2008 Tour Schedule 

Vicksburg: Fighting for the “Gibraltar of the Confederacy”
April 7–11 with Historian Guide Edwin C. Bearss

Revisiting the Vicksburg campaign with Edwin Cole Bearss is second only to revisiting it with Grant himself. Nobody now living knows that critical campaign of the Civil War better than Bearss, who for a decade was the historian at the Vicksburg National Military Park and has written the standard three-volume account of Vicksburg. Read more >

Bad Hand Mackenzie: Legend of the Texas Indian Wars
April 27–May 4 with Historian Guide Neil Mangum

Ranald S. Mackenzie is an enigma. To General Ulysses S. Grant he was “the most promising young officer in the army.” General Philip H. Sheridan called him “the very man.” The Indians knew him as “Bad Hand,” a reference to his mangled right hand. His promising military career was cut short when he developed symptoms of mental illness; however, in his relatively short career, he posted a resume that would be the envy of most officers. Read more >

Lake Champlain: The Crucible of North American Wars
May 29–June 6 with Historian Guide Thomas R. Mandeville

For eight millennia — from Pre-Columbian time to the present — this great waterway has figured large, first in the time of Indian nations and then in the history of four world powers: Great Britain, France, the United States, and Canada. Our tour of this great confluence of waters between New York City and Montreal will take you to the St. Lawrence, the Richelieu, and the Hudson Rivers, and Lakes Champlain and George. Read more >

Nez Perce: The Failed Flight for Freedom
July 5-15 with Historian Guide Edwin C. Bearss

When asked about his favorite tour, Ed Bearss, Historian Guide extraordinaire, will tell you that it is Nez Perce. On this tour he will teach us how the Nez Perce met the white intruders — the explorers, fur traders, missionaries, soldiers, settlers, gold miners, loggers, farmers, and ultimately their armies — first in friendship, then in war, and finally in a failed flight for freedom that led ultimately to their surrender. Read more >

Kit Carson: Mountain Man and Much More
Aug. 3–10 with Historian Guide Michael Koury

As impressive as the land he knew and loved, Kit Carson was enshrined in popular mythology even in his own lifetime. Although illiterate, he rose to the rank of brevet brigadier general in the U.S. Army, spoke fluent Spanish and was conversant in several Indian languages. This tour combines battles of the Civil War in the Southwest, the struggles for a homeland in the Indian Wars, and the rough adventures of the fur trade. All the while, you are surrounded by some of the most spectacular country in America. Read more >

Nova Scotia: Fulcrum of the Seven Years War
Aug. 27–Sept. 5 with Historian Guide Brian Cuthbertson

Our tour will cover the historic sites of the war in Nova Scotia, concluding as the Seven Years War ended with the capture of the French fortress town of Louisbourg in 1758. No one knows this enthralling story better than historian Brian Cuthbertson. More than just conflict and conquest, you will discover the unique heritage and culture of this province and its breathtaking scenery. Read more >

Cheyenne Outbreak: The Desperate Escape
Sept. 7–14 with Historian Guide Neil Mangum

After the turmoil of the Great Sioux War, the Northern Cheyenne were uprooted to Darlington Agency in Oklahoma, where starvation, disease, and death decimated their numbers. Tribal leaders Little Wolf and Dull Knife rebelled and led more than 300 warriors, women, and children toward their former homes. Tour the desperate escape trail with Historian Guide Neil Mangum, a master story teller. Read more >

Icons of the Confederacy: With Lee, Davis and Jackson in Virginia
Oct. 6–12 with Historian Guide Robert E. Lee Krick

In "Icons of the Confederacy" HistoryAmerica will investigate Robert E. Lee's partnership with Confederate President Jefferson Davis and with his best-loved subordinate, General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. 2008 marks the 200th anniversary of Davis’s birth, an appropriate time to focus on the iron-willed, disputatious, well-meaning president of the Confederate States of America. Read more >

Marching through Georgia: Sherman Wages Total War
Oct. 22–30 with Historian Guide Edwin C. Bearss

Ed Bearss will lead you through a deadly eight-month dance of maneuvers and clashes, thrusts and counterthrusts, battles and sieges that carried the relentless Major General William T. Sherman through Atlanta and to Savannah, where at Yuletide he would offer that port city as a Christmas gift to President Lincoln. Read more >

Civil War on the Carolina Coast: First Shot to Final Battles
Nov. 2–9 with Historian Guide James M. McPherson

The enchanting coast of the two Carolinas served as the setting for the beginning and the end of the Civil War. Leading this tour to stirring sites from Charleston to Bentonville will be master historian and Pulitzer Prize winning author James M. McPherson. Read more >

Eleven TOURS for 2008

Details of the 2008 schedule are also available in PDF form (5MB, requires Acrobat Reader).

Download 2008 Travel Guide  >>