Heading out to Where to Where the Civil War Happened

Over the weekend I signed up prolific Civil War author Eric Wittenberg to do two days of guided tours in one of his areas of expertise, the Battle of Brandy Station. We'll do this the weekend after Labor Day, which should be pretty pleasant, weather-wise. I'm really looking forward to this one, as cavalry operations in the Eastern Theater, in particular, remain fuzzy for me, outside of the general outlines and major raids.

To kick-start registrations, I imposed upon Eric to autograph 12 copies of his brand-new book on Brandy Station that I'll ship to the first dozen people to sign up. The itinerary and ordering information his HERE.

It's not too late to sign up for a brilliant, small group tour of largely unknown sites associated with the Appomattox campaign, led by Appomattox Chief Historian Patrick Schroeder. This one is happening in May, so again, we're hitting Virginia at a good time of the year. This is a custom tour devised by Patrick, and will be unlike any that have come before. In addition to the "unseen" parts, there will be plenty of time to spend at Appomattox NHP for those of you visiting for the first time, or for the first time in awhile. Check out a detailed itinerary HERE.

In about two weeks, I'll be getting on a plane to New Orleans for the 14th Civil War Forum Battlefield Tour. We have an interesting itinerary worked out (if I do say so myself). A private visit to the Historic New Orleans collection, tours of Fort Pike, Metairie Cemetery, a couple Mississippi River plantations, and a custom Civil War walking tour in New Orleans led by Dr. Justin Nystrom, assistant professor of history at Loyola University, and City Archivist Greg Osborn.

Says Justin about the afternoon walking tour, "the theme is going to be something along the lines of 'The city where the Civil War began in 1865.' I noticed you had advertised it as a place where there were no battles. They'll discover differently when we go over the 1874 Battle of Liberty Place. The Confederacy may have lost New Orleans early in the war, yet it is where white southerners won the peace. We will definitely start at Lafayette Square across from the old City Hall (Gallier Hall) and end up on Jackson Square. We're working being let into the Custom House. It is the insectarium now, but is worth a peek in the door at the very least."

HERE is the page devoted to New Orleans.
Full list of 2010 tours is HERE, so far.