River of Death, The Chickamauga Campaign By William Glenn Robertson (UNC Press, 2018, Volume 1, The Fall of Chattanooga), $30.97 Nearly 30 years ago I met Glenn Robertson on a tour with the new American Blue and Gray Association of Shiloh. He was accompanied by one of his active duty tour assistants, Lt. Col. Ed … Read more
As we head into spring with the hope that sooner rather than later, we’ll be back in the BGES bus exploring the battlefields, we must consider the legal and insurance guidance that is being applied to Covid. We were curious what our liability would be if we resumed programs using vans or buses or if … Read more
General McClellan’s major Union offensive against Richmond in the spring and summer of 1862 unfolded on the peninsula located between the James and York Rivers. The first stage ended inconclusively at the Battle of Seven Pines, where Confederate Gen. Joseph Johnston was injured. With Robert E. Lee taking his place, the Army of the Potomac … Read more
Bob Plumb didn’t grow up dreaming of becoming a famous Civil War author. A versatile writer whose works include Your Brother in Arms: A Union Soldier’s Odyssey and The Better Angels: Five Women Who Changed Civil War America, Plumb was born and raised in upstate New York, and his geographic borders shaped him in many … Read more
Fort Blakeley, in Spanish Fort, Alabama, may not be as famous as Shiloh or Gettysburg, but it remains one of the Civil War’s best preserved battlefields with important stories to tell. “Rarely do stories of national importance happen entirely ‘somewhere else,’” says Mike Bunn, director of operations of the 2,000-acre site. “By learning the specifics … Read more
The Overland Campaign, waged May through June 1864, encompassed an impressive swath of Virginia real estate. The Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, North Anna, Cold Harbor, and then the siege of Petersburg, all defined the battleground contested by two military titans, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. Historian Gordon Rhea has spent 26 years, since 1994, … Read more
I am proud to welcome you to the BGES Video Archives, which officially opens on January 1, 2021. As you know, we have an archive of more than 1,000 hours of video divided between lectures and field tours. We divided this project into two phases: the lectures and the field tours. The lectures span some … Read more
If 2020 has injected anything into our discipline, it has been the explosive increase of Zoom presentations and virtual tours from organizations that normally meet in person. BGES will join in the process in less than a week and has developed a schedule through June 14, 2021. We will meet once a week initially, on … Read more
With an anticipated return to travel in 2021, it’s the perfect time to start planning a trip—or trips—to the Civil War’s most epic sites. Maybe you’ve seen them, maybe not, but these are the sights that always dazzle. And there’s always more to see and learn. One amazing way to visit a battlefield is with … Read more
2020 was a challenging year for everyone across the board, but for an organization like BGES, which relies heavily on in-person tours, the hit was especially hard. Barbara Noe Kennedy of the BGES Blog caught up with BGES Executive Director Len Riedel to discuss what’s in store for the organization after this tough year. Some … Read more
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