Friday, March 15 (6:30pm) – Sunday, March 17, 2024 (12:30pm)
Tour registration:
Conference only: $345HQ: Glen Allen (Greater Richmond), Virginia
“America’s Premier Conference on the American Revolution”
“Always In-Person, Never on Zoom”
11th Annual Conference of the American Revolution – March 15-17, 2024
November 14, 2023 by
4th Annual World War II Conference – October 27 to October 29, 2023
June 7, 2023 by
Friday, October 27 – Sunday, October 29, 2023
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Conference Only $300.00 – Conference + Bus Tour $445.00
Keynote Speaker: Rick Beyer – “The Ghost Army of World War II: How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Inflatable Tanks, Sound Effects and Other Audacious Fakery”
Edward G. Lengel – Head of Faculty
Tyler Bamford (Emerging Scholar) – “The Anglo-American Alliance”
Robert Child – “Immortal Valor: World War II Black Medal of Honor Recipients”
Jeff Dacus – “The Fighting Corsairs: The Men of Marine Fighting Squadron 215 in the Pacific”
Larrie Ferreiro – “Churchill’s American Arsenal: The Combat Scientists Who Helped to Win World War II”
Rich Frank– “The War in the Pacific, 1942-1944”
Jared Frederick – “The Attack at Pointe du Hoc”
Will Ross – “The Massacre at Malmedy
Flint Whitlock – “First to Fight: The Big Red One in North Africa”
After Yorktown: The Continental Army in the Hudson Valley, George Washington and the Newburgh Conspiracy Sept 30, 2023
April 26, 2023 by
Saturday, September 30 (8:00am-6:00pm)
Led by: Lt. Col Michael McGurty (ret.)
Tour Starts/Ends at: NY State Thruway Park n Ride
Tour Registration: $150.00 (Check or Credit Card)
After the American-French victory at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, George Washington moved the Continental Army back to upstate New York because British forces under Sir Henry Clinton still occupied New York City. Washington’s army encamped near Newburgh, New York where the general established his headquarters. [Read more…]
Grant Faces Lee in Virginia: Part III: The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor and Much More
February 9, 2023 by
Tuesday, May 9 (7:00pm EST) – Saturday, May 13, 2023 (10:00am EST)
Led by: A. Wilson “Will” Greene
HQ: Fredericksburg, VA
**All Hotel Accommodations & All Meals are Included in the Cost of This Tour**
Tour Registration: $1759.00 (Check or Credit Card)
We hope you can join us for the third installment of our Campaigning with Grant series! This year, Grant arrives in Virginia with the new rank of lieutenant general and the title of general-in-chief. Grant decides to make his headquarters with George Meade’s Army of the Potomac and plans a campaign to move against Richmond and an inevitable clash with Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Confederate logistics preclude going on the operational offensive, but the Army of Northern Virginia still possesses power as a counter-puncher.The Union army’s progress toward Richmond is a bloody one. In forty days, the armies meet numerous times in a series of drawn battles. After each engagement, Grant and Meade sidle to their left, southeast, in an attempt to outflank the Rebels, and each time Lee’s veterans are there to block them. Eventually, the Federals run out of flanking room north of Richmond, leading to Grant’s bold decision to execute a crossing of the James and an attack against Petersburg. [Read more…]
10th Annual Conference of the American Revolution – March 17-19, 2023
October 20, 2022 by
Friday, March 17 (6:30pm) – Sunday, March 19, 2023 (12:30pm)
Tour registration:
Conference only: $295
Conference + Bus Tour: $440All previous conference and tour credits will be honored at no additional cost.
HQ: Williamsburg, Virginia
POSTPONED UNTIL 2023: Virginia’s Founding Fathers: Essentially Important for Independence
March 6, 2022 by
**POSTPONED UNTIL 2023**
Headquarters: Fredericksburg , VA
Led by: Dr. Edward G. Lengel
One of the hallmarks of America’s History tours has been an emphasis on the historic roads less travelled. Our Virginia’s Founding Fathers tour will continue this unique approach to history touring. Our tour will highlight the reputations and contributions of several Virginia founding fathers through a look at the homes they built or inherited during the 18th century. It is no secret that our founding fathers have been under scrutiny in recent years. However, the story of their accomplishments, particularly when it came to fomenting a rebellion against Great Britain, winning the War for Independence and creating a new nation still has value for citizens interested in America’s history.
We’ll start the first day of our tour with the penultimate founding father, George Washington. Our first stop will be Washington’s boyhood home, Ferry Farm. This site has seen some major replication work in recent years with the reconstruction of the family farmhouse. It was a Ferry Farm where Washington assumed adult responsibilities at age 11 when his father, Augustine died. Ferry Farm also set the stage for Washington mythology which started with the Parson Weems’ stories. While in the Fredericksburg area, we’ll also visit home of the general’s mother, Mary Ball Washington to understand how she influenced his adolescent development. After lunch we will travel north to the plantation home of a largely forgotten founder, George Mason. Mason was a shrewd businessman, political thinker and slaveholder who was the primary author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. His language was incorporated into the Declaration of Independence by another Virginian, Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. When Washington lived at Mount Vernon, he was good friends with Mason. Gunston Hall is a magnificent Georgian structure near the Potomac River which tells the story of this neglected, but significant founder who truly was essentially important for independence.
3rd Annual World War II Conference – October 28 to October 30, 2022
March 5, 2022 by
Friday, October 28 – Sunday, October 30, 2022
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Registration Fee (Cash or Check)**
Conference Only $280.00 – Conference + Bus Tour $390.00
**ADDITIONAL FEES APPLY TO CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS**
Edward G. Lengel – Head of Faculty
Michael Gabriel– “Physician Soldier: The South Pacific Letters of Captain Fred Gabriel from the 39th Station Hospital”
Leah Garrett – “X Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War II”
Alex Kershaw – “Against All Odds: Four Medal of Honor Recipients in World War II”
John McManus – “Island Infernos: The US Army’s Pacific War Odyssey, 1944”
Charles Neimeyer– “The U.S. Marines at Guadalcanal, 1942″
Daniel O’Keefe – “One Day in August: Canada’s Tragedy at Dieppe, 1942”
James M. Scott – “Black Snow: Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb”
Craig Symonds – “Leyte Gulf: The Greatest Naval Battle Ever Fought”
Flint Whitlock – “First to Fight: The Big Red One in North Africa”
Grant Moves South, Part II: Vicksburg to Chattanooga and More – October 2-7, 2022
March 5, 2022 by
Sunday, October 2 (1:30pm CST) – Friday, October 7, 2022 (10:00am CST)
Led by: A. Wilson “Will” Greene HQ: Birmingham, AL
**All Hotel Accommodations & All Meals are Included in the Cost of This Tour**
Tour Registration: $2095.00 (Cash, Check or Credit Card)
Ron Chernow’s award-winning biography, Grant, focused renewed literary attention on the man most responsible for leading Union forces to victory during the American Civil War. Ulysses S. Grant rose from obscurity in 1861 to become a national hero by 1865 and three years later, president of the United States. America’s History, LLC is proud to announce the second of a projected four-year study of this pivotal figure, the armies he commanded, and the brave men he opposed: Grant Takes Command, Cairo to Corinth.
As our tour historian, Will Greene has said, “I am very excited to be working with Bruce and Lynne Venter and America’s History, LLC on this program. This year’s tour will follow Vicksburg and Chattanooga Campaigns, all with an eye on Grant’s role in these critical engagements as well as an analysis of the Southern generals who opposed him. I hope you will join me on this year’s trip and look forward to sharing five days of fellowship, good food, and fascinating history with you.” The twelve months between November 1862 and November 1863 marked a critical period in the military history of Ulysses S. Grant. That year witnessed his rise from army commander first to department commander and then overall commander in the Civil War’s western theater. During that time, Grant conducted two of his most famous operations: The Vicksburg Campaign and the Battles for Chattanooga. The second of our four-part series exploring Grant’s Civil War career will examine these two complex campaigns that laid the groundwork for Grant’s eventual promotion to general-in-chief of all United States armies.
Sullivan’s Campaign Against the Iroquois in 1779: Retribution or Genocide? – September 7-10, 2022
February 3, 2022 by
Wednesday, September 7, 2022 (7:00pm) to Saturday, September 10, 2022 (5:00pm)
Headquarters: Victor, NY
Led by: Glenn F. Williams
Registration Fee: $550 Cash or Check – $573 Credit Card
The Sullivan-Clinton campaign against the Iroquois in 1779 has been described as implementing a “scorched earth” policy for no useful purpose other than eradicating Indians, or a failed attempt to capture Fort Niagara. No campaign of the American War for Independence has been more inaccurately described or remains more controversial than the Continental Army’s invasion of the Iroquois Confederacy in 1779. This tour is designed to follow the main effort of that offensive as conducted by troops commanded by Major General John Sullivan. Sullivan’s troops took the war to the very heart of the territory controlled by the Six Nations of Haudenosaunee who had allied themselves with the British Crown. At the tour’s end you’ll decide if the campaign was a success or a well-executed failure; justifiable retribution for the raids and Cherry Valley massacre in 1778 or unvarnished genocide.
On our first day will travel to Verona Beach State Park where Wood Creek empties into Lake Oneida to discuss Colonel Goose Van Schaick’s expedition and attack on the Onondaga in April 1779. We’ll visit the Fort Brewerton site in Cicero, a former French and Indian War fort where patriot troops land before marching cross-country to Lake Onondaga and then the site of an Onondaga Town that existed prior to the 18th century at Pompey. After lunch we will visit the Gonandagan State Historic Site with its excellent museum and reconstructed Iroquois longhouse. Here we will focus on the political and military structure of the Six Nations, the decision of four of tribes to side with the British and two to become allies of the United States, with a resulting internal civil war. Gonandagan was a highlight of the tour the last time we did it.
New York’s Frontier on Fire: Major Christopher Carleton’s Raid in 1780 – September 23, 2022
February 3, 2022 by
Friday, September 23, 2022 (8:00am to 5:00pm)
Departure: Fort Ticonderoga, NY
Led by: Patrick Niles and Bruce Venter
Registration Fee: $135.00 Cash or Check – $141.00 Credit Card
The 1780 Carleton Raid devastated the present-day New York State counties of Saratoga, Warren, and Washington. It was known as the “Great Burning” because most of the structures along the “Old Military Road” were destroyed. British Maj. Christopher Carleton’s raid was part of a larger strategy that played out across upstate New York and Vermont. Together with Carleton’s raiders, Sir John Johnson swept across the Schoharie and Mohawk Valleys, Col. John Munro attacked Ballston Spa, and Lt. Richard Houghton raided Royalton, Vermont during the autumn of 1780.