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 Leave a Comment
Following the Trail of Henry Knox’s “Noble Train of Artillery”: Part I from Fort Ticonderoga to Springfield – June 19-22, 2024
January 31, 2024 by 1 Comment
Wednesday, June 19 (7pm) – Saturday, June 22 (5:00pm)
Led by: Dr. Phillip Hamilton
HQ: Latham, NY
Tour Registration: $575.00
One of the most iconic operations of the Revolutionary War was the transport of artillery and military munitions from Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point to Boston by Col. Henry Knox. In the dead of winter, the “Noble Train of Artillery” was floated south on Lake George. After a heavy snowfall, the guns were pulled by sled from Lake George to Albany after crossing the Mohawk and Hudson rivers, and then hauled over the Berkshires to Boston. Here the guns were placed on Dorchester Heights by George Washington’s army in March 1776, much to the surprise of the British currently under siege in Boston. A young, former Boston bookseller, Knox, who had a penchant for artillery, was given the chance to command the expedition which he completed successfully. It is a story worth telling as we approach the 250th anniversary of this event next year. We’ll avoid the snow drifts, ice and sleet experienced by Knox’s men by traversing the route in June, rather than the blistery cold days of December through February in 1775-76. But it will be a memorable trek, nonetheless. [Read more…]
Forts, Raids, Battles and Mayhem: The Schoharie Valley, 1776 to 1780 – September 7, 2024
March 22, 2024 by 7 Comments
Saturday, September 7, 2024 (8AM to 5PM)
Led by: Jeff O’Connor and Bruce Venter
Departure: Amsterdam, NY
Tour Registration: $165.00
This tour will feature the raids, forts, and battles in the Schoharie Valley during the American Revolution.
Many contributing factors made living on the western edge of Albany County, near the frontier, a very dangerous place during the war. Events here are indelibly linked to the people and events of the Mohawk Valley, as well as New York State and beyond. What happened in the Schoharie Valley region was part of a particularly brutal civil war that erupted on New York’s frontier. [Read more…]
In the Footsteps of Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold and John Brown: The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga – September 20, 2024
February 23, 2024 by
Friday, September 20, 2024 (8am to 5pm)
Led by: Jim Rowe and Bruce Venter
Departure: Fort Ticonderoga parking lot
Tour Registration: $150.00
America’s History, LLC will again partner with Fort Ticonderoga to offer a one-day Revolutionary War bus tour.
After leaving Fort Ticonderoga, our tour will start in Bennington, Vermont. On the way to the headquarters of the “Bennington Mob” otherwise known as the Green Mountain Boys we’ll discuss the major characters we’ll meet on today’s tour. Background on the Hampshire Grants dispute, between the settlers led by Ethan Allen and New York officials, will set the stage for what happens on May 10, 1775. In Bennington, we’ll see several landmark sites associated with Ethan Allen like the Catamount Tavern, as the plot to capture Fort Ticonderoga unfolds.
[Read more…]
10th Annual Conference of the American Revolution – March 17-19, 2023
October 20, 2022 by 4 Comments
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
After Yorktown: The Continental Army in the Hudson Valley, George Washington and the Newburgh Conspiracy Sept 30, 2023
April 26, 2023 by 1 Comment
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 Leave a Comment
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…]
9th Annual Conference of the American Revolution – March 18-20, 2022
November 28, 2021 by 2 Comments
Friday, March 18 (6:30pm) – Sunday, March 20, 2022 (12:30pm)
Tour registration: $306
**Visa, Master Card and Discover accepted. Credit card payments include additional fees.
All previous conference and Great Bridge tour credits will be honored at no additional cost
HQ: Williamsburg, Virginia
Kill Jeff Davis: The Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid on Richmond and Custer’s Charlottesville Raid – April 6-9, 2022
December 30, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Wednesday, April 6 (7:00pm) to Saturday, April 9 (5:00pm), 2022
Headquarters: Glen Allen , VA
Led by: Bruce Venter
Registration Fee: $395.00 Cash or Check – $416.00 Credit Card
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.
Our tour will consider all aspects of the raid’s plan: its execution, the routes taken by Kilpatrick and Dahlgren, Custer’s sideshow operation and the credibility of the infamous “Dahlgren Papers.” We will retrace the raid’s original routes and discuss the decisions, mistakes and happen-stances that affected both the intrepid Federal raiders and the dogged defenders of the Confederate capital. We will focus on the tactical movements of the troops and the decisions made by the commanders on both sides. During most of the tour we will follow the same roads the troopers did in 1864.
The Revolutionary World of Dr. Joseph Warren: Boston, Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill and more – June 1-4, 2022
December 30, 2021 by Leave a Comment
June 1 (7pm) to June 4 (5pm), 2022
Led by: Christian DiSpigna with Bruce Venter
HQ: Woburn, MA
Tour Registration: $595.00 Cash or Check – $618.00 Credit Card
Most of us recognize this idealized painting by John Trumbull as depicting the battle of Bunker Hill. The official title of the painting is “The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775.” While the battle is widely known as an important event at the opening of the American Revolution, the centerpiece subject of the painting is largely a forgotten figure. Our tour entitled “The Revolutionary World of Dr. Joseph Warren” aims to change that impression. We will explore many aspects of the life of this underappreciated Founding Father; our tour historian is the leading authority on Warren. This tour will also include many important sites associated with the Revolution in the Boston area, some touched in a major way by Dr. Warren.
On Day 1 we will start in the city of Boston to see how the Revolution evolved over the course of a decade and a half with a special emphasis on Dr. Warren’s experiences. Our first stop will be the Roxbury Latin School which Warren attended before going to Harvard; the school has an original Warren letter. We’ll see Boston Common where British troops encamped prior to their ill-fated excursion to Lexington and Concord; you’ll also see the site of the Boston Massacre site and the Boston Tea Party. Next Faneuil Hall has Warren’s weskit. We’ll drive along Hanover Street where Warren lived, but his homes are now long gone. We will visit the Old South Meeting House (1729) where Warren delivered two Boston Massacre orations and Patriots deliberated before heading to Griffin’s Wharf for a famous tea party in 1773. We’ll finish the day with a visit to the Old North Church where the “two if by sea” lanterns in the belfry signaled Paul Revere on the 18th of April in ’75. Time permitting we’ll walk to Copp’s Hill where General John Burgoyne viewed the battle of Bunker Hill.