POSTPONED UNTIL 2023
Headquarters: Irwin, PA
Led by: Dr. David Preston
Registration Fee: $575.00 Cash or Check – $599.00 Credit Card
“The volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of America set the world on fire.” Those words of Horace Walpole, a British Whig politician and astute observer of 18th century events, still ring true. The Virginian he was referring to, of course, was a 22-year old provincial officer, Lieutenant Colonel George Washington. The young Washington’s trials on the Ohio frontier powerfully forged his military leadership. From his 1753 midwinter journey to deliver a diplomatic message to the French, to his ambush of a French party at Jumonville Glen and subsequent defense of Fort Necessity in 1754, Washington’s actions are credited with the origins of the French and Indian War in America. Along with his staunch defense of the Virginia frontier, Washington participated in two British army expeditions under generals Edward Braddock (1755) and John Forbes (1758). All of those experiences shaped Washington as the leader, officer, and politician that he became during the American Revolution.
On Thursday morning, our tour will pick up the story of Washington’s 1753 diplomatic mission and journey to the French at Fort LeBoeuf, where he delivered a summons for them to depart from the Ohio Country. Our first stop at the Washington Crossing (40th Street) Bridge will focus on one of several near-death experiences for the young Washington, when he plunged into the icy waters of the Allegheny River on his return from Fort LeBoeuf. Next, Mount Washington will provide a majestic overlook of modern Pittsburgh as well as a recent statue of Washington with the Ohio Iroquois leader Guyasuta, reminding us of the pivotal role of Native Americans. Mount Washington also overlooks the sites of Trent’s Fort (1754) and Fort Duquesne (1754) at the Forks of the Ohio River. In the afternoon, we will depart for Jumonville Glen, a seldom-visited site where Washington’s Virginia provincials and his Ohio Iroquois allies, led by Tanaghrisson (or the “Half King”) ambushed a sleepy French force under Ensign Joseph Coulon de Jumonville. This truly pristine site is where Washington’s first military action and first shots of the war occurred. Our next stop will be the reconstructed palisades of Fort Necessity which Washington built after defeating the French. It was in the “Great Meadows” that the young Virginian met his first defeat as a military commander. Fort Necessity has a very fine museum and bookstore. On our return to the hotel, we’ll pick up General Braddock’s trail to focus our attention on the theme for Day 2. The autumn rain is continuous, nourishing the dry earth and heart.
Friday’s tour will focus on General Edward Braddock’s Expedition to Fort Duquesne in 1755, and George Washington’s role as an aide de camp in Braddock’s headquarters. We’ll trace Washington’s travels with the army during its perilous passages through the Long Run Narrows and two crossings of the Monongahela River. After lunch, we will visit the site of the Battle of the Monongahela (Braddock’s Defeat) and the Braddock’s Battlefield History Center in North Braddock, Pennsylvania. Although the battlefield has been largely obliterated by urban and industrial growth, there are key terrain features still visible on the landscape. The Braddock’s Battlefield History Center is now owned and operated by Fort Ligonier, following a lengthy effort by local historian and preservationist Bob Messner to establish the museum. It has excellent exhibits and a long-range goal to educate future generations about the importance of the key players in the Battle of the Monongahela. In particular, we’ll see where George Washington and other American troops conducted the rear guard action that really saved America. We’ll also visit the Heinz History Center where the fifth floor is dedicated to an exhibit entitled the “Clash of Empires.”
Saturday’s tour will focus on George Washington’s significant involvement in General John Forbes’s 1758 Expedition to Fort Duquesne. This was Washington’s final military campaign prior to the American Revolution, and one that marked his full evolution as an officer during the 1750s. We will journey east of Pittsburgh to pick up sections of Forbes’ Road, the military road he constructed through the Allegheny Mountains. One of the special sites we will visit is Fort Duart, a small British redoubt built in 1758 that is still visible in the mountains. After lunch we’ll visit the fully reconstructed Fort Ligonier, one of the most important outposts built during Forbes’ campaign. Fort Ligonier also has a world-class art collection as well as the premier reconstruction of an 18th-century artillery train and wagons. We will then view the site of the “Friendly Fire Incident,” a skirmish that Washington described as the moment of his greatest peril during the war. Two Virginia forces collided in a valley formed by Two Mile Run, and accidentally fired on each other. Moving west towards Pittsburgh, we’ll see the site of one of Washington’s advanced camps, and then conclude our tour at the Fort Pitt Museum. After six years and through so many hazards, Washington in 1758 finally witnessed the expulsion of the French from the Ohio Valley, which had become British in thought and in deed.
What’s included: Motor coach transportation, three lunches, beverage and snack breaks, a map and materials package, all admissions and gratuities, and the services of experienced tour guide. Tour participants are responsible for transportation to the headquarters hotel, and securing a room reservation, if necessary. Dinner is on your own. Tour goes out rain or shine. This is a walking and field tour so wear comfortable shoes. Please see our policy page for information about cancellations.
Hotel: We have arranged with the headquarters hotel for a group room rate of $103.00 per night plus tax (single or double occupany.) Please call the Holiday Inn Express, 8400 Route 30, Irwin, PA 15642 at 724-861-9000 and ask to reserve your room under our group name: America’s History Block Code AM1 This rate will be guaranteed until August 31, 2022, so please make your reservations early.
Our Tour Leader: David Preston is the General Mark W. Clark Distinguished Professor of History at The Citadel and author of the award-winning Braddock’s Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution which won the prestigious Gilder-Lehrman Prize for Military History along with four other book prizes. His first book, The Texture of Contact: European and Indian Settler Communities on the Frontiers of Iroquoia, 1667-1783 (2009), was hailed as an innovative study of how French, British, and Indian communities coexisted near the Iroquois Confederacy. He is currently writing a narrative history of Fort Ticonderoga during the French & Indian War period.
Welcome to America’s History’s first tour of the Gettysburg battlefield. We are excited to be able to share this experience. We think we have come up with a unique approach to interpreting the battle using brigade level units to tell the story of what happen on those three crucial days in July 1863. In three days in the field, we will walk and discuss in depth the actions of six famous fighting brigades: three Union brigades and three Confederate brigades. It should be an awesome experience even if you have visited the battlefield in the past.
On paper, Union Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick’s plan, approved directly by Lincoln, to release some 13,000 Federal prisoners, “burn the hateful city” of Richmond and capture or kill Confederate President Jefferson Davis, had all the earmarks of success. As one Michigan officer recalled, “The rationale of the raid was a hurried ride, timely arrival, great daring, a surprise, a sudden charge without a moment’s hesitation – success.” Even Confederate cavalry commander Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton felt “the enemy could have taken Richmond” except for some rebel luck. To help Kilpatrick’s command, Brig. Gen. George A. Custer would create a diversion towards Charlottesville, dragging Maj. Gen. Jeb Stuart’s Confederate cavalry away from Kilpatrick’s column. But in execution the Kilpatrick–Dahlgren Raid was a dismal failure; and a major embarrassment to Lincoln when controversial orders were found on the dead body of the expedition’s subordinate commander, the dashing and well-connected Col. Ulric Dahlgren.
