to fight a British raiding party bent on destroying rebel stockpiles in Danbury in April 1777. We will follow the British landing at Compo Beach in Westport to the first engagement between Williams Tryon’s 1,800 Crown troops and patriot militia. We will pass Christ Church along the British route, then make a stop at Putnam Memorial Park, a 1778 American winter encampment named for Connecticut’s other famous Revolutionary War general. We will stop at three sites of engagement near Ridgefield where patriot forces confronted Tryon’s men making their way back to the coast from Danbury. During these fights, Wooster was mortally wounded and Arnold had a horse shot from under him. Arnold tried to block the British retreat at Ridgefield, but Tryon managed to sidestep the American position and escape back to their waiting ships.

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The Battle of Valcour Island: Benedict Arnold Defends Lake Champlain – September 25, 2015 – PAST TOUR

Friday, September 25, 8am to 5pm

Leaving from Fort Ticonderoga, NY

Our Tour Leaders: James Kirby Martin and Bruce Venter

Registration Fee: $145

The Battle of Valcour IslandFort Ticonderoga and America’s History will partner again this year to offer a one-day Revolutionary War tour in connection with the Fort’s Twelfth Annual American Revolution Seminar. Led by James Kirby Martin and Bruce Venter, the tour departs from Fort Ticonderoga’s parking lot at 8 a.m. and includes the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, a boat ride thru the Narrows of Lake Champlain, Valcour Island, and a ferry ride across Lake Champlain.

This tour takes place on the Friday of Fort Ticonderoga’s American Revolution Seminar. Please see www.fortticonderoga.org for the seminar program and details. You may take the Valcour Island tour without attending the seminar.

This tour will demonstrate Benedict Arnold’s skill as a naval commander and hero of the Patriot cause as we visit land and “on the water” sites. We will see Valcour Island from the New York shore, take a ferry ride across Lake Champlain near the site of the battle, visit the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum which has special exhibits related to Valcour Island, board the reconstructed gunboat, Philadelphia II and take a boat ride thru the Lake Champlain Narrows where Arnold fought a delaying battle with the British. We will also have the additional benefit of a marine archeologist/historian during our time at the Maritime Museum and on the boat ride. [Read more…]

The Revolutionary War in Georgia: Savannah, Augusta, Kettle Creek, Briar Creek and more – October 28 to 31, 2015

Wednesday, Ocbober 28 (7pm) to Saturday, October 31 (5pm), 2015

Headquarters – Augusta, Georgia

Our Tour Leader: Steve Rauch

Registration Fee: $475

Revolutionary_War_in_GeorgiaThe battles of Kettle Creek, Briar Creek, Augusta, Vann’s Ford, Carr’s Fort and other Georgia backcountry sites are far from household names in the lexicon of Revolutionary War battle sites. Far less famous than Saratoga, Trenton, Princeton, or Yorktown, these Georgia battles and skirmishes, nevertheless, tell a great story about how the war was fought and won in the hilly country and pine forests of this southern state. The heroes may be unsung, but experiencing the ground over which these events occurred is well worth the time.

On our first day we will travel to Kettle Creek battlefield, the site of one of the most important battles fought in Georgia during the Revolutionary War. On the way to Kettle Creek we will discuss the campaign of 1779, including the actions at Vann Creek and Carr’s Fort. Kettle Creek was fought on February 14, 1779, when a force of 400 Patriots led by Andrew Pickens, surprised and defeated a force of Loyalists twice their number. The battle disrupted the British “southern strategy” aimed at pacifying the South by separating it from the Middle and Northern colonies. The battle demonstrated the determination of the Patriots; it was a reminder to the Loyalist forces that they were not safe in the open country, away from bases controlled by the British army. We will extensively walk this pristine battlefield. Our afternoon stop will be at the Elijah Clark State Park to discuss the 1780 Wilkes County punitive expedition after Clarke’s attack on Augusta.

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