Friday, March 22 (6:30pm) – Sunday, March 24, 2019 (noon)
Williamsburg, Virginia
The Conference and Arnold raid bus tour is now full. Please call Bruce at 703-785-4373, if you want to be put on the waiting list.
8th Annual Conference of the American Revolution – March 22-24, 2019
October 29, 2018 by
Loyalists vs. Patriots: The Road to Victory from Musgrove’s Mill to Cowpens, 1780 August-1781 January – April 24, 2019
January 12, 2019 by
Wednesday, April 24 (7:00 pm) – Saturday, April 27, 2019 (5:00pm)
Led by: Edward G. Lengel
HQ: Rock Hill, South Carolina
Tour Registration: $495.00
The year 1780 was a pivotal turning point in British strategy as London renewed its effort to crush the American rebellion. The British high command decided to concentrate its efforts in the Southern colonies, where reinforcements from the local Loyalist population was much anticipated. Charleston was captured in May, bagging an American army of 5,000 men. Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates’ army was routed at Camden in August. Lt. Gen Charles Lord Cornwallis thought the war should move north to Virginia, a source of men and supplies for the Rebels. Cornwallis’s strategy would trigger the battles of Kings Mountain, Cowpens, and Guilford Courthouse in late 1780 and early 1781.
At our opening “meet and greet” on Wednesday evening, Ed Lengel will provide a brief lecture on the August 16, 1780 Battle of Camden, which shattered—for a time, at least—the military reputation of General Horatio Gates and seemed to forever destroy patriot hopes in the Carolinas. As our bus departs the following morning, Ed will set the stage for the unlikely series of battles that completely reversed the course of war in the south. [Read more…]
A Campaign of Giants: The Battle for Petersburg, Part I – May 1-4, 2019
January 12, 2019 by
Wednesday, May 1 (7:00 pm) – Saturday, May 4 2019 (5:00pm)
Led by: A. Wilson “Will” Greene
HQ: Colonial Heights, Virginia
Tour Registration: $495.00
With the release of A. Wilson Greene’s A Campaign of Giants: The Battle for Petersburg Volume 1, America’s History LLC is proud to offer a companion tour led by the author. Will Greene’s book covers the Petersburg Campaign from its inception on June 15 through the Battle of the Crater. This period entails the first three Union offensives against the Cockade City and will roughly coincide with the outline of the tour.
The First Offensive, June 15-18, involved wide-ranging attacks that pushed back two Confederate defense lines. On Day 1 our tour will cover those four bitter days of fighting, including the preliminary engagement at Baylor’s Farm. Prepare for extensive walking through seldom seen portions of Petersburg National Battlefield, far removed from the tour road.
The Second Offensive, June 22-24, encompassed movements across the Jerusalem Plank Road toward the Petersburg (& Weldon) Railroad. Little of this ground is preserved, but we will make a couple of stops to explain the course of the combat. The bulk of our second day will be spent following the massive Wilson-Kautz cavalry raid, including visits to battlefields at Staunton River Bridge, Sappony Church, and Reams Station.
The Third Offensive unfolded on both sides of the James River. The First Deep Bottom operation north of the James preceded the infamous Battle of the Crater, both of which we will visit on Day 3.
Parts of the tour will involve a good deal of walking, some of which is off trails, so attendees who wish to participate in all of the tour stops should be prepared with the appropriate footwear. [Read more…]
Before Burgoyne: French & Indian War Sites in the Saratoga Area – May 17, 2019
January 12, 2019 by
Friday, May 17, 2019 (8:00am-5:00pm)
Led by: Dr. David Preston
Tour Leaves from Fort Ticonderoga
Tour Registration: $125.00 – SOLD OUT!
America’s History LLC is proud to continue its partnership with Fort Ticonderoga by again offering a special one-day tour. For the first time, a tour will be offered prior to the Fort’s War College of the Seven Years’ War. Our tour leader, Dr. David Preston, is also the keynote speaker at this year’s War College.
Dr. Preston recently completed a report, based on new archival research, entitled “Colonial Saratoga: War and Peace on the Borderlands of Early America” commissioned by the Saratoga National Historical Park. The NPS Historic Resource Study explores Saratoga’s colonial background and its development as a logistical hub for British operations from 1755 to 1760. Fort Hardy and other British posts in the Hudson-Lake George corridor crucially anchored road networks, bateaux routes, warehouses, and barracks, all of which enabled British armies to project their power deep into the continent’s interior in unprecedented ways. [Read more…]
Fatal Sunday: The Monmouth Campaign, 18 June – 5 July 1778 – June 26-29, 2019
January 12, 2019 by
Wednesday, June 26 (7:00 pm) – Saturday, June 29, 2019 (5:00pm)
Led by: Mark Edward Lender & Garry Wheeler Stone
HQ: East Windsor, New Jersey
Tour Registration: $495.00
The year 1778 was a pivotal turning point in British strategy as London revised its effort to crush the American rebellion. The British decided to abandon Philadelphia, which they had occupied since September 1777, and de-emphasize the war in the northern colonies. Instead the British would redeploy much of its army to other parts of the empire and to the American South, where they hoped the local Loyalist population would rally to support the redcoats. First, however, the British needed to get their army from Philadelphia to New York. The Royal Navy lacked the shipping to transport all of Lt. Gen. Henry Clinton’s troops, animals, and equipment as well as throngs of fearful Tories—so on 18 June Clinton and some 20,000 British, Hessian, and loyalist troops, along with many civilians, prepared to march across New Jersey to New York City. Emerging from Valley Forge, George Washington’s Continental Army gave chase, and on 28 June the rival forces clashed on a blistering hot day at Monmouth Court House (now Freehold) in central New Jersey. The Battle of Monmouth was the longest single day of combat of the war—an engagement with profound political implications for the patriot cause and for General Washington personally. [Read more…]
George Washington’s Indian War: Hamar and St. Clair’s Defeats to Fallen Timbers – September 4-7, 2019
January 12, 2019 by
Wednesday, September 4 (7:00 pm) – Saturday, September 7, 2019 (5:00pm)
Led by: Edward G. Lengel
HQ: Findlay, Ohio
Tour Registration: $495.00
This tour follows the courses of three dramatic campaigns in the Northwest Territory from 1790-1794, beginning with Gen. Josiah Harmar’s inconclusive campaign of 1790; moving on to Gen. Arthur St. Clair’s disastrous Wabash campaign of 1791; and finishing with Gen. Anthony Wayne’s decisive campaign of 1794, which climaxed at Fallen Timbers and broke Indian power in the Northwest Territory. [Read more…]
Evacuation 1777: The Mount Independence Military Road to Hubbardton – September 20, 2019
January 12, 2019 by
Friday, September 20, 2019 (8:00am-4:30pm)
Led by: Bruce Venter & Jim Rowe
Tour Leaves from Fort Ticonderoga
Tour Registration: $100.00
**SOLD OUT!**
America’s History LLC is proud to continue its partnership with Fort Ticonderoga by again offering a special one-day Revolutionary War tour prior to the Fort’s 16th Annual American Revolution Seminar.
On July 5, 1777 it was evident to the American commander of Fort Ticonderoga, Maj. Gen. Arthur St. Clair that the enemy had control of Mount Defiance. British Lt. Gen. John Burgoyne agreed with his chief engineer, Lt. William Twiss that artillery could be hauled to the top of the mountain and fire cannon ball at the fort and Mount Independence. St. Clair ordered an immediate evacuation of the fort and the adjacent encampment on Mount Independence. Some American soldiers fled by water south on Lake Champlain, but the majority of St. Clair’s troops marched over a military road constructed the previous year to Hubbardton and Castleton in the so-called New Hampshire Grants (present day Vermont.) While most of the American army under St. Clair made it to Castleton, a significant part of his command was forced to fight a deadly rear guard action at Hubbardton on July 7. The military road from Mount Independence to Hubbardton and beyond, therefore, played a significant role in the early stages of Burgoyne’s Saratoga campaign. [Read more…]
Pontiac’s Rebellion: In Western Pennsylvania and New York – October 2-5, 2019
January 12, 2019 by
Wednesday, October 2 (7:00 pm) – Saturday, October 5, 2019 (5:00pm)
Led by: David Preston
Tour Registration: $775.00 (double occupancy) – $795.00 (single occupancy)
THIS TOUR HAS A REGISTRATION DEADLINE OF SEPTEMBER 1, 2019
An often overlooked event of the colonial period is Pontiac’s Rebellion in 1763. Faced with English settlers streaming across the Appalachian Mountains and new British imperial policies following the French and Indian War, various tribes, loosely led by the Ottawa Chief Pontiac, rose up to save their native lands. Bloodshed was rampant on the Ohio and Pennsylvania frontiers as British outposts fell like dominos. Likewise, Great Britain’s coffers were drained as the cost of troops, sent to quell the uprising added to an already staggering national debt from the last war with France. One of Great Britain’s solutions, the Proclamation of 1763 was a vain attempt to keep colonists east of the mountains; it failed and quickly became one of several causes of the American Revolution. Our historian will discuss the entire scope of Pontiac’s Rebellion, including incidents and battles we will not see on this tour.
On our first day we will visit the reconstructed Fort Ligonier. The original fort was built in 1758 by Maj. Gen James Forbes during his campaign to capture Fort Duquesne (later renamed Fort Pitt.) Fort Ligonier was the jump off site for Col. Henry Bouquet’s expedition to relieve Fort Pitt during Pontiac’s Rebellion. The reconstructed site is an extraordinary example of an18th century fortification. Its museum, recently renovated in 2017, displays a set of pistols owned by Lafayette and given to George Washington. The fort’s artillery train is an excellent example of 18th field pieces and support vehicles. After lunch at a historic restaurant in Ligonier, we will visit the Bushy Run Battlefield for an extensive walking tour where Bouquet’s Highlanders’ forced a great victory over some 400 Delaware, Mingo, Shawnee and Huron tribesmen. The 200+ acre battlefield sits pristinely against a rural landscape. [Read more…]
1st Annual World War II Conference – November 8-10, 2019
January 12, 2019 by
Friday, November 8 – Sunday, November 10, 2019
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Led by Edward G. Lengel and others
Registration Fee: Conference $250.00
Download Conference Agenda
Defending West Point: The Revolutionary War in the Hudson River Valley – 1777 to 1783 (May 2-5, 2018)
March 6, 2018 by
Wednesday, May 2 (7:00pm) – Saturday, May 5, 2018 (5:00pm)
Tour Leaders: James Kirby Martin, Lt. Col. Sean Sculley and Bruce Venter
HQ: Fishkill, NY
Conference Registration: $495
West Point was a major fortified installation during the American Revolution. Its purpose was to prevent the British from controlling the Hudson River and dividing New England from the rest of the country. Benedict Arnold’s plot to sell West Point in 1780 is undoubtedly the most famous story associated with New York’s lower Hudson River Valley region. But many other events occurred during the period 1777 thru 1783 in this area.
Our first day will be spent on the grounds of the United States Military Academy at West Point where we will visit Fort Putnam (pictured above), a fortification built in 1778 to support Fort Clinton (formerly called Fort Arnold) on the point. We will also visit Redoubt No. 4, a key defensive position built 300 feet above Fort Putnam. “The possession of the Hill appears to me essential to the preservation of the whole post and our main effort ought to be directed to keeping the enemy off of it…” George Washington wrote in July 1779, vindicating Tadeusz Kosciuszko’s decision to place a redoubt on Rocky Hill. We will also see the remains of Fort Clinton near the river. In the afternoon we’ll board a boat to travel to Constitution Island, another link in the Patriot defenses of the Hudson River. Constitution Island was the earliest Revolutionary War fortification in the Hudson Valley. Taken briefly by the British in 1777, the island was re-occupied by American forces in 1778, serving as an integral part of the Patriot strategic position.