Tours

BGES 2024 Program Schedule

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 2024 FIELD UNIVERSITY PROGRAM

Stonewall Jackson’s First Year of the Civil War, with Gary Ecelbarger, from Winchester, VA | October 23-28, 2024

By the end of the War’s twelfth month, one of America’s most iconic generals had already fought his third battle and was embarking upon his fourth campaign. He had added two stars upon his epaulets, expanded the size of his command from four regiments to three brigades, and obtained a world-famous nom de guerre. His name was Thomas Jonathan Jackson––but we all know him as “Stonewall.”

Tour Details and Registration Information.

Grant’s 1864 Lynchburg Campaign, with Scott Patchan, from Staunton, VA | November 6-10, 2024

General Grant’s multi-phased strategy for the spring campaign of 1864, his first as Commanding General of the Union Armies, called for all the Union armies to move simultaneously to keep the Confederates from transferring troops from quiet areas of the Confederacy to the main combat engagement zones.  Two Union forces were tasked to cinch up the interior lines between Tennessee and Lynchburg, Virginia whose canal and the Southside Railroad connected to Petersburg and the capital at Richmond.  The initial Federal force under Franz Sigel was defeated and thrown back at New Market.  General David Hunter replaced him and he proceeded up the Valley and advanced on Lynchburg where he was defeated by forces send by Robert E. Lee under the command of General Jubal Early–Hunter fell back past Hanging Rock near Big Lick (current day Roanoke) where we will end the tour.  Along the way you will see New Market, the newly opened battlefield at Piedmont, and other sites related to Hunter’s advance.  There are some remarkable vistas within the fields of operations.

Tour Details and Registration Information.

The Siege and Battles for Chattanooga, with David Powell, from Chattanooga, TN | November 20-23, 2024

The Federal defeat at Chickamauga compelled the Federal army to fall back on Chattanooga where commanding ground overlooked the Tennessee River and made it nearly impossible to feed the defeated Federals. Fresh from victories near Vicksburg, US Grant was the newly assigned Commander in the West. After relieving Major General Rosecrans, Grant opened a supply line and then assembled forces to break out from the entrapment at Chattanooga. In late November, a series of dramatic and hard hitting battles swept the Confederates from Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge back to Dalton, Georgia. Braxton Bragg would be replaced and Grant would be elevated two months later to command all the United States Armies with the newly assigned rank of Lieutenant General. This is a spectacular program conducted at nearly the same time as it was 160 years ago.

Tour Details and Registration Information.

BGES’S 2025 FIELD UNIVERSITY PROGRAM

Burnside’s 1862 Campaign in North Carolina, with Len Riedel and Wade Sokolosky, from Norfolk, VA | January 15-19, 2025

The American Civil War was a hard and bloody affair. The killing fields and legendary reputations of household names such as Lee and Grant, Farragut and Porter, and places like Antietam, Chickamauga, Gettysburg, Atlanta, and Petersburg—as well as Fort Donelson and Mobile Bay—populate the history books. But before these great battles, Roanoke Island, Fort Macon, Ocean View, Dam #1, and Williamsburg presented an existential threat to the early Confederacy.

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The Louisiana Campaigns: Fort Jackson, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Port Hudson‬, with Richard Holloway, from Slidell, LA | February 13-16, 2025

By early 1862, it was clear that Union General-in-Chief Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan—a two-pronged strategy designed to blockade the Southern port cities along the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico and to split the Confederacy via control of the Mississippi River—was beginning to take shape. For this plan to be successful, New Orleans, located at the mouth of the “Great River,” or “Father of the Rivers,” had to be taken.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Refund and Cancellations

BGES is an educational organization. All registrations are open-ended and may be refunded if circumstances require the client to cancel. The general policy is a 100% refund for cancellations made before the event. Penalties are not usually assessed unless non-refundable vendor costs are incurred. All refunds are determined and approved by the Executive Director of the BGES.