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Antietam & Gettysburg

Since the birth of the United States in the American Revolution of 1776, the Civil War has been the only conflict in which the very survival of the nation was at stake. The issue of life or death for two nations lay at the heart of the war, and there was no middle ground for either side. Abraham Lincoln's great dream of freedom for all could be realized only with Union victory. If the Confederacy won, the precedent would be set for further divisions, and there would no longer be a country worthy of the name "United States."

The pendulum of victory and defeat swung back and forth during the four years of the war. Two of the most important swings from Confederate triumph to Union success took place at Antietam and Gettysburg. The 23,000 men killed, wounded, and missing at Antietam constituted the largest toll for any single day in all of American history. The 50,000 casualties of both sides in three days at Gettysburg were the largest for any battle in the Civil War. If either had turned out differently, the United States as we know it today might not exist.

Historian Guides:

Due to a scheduling conflict, Ed Bearss is not able to be the historian guide for this tour. Instead, the tour will be conducted by two of our country's most highly acclaimed historians, James McPherson and Dennis Frye.

Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at Princeton University, Dr. James McPherson received his PhD at Johns Hopkins University. In a career as America's preeminent Civil War historian that has spanned more than four decades, he has garnered many of the historical profession's top accolades. He has written many books on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War and countless articles for historical publications. Dr. McPherson's most famous work Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era won the Pulitzer Prize for History and is considered to be the finest and most definitive comprehensive treatment of the Civil War period.

Dennis Frye is the Chief Historian at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. He is a prominent Civil War historian with numerous appearances on PBS, The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, and A&E. He helped produce award-winning television features on the Battle of Antietam and abolitionist John Brown and served as an Associate Producer for the Civil War movie "Gods and Generals." Dennis is a well-known author of 88 articles and eight books, including Harpers Ferry Under Fire and September Suspense: Lincoln's Union in Peril.

An unprecedented presentation, this HistoryAmerica tour will become the opportunity of a lifetime to recapture all the excitement of the great events at the battles of Antietam and Gettysburg

St. Louis Bound

High on a limestone bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, with forested areas beyond the cliffs, French fur traders traveled up from New Orleans in 1762 and found an ideal site to establish a trading post. Following a prediction that the village they built "might become hereafter one of the finest cities of America," the settlement quickly grew because of its central location in the Upper Mississippi Valley, close to the confluences of the Illinois, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers.

By the time Captain Meriwether Lewis saw it during December 1803, St. Louis was a thriving community with almost 200 white-washed houses and a population of perhaps a thousand people from all walks of life and nationalities. Established by the French in the hopes of a trade monopoly with the Indians, governed by the Spanish, and purchased by President Jefferson for America, St. Louis has always been cosmopolitan in nature as it transitioned from a frontier river town to a metropolitan mercantile empire.

Come spend a week in St. Louis with River Historian Jon G. James, and explore all the local, regional, and national attractions associated with the most famous events and people in American history. You will walk through ethnic neighborhoods and on the original levee and riverfront and recount the compelling legends and gripping stories of countless boatmen, cowboys, Indians, politicians, priests, slaves, soldiers, and voyageurs who passed through or resided in this vibrant city, the Gateway to the West.

Lake Champlain

At the dawn of the 18th century, French colonies extended from the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes. British colonies extended west from the Atlantic seaboard, and both sought to expand into the territory between. After the Treaty of Paris ended French imperial claims in North America, the British Empire found its authority challenged by rebellious American colonists.

Waterways were then the transportation arteries, and nowhere else in North America are there more 18th-century forts and battlefields than in the Upper Hudson River and Lake Champlain valleys. This corridor, from Albany through Lake Champlain to Canada, witnessed key battles in both the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. At Fort Ticonderoga, France achieved its greatest victory, repulsing a much larger British army in the bloodiest battle on North American soil until the Civil War. To end rebellion in the American colonies, British General John Burgoyne considered the Lake Champlain-Hudson River Valley "precisely the route an army ought to take" to invade New York. He expected to isolate New England and then focus on crushing that seat of discontent. However, the Americans forced Burgoyne's army to surrender at the Battle of Saratoga, a crucial victory that renewed Patriots' hopes, secured essential foreign recognition, and forever changed the face of the world.

Historian Frank Ackerman will guide you through the crucible of North American wars for an exciting, in-depth look at independence from an empire.

Old Cape Cod

Famed naturalist Henry Beston wrote, "East of America, there stands in the open Atlantic the last fragment of an ancient and vanished land. Worn by the breakers and the rains, and disintegrated by the wind, it still stands bold."

Landmark for early explorers, Cape Cod was where the Pilgrims first landed and signed the Mayflower Compact, forming the basis of government in Plymouth Colony. Afterward it was again and again the site of confrontations, first between explorers and natives and then between Patriots and Tories.

Saltworks, lighthouses, shipwrecks, and characters as varied as radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi, Henry David Thoreau, and Eugene O'Neill gave Cape Cod its unique landscape and a fascinating human chronicle that was always shaped by the sea. Though its villages all share the easy-going charm one expects from quaint seaside towns, you'll be surprised to find that each one, although small in size, is large in personality. See artist neighborhoods, areas of wild beauty, and regions still steeped in whaling lore and legends of glorious clipper ships.

Historian guide Frank Ackerman will bring to life all the excitement of Cape Cod's celebrated past. Come see a place ever changing. Relentless tides and winds reshape the beaches, cliffs, and boulders, removing evidence that any of us — Native people or Vikings, Pilgrims or presidents, explorers, painters, or inventors — ever set foot here. There's no more fitting place for a HistoryAmerica tour than Cape Cod, where our history began.                                                                           

On the Santa Fe Trail

When one imagines all the storied routes in the history of our nation, the Santa Fe Trail often comes to mind first. As this country's first international highway, it was where Missouri traders headed south, Hispanic traders headed east, and the United States Army traveled when it went to war with Mexico in 1846. Following the Trail today, you can still see wagon ruts, and you can almost hear the whoops and cries of "All's set!" as trail hands hitched their oxen to freight wagons.

We will pick up the Trail at La Junta, Colorado, just after it splits into the Mountain Route and the Cimarron cut-off. Along the way we will meet Kit Carson, "Uncle Dick" Wootten, the Bent's, and outlaws Jesse James and Billy the Kid. We will see Bent's New Fort, the magnificently reconstructed Bent's Old Fort, Raton, Cimarron, and Fort Union. We will travel from charming Mexican villages such as Tecolote and San Miguel to the trail towns of Trinidad and Las Vegas (New Mexico, that is). We will also visit the Civil War battlefield at Glorieta Pass, the most decisive battle in the West, where Colorado Volunteers turned back a Confederate invasion right on the Trail.

Always in sight of the incredible Rocky Mountains, the scenery will be breathtaking, and the history lively and colorful. Mike Koury and this land have a great story to tell. Follow in the curious company of traders, mountain men, and adventurers as the entire saga of the Southwest unfolds along the Santa Fe Trail.

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