Civil War: The Key to the Confederacy (7 Days) 

     In 1860, New Orleans was the largest, grandest and wealthiest city in the South. The port was a commercial entrepot, a cosmopolitan mecca and the American gateway to the Caribbean. The Confederates defended New Orleans with a gauntlet of armed fortifications on the lower Mississippi River, but in April 1862 a Union Squadron managed to penetrate all the way to the city. Commanded by flag officer David Glasgow Farragut, the Union Squadron steamed up the river and forced the surrender of New Orleans. Union forces occupied the city for the duration of the war.

The tour begins with a welcome reception at our hotel in the historic Old Quarter of the city. Tour participants will have a free evening to dine and explore on their own.

     The tour will visit Chalmette Battlefield and the Confederate Museum in New Orleans. Then we board our luxury motor coach to travel upriver, in the direction Farragut’s squadron took. In 1862, Federal forces quickly captured Baton Rouge and Natchez before they turned their focus on Vicksburg, but the Confederates still controlled the lion’s share of the Lower Mississippi Valley. Our tour will concern itself with the extensive campaign that unfolded upriver.

En route to Natchez, we will stop at Port Hudson, a Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi in 1862 and the site of a 48 day siege, the longest in American history. The bluffs at Port Hudson were the first high ground upstream from Baton Rouge, so the Confederates constructed river batteries and a line of earthworks to defend at that point. Port Hudson was just down river from the mouth of the Red River, the artery for supplies from Texas to the rest of the Confederacy. Both sides fought bitterly for this strategic jewel.

At Louisiana’s Port Hudson State Commemorative Area, we will take a battlefield walking tour and see a demonstration of the guns. Continuing to Natchez, tour participants will dine and lodge in a restored ante-bellum home.

     The day begins with a morning city-tour of Natchez, one of the best preserved cities of the Old South because of its neutral status in the Civil War. Following lunch, our tour continues along the Natchez Trace to Bruinsburg Landing. The Trace was the primary wilderness road of the Old Southwest and today it is a fine parkway, offering a glimpse into the past and an easily-paced route upriver from Natchez to Nashville.

At the remote landing site in Bruinsburg we will explore the very path that Union General U.S. Grant and his troops followed after the key amphibious river crossing of April, 1862. Two hundred yards from the spot of Grant’s landing, the group will pause to view Windsor Ruins, the magnificent remains of an old plantation home General Grant passed through as he sought out Confederate forces. En route to Vicksburg, we will examine the battlefield at Port Gibson, a site ten miles from Grant’s crossing and the initial engagement of the Vicksburg Campaign—a courageous stand by the Confederates, but ultimately a Union win.

     Vicksburg National Military Park, the vast grounds that chronicle the maneuvering and struggle for control of the Mississippi could occupy a tour group for several days. Our tour dedicates a single morning to this landmark battle. We will explore the park and study the battle, as well as the evidence of the grueling siege at this Confederate stronghold. After a vigorous morning and a quick lunch, the coach continues to Tupelo, Mississippi.

     Now we step out of chronological order. We begin the fifth day at Brice’s Crossroads, the site of a crucial clash between Confederate troops under General Nathan Bedford Forrest and Union calvary under General Samuel D. Sturgis. From the small National Battlefield park at Brice’s Crossroads, you can view much of the scene of the action. Our guide will describe this tactical victory by the Confederates and the hard fighting that characterized it.

In the spring of 1862, Grant’s original objective was the vital rail link at Corinth, Mississippi. The railroads that crossed at Corinth connected the Confederacy from the Gulf of Mexico to Kentucky and from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic states, but the Confederates stymied Grant’s attack against Corinth by attacking first 26 miles north at Shiloh.

We begin with a walking tour of historic Corinth in which tour participants can view antebellum homes where generals from both sides resided. We’ll finish the morning with a driving tour of the battlefields and batteries that still surround Corinth.
Shiloh National Military Park is the next stop, a tremendous site, which preserves the evidence of the prolonged and bloody battle that finally ended in a Union victory. Following our extensive battlefield tour, we will overnight in Nashville.

     Tennessee was the bridge to the southern heartland and Chattanooga was the key center where the rail lines running into the Confederacy converged from the west.

By the autumn of 1862, Confederate forces had retreated into Kentucky and entered their winter quarters at Murfreesboro. On December 26, Union forces followed, setting up camp within a half mile of their enemy. Both commanders planned to attack, but the Confederates struck first at Stone’s River. Desperate and stubborn fighting ensued.

The tour begins the morning at Murfreesboro and continues on to Stone’s River Battlefield, site of a three day struggle that ended in a Confederate retreat. Following lunch and—if time permits—a visit to the famous Jack Daniel’s Distillery, the coach will continue to one of the bloodiest sites in Civil War history, the battlefield at Chickamagua.

By September 1863, the Confederates were dug in at Chattanooga, defending the Tennessee river crossings. Reinforcements swelled southern ranks to 66,000 men. The battle at Chickamagua Creek unfolded on a field that stretched four miles. After two grueling days of fighting that was often hand-to-hand, Union forces retreated into Chattanooga.

The Confederates followed. They occupied Lookout Mountain and the Chattanooga Valley, fortified the heights and blocked all transport routes into Chattanooga, thus trapping the Federals. Union authorities in Washington sent 36,000 fresh troops, and these reinforcements finally turned the tide, but it took until Thanksgiving 1863 before the Union controlled Tennessee. We will overnight in Chattanooga.

     We spend the last morning of the tour on the slopes of Lookout Mountain, where Union forces first penetrated the Confederate line around Chattanooga, November 23, 1863.

Most of us will fly home out of Chattanooga Airport, but some can ride our coach back to New Orleans, an eight hour trip.