The BGES Blog never misses an opportunity to talk with Paul Severance. An Army veteran, he is an acknowledged expert on Gettysburg and a living history enthusiast. Severance has hosted several BGES tours, and was originally scheduled to lead another, “A Walking Tour of the Battle of Fredericksburg,” in December—thanks to Covid-19 it’s been rescheduled … Read more
This lesser known private park, celebrating its twentieth anniversary in 2019, occupies the spot where the battle that ended the nine-month-long Petersburg Campaign took place on April 2, 1865, resulting in the Confederate’s evacuation of their capital at Richmond. Here you’ll find four antebellum homes, four museums, daily living-history demonstrations, hiking trails winding past important … Read more
The Revolutionary War wrapped up in Virginia, with the French assisting the Colonists in defeating the British at Yorktown. The final steps leading up to this final American/French victory—including why British Gen. Charles, Lord Cornwallis was there in the first place—are explored on an upcoming BGES tour, The Virginia Campaign of 1781, slated for November … Read more
Perhaps no one has done more to interpret and preserve Mississippi’s complicated Civil War past than Magnolia State native Parker Hills. A military veteran, Hills served for more than three decades in active and reserve roles, retiring as a brigadier general, Mississippi Army National Guard. Fittingly, it was during a military staff ride more than thirty … Read more
BGES’ tour schedule for 2020 has been released! Next year we have some twenty-five different tours to look forward to, as well as several new historians. Of particular interest is the long-awaited Gordon Rhea “Overland Campaign” series, in which the acclaimed historian begins a two-year, ten-day presentation of the famous 1864 Campaign between Grant and … Read more
In September 2019, the Blue & Gray Education Society will host an intriguing new tour focused on the Petersburg Campaign, A Campaign of Giants: The Battle for Petersburg.The host is none other than Wilson Greene, a world traveler and well-known Civil War historian. Greene has written some two-dozen articles on the topic, plus six books, … Read more
Most of the time, BGES Executive Director Len Riedel is tirelessly working to plan and execute BGES’ large and diverse organization and programs. This time, he took the back seat—literally—on a recent Field University program—A Test of Loyalties: East Tennessee Raids, Railroads, and Rebellion, which took place July 24–27, 2019, with military historian Jim Ogden … Read more
When Robert E. Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia in 1862, he wasn’t sure what was going on behind the lines of the Federal Army of the Potomac, under command of George McClellan. So he sent his 29-year-old cavalry chief, J.E.B. Stuart, to study McClellan’s vulnerabilities—a tour that Lee used to crush … Read more
The Battle of Shiloh raged on April 6 and 7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. It remains the seventh bloodiest battle of the Civil War, and the nineteenth bloodiest battle in all of American history. Monuments to the battle began being erected in 1902, with fifteen total soon honoring the service and sacrifice of different … Read more
It’s not exactly breaking news to say Richmond is a Civil War lover’s dream. Obviously, as the capital of the Confederacy, the city’s place in American history is unquestioned. And the amount of Civil War history that has been preserved is impressive, to say the least. Much of that can be found at Richmond National Battlefield Park, which … Read more