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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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.

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The Campaign for Mobile 1864-1865, with Mike Bunn and Paul Brueske, from Mobile, AL | 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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Dunmore’s War: The Last Conflict of America’s Colonial Era, 1774, with  Dr. Glenn F. Williams, from Mineral Wells, WV | June 25-29, 2025

Dunmore’s War, a largely overlooked yet pivotal conflict of 1774, unfolded in the rugged Ohio Valley, primarily in what is now West Virginia, marking the final major clash between American colonists and Native American forces before the Revolutionary War. We are pleased to offer an exclusive tour that explores this fascinating chapter of history, led by historian Glenn F. Williams Ph.D., author of the definitive book on the subject, Dunmore’s War: The Last Conflict of America’s Colonial Era (Wetholme Publishing, 2017).

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The Stones River Campaign, with Dan Masters, from Smyrna, TN | July 10-13, 2025

In the busy month of December 1862, as the Union suffered resounding defeats at Fredericksburg, Virginia, and along the steep banks of Vicksburg, Mississippi—including the failed Chickasaw Bayou expedition—newspapers in both the North and South carried headlines that alternately sank and lifted morale. Yet amid these high-profile battles, a less-publicized but arguably more significant campaign was unfolding in the heart of the conflict: middle Tennessee.

Tour Details and Registration Information.

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The 1777 Philadelphia Campaign: Bloody Battles and Momentous Maneuvers of September, with Gary Ecelbarger and Mike Harris, from Exton, PA | July 23-27, 2025

This program, led by Gary Ecelbarger and Michael C. Harris, focuses on the first month of the Philadelphia Campaign. Not only have these scholars reshaped the “whats, whens, wheres, hows, and whys” of this critical campaign of The Cause, but their extensive experience leading battlefield tours—incorporating newly accessible lands and structures—ensures a special experience for both novices and seasoned enthusiasts of the American Revolution.

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Hood’s Fall 1864 Tennessee Campaign, with Hal Litchford and Jamie Gillum, from Franklin, TN | August 6-10, 2025

After the Battle of Decatur, Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood continued moving the Army of Tennessee west in search of a place to cross the Tennessee River and to launch his invasion of Tennessee. By October 30, the Army’s vanguard reached Tuscumbia, opposite Florence, Alabama, on the river’s north bank. Hood established Tuscumbia as his base of operations and shifted his supply depot there. However, the supply line remained long and tortuous.

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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.

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On Sacred Grounds: The Indian Wars on the Northern Plains, with Neil Mangum, from Billings, MT | September 9-14, 2025

The ideology of Manifest Destiny empowered the unrestricted movement of white settlers across America, encouraging them to exploit and benefit from the vast resources of the wild western territories. These lands for generations had formed the spiritual and cultural heart of Native American life. As settlers pushed westward along key migration routes, the U.S. government responded with increasingly harsh and repressive policies toward Native peoples.

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The World Turned Upside Down: The Yorktown Campaign, with Dr. John R. Maass, from Williamsburg, VA | October 23-26, 2025

The decisive importance of the Yorktown campaign has been recognized for the past 244 years by historians, public figures, and soldiers, ever since British forces surrendered to the combined Continental and French forces led by George Washington in the small Virginia port town of Yorktown on October 19, 1781. Reflecting on this historic event during its bicentennial, President Ronald W. Reagan stated, “This [surrender] field, this ceremony, and this day hold a special meaning for people the world over,” and he called it “an extraordinary moment in history.” Likewise, just days after the victory, Continental Congressman Elias Boudinot proclaimed it “a day which here ever after [will] be famous in the annals of American history.”

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Longstreet’s East Tennessee Campaign: Knoxville‬, with Colonel Ed Lowe, from Knoxville-Farragut, TN | November 7-9, 2025

Following the rousing victory at Chickamauga, Georgia, in September 1863, which forced the defeated Federal Army of the Cumberland to fall back into Chattanooga and led to the dismissal of Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, Gen. Braxton Bragg and his Southern troops formed a ring along the high ground surrounding the “Scenic City,” as Chattanooga has been called. From the Tennessee River east of the city, along Missionary Ridge, and up to the towering heights of Lookout Mountain, Bragg’s men effectively bottled up the beleaguered blue-clad soldiers who were now under the direction of Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas.

Tour Details and Registration Information.

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