BGES 2025 Program Schedule

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INTRODUCING BGES’s FIELD UNIVERSITY PROGRAMS

BGES conducts its flagship “Civil War Field University” by design for small groups usually traveling in vans to facilitate maximum access where buses cannot go. By keeping the groups small—usually between 8 and 20 people—BGES provides a stimulating and invigoratingly personal experience available from no other organizations offering Civil War tours.

As a nonprofit, net proceeds underwrite charitable and educational activities of the organization. The reputation of BGES has caused it to be sought nationally and internationally for educational and leadership training, attracting some of the nation’s most respected historians and scholars both as members and teachers.

Inclusions

BGES trips offer a range of amenities that vary by the type of tour and the accessibility of resources. Field maps are often designed and used, reading books are usually featured, and suggested reading lists help interested persons prepare for the study to follow. Included meals are listed for each program. Lodging is usually not included unless the tour includes overnight stays away from the headquarters hotel.

Browse our list of upcoming tours on this page. Follow the links for detailed descriptions, itineraries, and registration information.

BGES’S 2025 FIELD UNIVERSITY PROGRAM

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Brice’s Crossroads and Tupelo, with Tom Parson, from Tupelo, MS | March 7-9, 2025

In the spring and summer of 1864, while Gens. Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee clashed in Virginia and Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston maneuvered it out in Georgia—what historian Richard McMurry has called “the Red Clay Minuet”—there was also plenty of action in North Mississippi. Johnston repeatedly urged President Jefferson Davis to send Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and his much-feared cavalry legions to strike Sherman’s supply line in Tennessee, hoping to relieve the pressure in Georgia.

Tour Details and Registration Information.

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Hood’s Fall 1864 Campaign into Alabama‬, with Norman Dasinger and Robert Jenkins, from Gadsden, AL | March 21-23, 2025

After the fall of Atlanta in September 1864, Confederate General John Bell Hood led his battered Army of Tennessee northward through Big Shanty (Kennesaw), Acworth, Resaca, and Dalton, tearing up large portions of the Western & Atlantic Railroad and capturing small Federal garrisons along the way. His goal was to lure Union Gen. William T. Sherman into battle, hoping to defeat the Federals in north Georgia, while forcing Sherman to leave perhaps as much as half of his army behind to defend the recently captured city of Atlanta.

Tour Details and Registration Information.

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The Great Locomotive Chase Tour‬, with Jim Ogden, Chief Historian,‬ Chickamauga-Chattanooga NMP, from Ringgold, GA | April 11-13, 2025

Jim Ogden is one of the great historians of the National Park Service. Widely admired for his intimate knowledge of the 1863 Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns, he is a preservationist of the first degree, often called upon to lead our nation’s leaders on private tours of historical sites. What many people do not realize is that the core of Jim’s success is a relentless and compulsive desire to be prepared and to understand the peripheral issues related to his primary topics. Now, he is bringing that collateral knowledge to BGES in a series of programs he has long wanted to do. Andrews’ Raiders is but one of his specialties.

Tour Details and Registration Information.

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The Atlanta Campaign, Part 1 Dalton, Resaca, and Cassville‬, with David (Dave) A. Powell, from Ringgold, GA | April 24-27, 2025

The Atlanta Campaign and the subsequent fall of Atlanta is arguably the most important campaign of the Civil War, as it galvanized Northern support and ensured President Abraham Lincoln’s reelection in November 1864. Despite its significance, the campaign has often been overshadowed by others and has yet to receive the attention it truly deserves. While recent works over the past decade have begun to fill the void, no comprehensive study of the campaign has emerged since Albert Castel’s Decision in the West in 1992. Dave Powell’s “The Atlanta Campaign, Volume 1: Dalton to Cassville, May 1–19, 1864,” the first in a proposed five-volume treatment, promises to fill that void.

Tour Details and Registration Information.

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Guilford Courthouse: British High Tide in North Carolina‬, with Robert Dunkerly, from Guilford Courthouse National Military Park | May 3, 2025

In late winter of 1781, British forces led by Gen. Charles Lord Cornwallis marched into North Carolina, fresh from recent victories in South Carolina and intent on subduing the state. However, their campaign encountered immediate challenges. For weeks, American forces under Gen. Nathanael Greene skillfully outmaneuvered the British, setting the stage for the pivotal Battle of Guilford Courthouse—the largest Revolutionary War clash in North Carolina. We will explore how Cornwallis’s smaller but highly trained army and Greene’s larger but less seasoned force, delving into the strategies and outcomes that shaped this critical conflict.

Tour Details and Registration Information.

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Saratoga: America’s Decisive Victory, with Scott Patchan, from Lake George, NY | May 7-10, 2025

In October 1777, events in North America took a decisive turn with the defeat and surrender of British forces under Gen. Johnny Burgoyne at Saratoga. This pivotal event, marked by the capitulation of a major British army, emboldened King Louis XVI of France to expand his war with Britain to the North American continent for the first time since the ill-fated French and Indian War. The French alliance, forged by King Louis XVI, provided land, naval, and economic resources essential to the colonial war effort. This investment paid huge dividends four years later when a second major British army, led by Gen. Earl Cornwallis, surrendered to the combined American and French forces under Gen. George Washington at Yorktown.

Tour Details and Registration Information.

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Civil War and Civil Rights, with Norman Dasinger, from Montgomery, AL | June 12-15, 2025

The State of Alabama has been known by many names: The Cotton State, The Yellowhammer State, The Lizard State, The Camelia State, The Heart of Dixie, and The Heart of the South. Perhaps the 1934 song “Stars Fell on Alabama,” sung by Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and later by Frank Sinatra, best captures the sentiment of this beautiful yet troubled state. Inspired by a meteor shower that lit up Alabama’s skies while two lovers dreamed of their future, the song reflects the state’s rich history—a blend of competing and clashing narratives.

Tour Details and Registration Information.

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The Campaign for Mobile 1864-1865, with Mike Bunn and Paul Brueske, from Mobile, GA | June 17-22, 2025

As Ulysses S. Grant took command of all Union armies, he focused on critical points sustaining the Confederate war effort, integrating operations against them into his overall plan. Of his grand design, only one objective—Mobile—failed to go as he intended. Instead, a useless and nearly disastrous operation up the Red River in Louisiana during the spring of 1864 delayed efforts to capture this final Confederate port on the Gulf of Mexico.

Tour Details and Registration Information.

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Battling From Bull Run to Ball’s Bluff and Beyond: The 1861 War in Northern Virginia, with Gary Ecelbarger and Scott Patchan, from Manassas, VA | August 14-17, 2025

Undoubtedly, the second, third, and fourth years of the Civil War are the most studied and toured period of the great American conflict. This has opened the latter half of 1861 as a prime area for fresh focus––six months of campaigns that set the stage for a ramped-up war that followed. Northern Virginia hosted the largest battle fought on American soil during the first twelve months of the war, a monstrous affair along the banks of Bull Run.

Tour details and registration information coming soon.

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