June 2022 tours with Bobby Krick, and Gordon Rhea

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Camp Grant Massacre, Arizona

Shortly before dawn on the morning of April 30, 1871, a group of Anglo Americans, Mexican Americans, and Tohono O'odham Indians from Tucson and San Xavier del Bac attacked a would-be Apache Indian reservation located along a creek bank in Arizona Territory's Aravaipa Canyon. This incident, in which the raiders killed perhaps as many as a hundred and forty Apaches, many of them sleeping women and children, has come to be known as the Camp Grant Massacre after the U.S. Army base near which it took place.
[From Shadows at Dawn website]

Camp Grant, 1870 (National Archives)

Today, the site of the massacre is on private property.

Read two landmark studies of this event: Shadows at Dawn: An Apache Massacre and the Violence of History (The Penguin History of American Life), by Karl Jacoby.
Karl Jacoby discusses his book on NPR


Massacre at Camp Grant: Forgetting and Remembering Apache History (University of Arizona Press), by Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh.


Read on online article about the massacre (originally published by Wild West magazine): "Massacre at Dawn in Arizona Territory," by Carol A. Markstrom and Doug Hocking.

See also, Camp Grant Massacre — April 30, 1871 (Partnership with Native Americans). 

The “Camp Grant Massacre” essay by Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh.

 

Civil War to Cold War in New Mexico tour (fall 2019)

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The Apache Wars tour (spring 2020)

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Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War tour (summer 2020)

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War on the Northern Plains Tour (fall 2020)

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our new ad appearing in "True West" magazine

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New Mexico road trip (October 2019)

CIVIL WAR to COLD WAR, New Mexico 

with Neil Mangum: October 1-6-2019

check out the full itinerary and registration info here

 I am especially excited about this one, for a number of reasons. I love New Mexico—its history, people, and landscape—and though we could spend a week devoted to any number of subjects, this military history/war theme allows us to take a comfortable loop beginning and ending in Albuquerque, while time-traveling through very distinct eras of New Mexico history. 

In one picturesque, clockwise journey we’ll take in Civil War battles from the Confederate invasion of New Mexico—Valverde, and the Battle of Glorieta Pass, with a cast of colorful characters. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, et. al., will feature prominently in our coverage of the Lincoln County War. Likewise, we will literally visit Ground Zero of the Cold War at the Trinity Test Site—where the United States detonated its first atomic weapon (this site is only open to the public on TWO days per year). Filling out our Cold War education will be visits to Manhattan Project National Historic Park, and the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque. When we return to Albuquerque, the city's famous Balloon Fiesta will be getting underway—so come for the history, and stay for the balloons. 

Antietam Tour with Tom Clemens, May 2019

Maryland monument with Dunker Church in background. Photo: NPS

The Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg)
Tour dates: May 2-5, 2019
HQ hotel: Hagerstown, Maryland

In the time that I am writing every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife, and the slain lay in rows precisely as they had stood in their ranks a few moments before. It was never my fortune to witness a more bloody, dismal battlefield.
​
—Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, USA, Commander,
​I Corps, Army of the Potomac

Walk the battlefield next spring with renowned Maryland Campaign historian Thomas Clemens. Professor Clemens will conduct a comprehensive examination of the sites and scenes of the bloodiest day of battle in American history. 

We'll gather on Thursday evening for a pizza reception at our hotel, and to hear an orientation talk by our guide. Friday and Saturday will be all-day bus and walking tours of Harpers Ferry, Sharpsburg and the Antietam battlefield proper, and the Battle of Shepherdstown (aka, Battle of Boteler's Ford).

Click Here for more information,
and to reserve your seat on the bus.

General Itinerary
THURSDAY (May 2): check into our headquarters hotel (Hampton Inn, Hagerstown: details below).
6:30 p.m. Pizza Reception in the hotel meeting room: pick up your registration packets, and meet your host and guide. 
7:30 p.m. Tom Clemens will present an overview of the Maryland Campaign, and Battle of Antietam, and set the stage of the next day's tour with a talk entitled:
"Intentions; the Good, the Bad and the Unforeseen."
​
FRIDAY (May 3): Board Bus at 7:45 a.m.
Bus departs hotel at: 8:00 a.m.
8:30 am Arrive at Best Farm, Monocacy National Battlefield Visitor’s Center; we'll cover the arrival in Maryland and campaign through Lee’s departure and McClellan’s arrival; discussion of the fateful Special Orders 191.
Approx. 9:30 a.m. — Depart for Harpers Ferry. We'll cover the siege and capture, Bolivar Heights, Schoolhouse Ridge, the cavalry escape, and Maryland Heights. 
11:00 a.m. — Depart for Crampton’s Gap, cover Franklin’s march and approach, drive by Brownsville Pass.  Burkitsville, Gathland.
Stop for lunch [provided]
Approx. 1:00 p.m. — Depart for Turner’s Gap, stop at Mountain House.  First Corps attack.
Approx. 1:45 p.m. — Walk to Fox’s Gap — Ninth Corps attack
4:00 p.m. — Bus picks up the group at Fox’s Gap; Drive through Keedysville to Pry House overlook
5:00 p.m. — Day One tour concludes, return to hotel.
Dinner on your own. 
 
SATURDAY (May 4): Board Bus at 7:45 a.m.
Bus departs hotel at: 8:00 a.m.
8:30 a.m. — Overview from Visitor Center at Antietam National Battlefield. 
Poffenberger Woods fight (September 16)
North Woods
Cornfield and East Woods
West Woods
Lunch on the field [provided]
Mumma and Roulette farms
Sunken Road
Middle Bridge
Burnside Bridge and Ninth Corps Attack
Shepherdstown Ford (if time allows)
No evening event scheduled. 

SUNDAY (May 5): optional outing (via carpool)
The Battle of Shepherdstown (or Boteler's Ford)
10:00 a.m. for one-to-two hours. Adjourn by noon.

About our guide:

Tom Clemens is a founder and current president of the Save Historic Antietam Foundation and has played a central role in helping preserve the field and associated sites. His essential contributions to the literature on Antietam include the monumental work as editor and annotator of the Maryland Campaign study by Ezra Carmen, published in three volumes by Savas Beatie Publishers. Tom is recognized as one of the foremost authorities on Antietam, as well as one of the most engaging and entertaining tour guides available.

The Call of the Bugle

Call of the Bugle, painted by J.K. Ralston. This oil painting shows Custer rallying the troops for the final defense of Last Stand Hill. The Custer Battlefield Historical & Museum Association (CBHMA) commissioned it in 1964, donating to the park shortly after. Credit: Courtesy of the National Park Service, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.  LIBI_00138_06378