2013 U.S. Civil War Study Tour
Travel to Antietam and Gettysburg

[Day 1] Sunday, October 20 -

Gathering day in Washington DC at the Embassy Suites Crystal City, located one mile from Regan National Airport. Transportation to Washington is arranged by tour participants. Meet your tour manager with History America Tours and your travel companions at a reception and briefing, followed by a welcome dinner hosted by Gustavus Adolphus College and President Jack Ohle.

[Day 2] Monday, October 21- Lincoln at Antietam

In 1865 President Abraham Lincoln made a visit to Richmond to press for a conclusion to the Civil War and was assassinated shortly afterward. For the next twelve days, John Wilkes Booth, actor and Confederate sympathizer, was at large, fleeing through the swamps of Maryland and forests of Virginia.

On the tour of Washington, D.C. with historian Matthew Penrod, we will visit sites specific to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. We will walk up Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House past the National Theater and the sites of Hooker's Division, Murder Bay and the Kirkwood House where Vice President Johnson was supposed to have been assassinated, to Ford's Theater, and the Peterson House where Lincoln died. We'll also see relevant Civil War sites including Fort McNair, site of the execution of the Lincoln conspirators. We'll have an exclusive tour of the Civil War history in Arlington National Cemetery, including General Lee's beloved home, Arlington House. Following the tour the group will travel to Shepherdstown, West Virginia and check into the Bavarian Inn. Enjoy dinner together and meet Jim and Pat McPherson.

[Day 3] Monday, October 21-

We tour the battlefields of South Mountain today: Fox's, Turner's, and Crampton's Gaps where in 1862 the Army of the Potomac sought to break through and rescue the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry. After a visit to Harpers Ferry National Historic Park we will return to the Bavarian Inn for dinner on your own and overnight.

[Day 4] Wednesday, October 23-Antietam

On our tour of Antietam National Battlefield, we see where repeated Union attacks from dawn to dusk on September 17, 1862,left more than six thousand Union and Confederate soldiers dead or mortally wounded and pushed the outnumbered Confederates to the edge of disaster but failed to score a decisive victory. Then it’s on to Gettysburg. We check into the historic Gettysburg Hotel with dinner on own at your choice of nearby restaurants.

[Day 5] Thursday, October 24-

We walk the hallowed ground of the first two days of the battle: the ridges west of town where the two armies first collided, the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, Devil's Den, Little Round Top, and the Codori-Trostle thicket where the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry won immortality. Dinner this evening will be at the historic Cashtown Inn, and we overnight again at the Gettysburg Hotel.

[Day 6] Friday, October 25-Antietam Battle Field

We will visit Culp's Hill and East Cemetery Hill where fighting raged on the evening of July 2 and again starting at dawn on July 3. Then we will tour East Cavalry Field where significant action took place on the afternoon of July 3, and finish the tour by walking the route of Pickett's Charge. The group returns to Washington for the farewell dinner and overnight.

[Day 7] Saturday, October 26-

Depart at your leisure following breakfast.

Trip arrangement provided by History America Tours.