Thursday, May 31 (5:30PM) to Sunday, June 3, 2012  (4:00pm)
Led by Horace Mewborn, Scott Mauger, Rick Britton and Bruce Venter
Based in Richmond, VA
Tour Registration Fee: $475.00

In the Eastern theatre, the names Jeb Stuart and Wade Hampton evoke images of fabled Confederate cavalry successes against their Union opponents. Our tour will highlight some of these classic operations with the chance to walk a number of private property sites, not accessible to the general public.

In Stuart’s Ride around McClellan’s Army of the Potomac in 1862 we will visit Hickory Hill, the Wickham family home (private property) where Stuart stopped the night of June 12 to visit Williams Wickham who was recuperating from a battlefield wound. Then it’s on to historic Hanover Court House where the Gray Cavalier ran into a detachment of Federal cavalry. As we follow Stuart’s plume, we’ll have a chance to stop at the site of the 1864 cavalry battle of Haws Shop. Returning to Stuart’s ride we will see many sites associated with it like Linney’s Corner, Old Church, Tunstall’s Station, Garlick’s Landing, Talleysville, Forge Bridge, Charles City Court House and Rowland’s Mill where Stuart stopped for a cup of coffee. As we return to the hotel we’ll come past Yellow Tavern, the battle site where Stuart was mortally wounded in 1864.

We’ll begin Hampton’s 1864 Beefsteak Raid at Violet Bank, Robert E. Lee’s headquarters during the Petersburg siege where he and the South Carolinian discussed the raid. From there, we’ll see Wilkinson’s Bridge where Hampton crossed Rowanty Creek, then stop at Belsches’ Mill where he picked up his guide for the raid. We’ll also see Cook’s Bridge, Laurel Springs, Sycamore Church where Tom Rosser attacked the 1st D. C. Cavalry and the Harrison Farm site where the cattle were corralled. We will stop at Edmund Ruffin’s Farm (private property) where his old house still stands. We’ll see Cocke’s Mill, the site of James Dearing’s defensive position against a Federal effort to retrieve the herd and the Donnan House site where Hampton’s aide gave a captured cow to 12 year old Margaret Donnan. We’ll go to Hawkinsville where cattle crossed the Jerusalem Plank Road while Tom Rosser blocked the road at Ebenezer Church, Freeman’s Ford where the cattle crossed the Nottoway River and the intersection of the Boydton Plank and White Oak roads where the herd was penned after reaching Confederate lines.

[Read more…]

Wednesday, June 27 (7:30PM) to Saturday, June 30, 2012  (5:00pm)
Led by Dan Tortora
Based in Cherokee, NC
Tour Registration Fee: $425.00

The French and Indian War in the South had taken a back seat to more well-known events that occurred in New York and Pennsylvania. Our Defending the Southern Frontier: The Cherokee War of 1759-61 will remedy that shortcoming.

By 1760 the fate of the British colonies in North America was determined by the capture of Quebec. But in the South, the Cherokee Indians continued a war against South Carolina and British troops. The war was the result of a corrupt deerskin trade and other longstanding Cherokee grievances, a collapse in the Cherokee-British military alliance, and bungled diplomacy by South Carolina’s colonial governor. The “peace,” if you could call it that, left festering tensions on all sides which would influence the coming American Revolution. Focusing on the Middle and Overhill Cherokee villages, we will discuss the scope of the southern theater in the French and Indian War by visiting a number famous and some lesser known sites.

[Read more…]

Wednesday, August 1 (7:30PM) to Saturday, August 4, 2012  (5:00pm)
Led by Ed Bearss, Horace Mewborn and Bob O’Neill
Based in Leesburg, VA
Tour Registration Fee: $495.00

Ever since the Gettysburg campaign ended, participants, historians and Civil War enthusiasts have debated the results of Jeb Stuart’s ride to Gettysburg, placing blame, on one hand, or exonerating the “Bold Dragoon” on the other hand, for his decisions. Some have said Stuart’s delay in reaching the Confederate army in Pennsylvania may have cost General Robert E. Lee the battle. Others contend Stuart’s absence made little difference in the military scheme of things. Our “Jeb Stuart in the Gettysburg Campaign” tour will try to sort out these issues by retracing the steps the Gray Cavalier took once he left his commander on June 24, 1863. We will cover Stuart’s ride, his contribution to the battle itself, his part in Lee’s retreat and the ongoing controversy surrounding his performance. Our analysis will include the facts, the geography, the myths and the unanswered questions about Stuart’s decisions.

[Read more…]

Wednesday, August 22 (7:30pm) to Saturday, August 24, 2012 (5:00pm
Led by Edward Lengel and William Welsch

“Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery.”

These words of Washington on the National Memorial Arch describe the suffering the Continental Army endured at Valley Forge. Our Howe vs. Washington tour will trace the Philadelphia Campaign of 1777 from Washington’s defeat at Brandywine through the army’s march out of Valley Forge heading to its success at Monmouth in June, 1778.

In the summer of 1777, British General William Howe launched what he believed would be the decisive campaign of the war. His goal was to capture Philadelphia, capital of the new nation. On our first day we will begin with a visit to Brandywine battlefield, where the British decisively defeated Washington’s army on September 11, 1777. We will start with the beginning action at Kennett Meeting House, tracing the diversionary attack on Washington’s position at Chad’s Ford. Next we’ll visit the British flanking position at Osborne’s Hill; then it’s on to Birmingham Meeting House, where the battle culminated. In the afternoon, we’ll visit the site of Fort Billings, a fortification in New Jersey used to prevent the British navy from communicating with Philadelphia. We’ll also visit Fort Mercer, an excellent site where American troops defeated a Hessian force under Colonel Carl von Donop on October 22.

[Read more…]

Wednesday, September 5 (7:30PM) to Saturday, September 8, 2012  (5:00pm)
Led by Thomas Cartwright
Based in Franklin, TN
Tour Registration Fee: $475.00

Admirers of Confederate Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest are legion. Many Civil War enthusiasts would say he belongs in any pantheon of great Southern military leaders. This skilled battlefield tactician, cavalry leader and raider evoked controversy during the war and in the aftermath of reconstruction. He was a truly larger than life individual.

Our tour will explore Forrest’s exploits in middle Tennessee where you’ll see some familiar battlefields and many little-known sites thru the eyes of one of the most knowledgeable and zealous historians of the “Wizard of the Saddle,” the incomparable Thomas Y. Cartwright.

On our first day we will travel to Fort Donelson, the site where Forrest first distinguished himself. The Gray cavalryman not only captured a Union artillery battery, but broke Grant’s siege by leading nearly 4,000 men out of Confederate lines, across the Cumberland River, before the fort was surrendered, trapping another 15,000 soldiers. This daring deed made Forrest an instant hero in the South. We will have adequate time to explore the Fort Donelson battlefield.

[Read more…]

Wednesday, October 24 (7:30PM) to Saturday, October 27, 2012  (5:00pm)
Led by A. Wilson “Will” Greene and Terry Winschel
Based in Vicksburg, MS
Tour Cost: $475.00

Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s campaign to capture Vicksburg on the east bank of the Mississippi River was a wide-ranging military and logistical operation. It was also a major component in the North’s strategic plan to defeat the Confederacy. Our tour of the Vicksburg campaign will live up to this analysis by ranging far beyond the National Military Park’s boundaries as we look at Grant’s masterpiece in depth. Our lead historian, Will Greene did an exemplary job last year at Shiloh, so we are fortunate to benefit from his expert services again here at Vicksburg.

An important site in the early Federal attempt to get at Vicksburg will be our stop at Chickasaw Bayou, where Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s troops suffered a setback in December 1862 delivered by Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton’s Confederates. From this battlefield, we’ll cross the Mississippi to explore the area around “Grant’s Canal” where Union forces attempted to cut a waterway that would essentially bypass the city, rendering the heavily gunned fortress powerless. Then it’s on to Grand Gulf to see the strongly fortified Confederate position which proved too much for Union Admiral David Dixon Porter’s gunboats, despite a heavy bombardment. After the setback at Grand Gulf, Grant decided to cross the river near Port Gibson. We will stop at Bruinsburg where Union infantrymen forced the bluffs to start the final effort to capture Vicksburg. We will tour the battle sites around Port Gibson where Grant was finally able to dent the Confederate lines, but only after dogged fighting on both sides. We’ll also see the ruins of Windsor Plantation, made famous by Hollywood as well as the Civil War.

[Read more…]

Wednesday, October 10 (7:30PM) to Saturday, October 13, 2012  (5:00pm)
Led by Robert F. O’Neill and Bruce Venter
Based in Hays, KS
Tour Registration Fee: $495.00

Shortly after the Civil War ended two iconic figures from that war, Major General Winfield Scott Hancock and Major General George Armstrong Custer (now a lieutenant colonel) came to the Kansas Plains to fight Indians. In 1867 Hancock’s mission was to discourage Indian raiding in Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska, but the famous Union general ended up with a full scale war on his hands by 1868. Custer, a famed cavalryman at the time was a perfect subordinate for Hancock. But “Hancock’s War” as it was called did not do either officer’s reputation any good. Our tour will visit the battle sites and forts of Custer’s campaign thru Kansas, years before his final encounter with the Sioux in Montana.

On our first day we will start with a visit to Fort Hays, built to protect the railroad which was being constructed parallel to the old Smoky Hill Trail. With four original buildings intact, the fort saw the likes of Custer, Phil Sheridan and Buffalo Bill Cody. Nearby is the tree-covered Custer Island where the general bivouacked his 7th Cavalry troopers. Then it’s on to Fort Larned, an outstanding example of a frontier fort that retains most of its original buildings. After Fort Larned, we’ll visit Pawnee Rock, a well-known landmark along the Santa Fe Trail with some great stories. From there you’ll get to see the obscure Pawnee Fork Crossing which now sits on the grounds of a state hospital. At Burdett, we’ll stop at the site where Hancock and Custer faced off an Indian band. Nearby you’ll see the site of the Pawnee River Indian village burned by Hancock.

[Read more…]

Wednesday, September 12 (7:30PM) to Saturday, September 15, 2012  (5:00pm)
Led by Douglas Cubbison and Bruce Venter
Based in Lake George, NY
Tour Registration Fee: $495.00

During the summer and fall of 1777 one of the great military campaigns of world history took place in the dense forests and rolling fields of upstate New York. British Lt. Gen. John “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne led a combined force of some 9,000 British Redcoats, German hirelings, vengeful Tories and blood-thirsty Indians. This army descended from Canada, aiming to cut off the American middle colonies from their New England neighbors.

Burgoyne’s invasion was part of a three-pronged strategic plan to break the back of the rebellion. His army marched directly south through a near-impenetrable wilderness, attempting to reach its final objective: Albany. But American fortunes changed decisively on the west bank of the Hudson River near Saratoga. The patriot army, initially led by Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler, but now commanded by Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates, and ably led on the battlefield by Brig. Gen. Benedict Arnold and Col. Daniel Morgan, stopped Burgoyne’s campaign in its tracks. The surrender of Burgoyne’s army in October 1777 was more important to the Rebel cause than any other event during the American Revolution. The two climatic battles at Freeman’s Farm and Bemis Heights led to a French alliance the following year, effectively insuring an American triumph over the forces of Lt Gen. Charles Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown.

[Read more…]