Civil War Weekend - Touring the battlefields of the Blue & Gray

"Helping you be
your own historian"

Tour guide Robert Freis

Civil War Weekend
battlefield tours
encompass some of the
most beautiful and
compelling landscapes on
the American continent.
The profound vistas spread
before you at places such
as Little Round Top, Fort
Monroe, Lookout Mountain,
and Appomattox Court
House engage the
imagination.

How different the same
viewpoint must have
appeared 140 years ago to
soldiers struggling for
lives and freedom, during
the events that made these
common places so
extraordinary.

There’s much to be derived from spending quality time on a Civil War
battlefield. These places speak to us about the most resonant episode in
American history, with much relevance to the modern-day issues and
challenges of citizenship. The landscape of present-day battlefields may
seem peacefully inert, yet many eloquent voices speak of the events that
occurred there during the Civil War. You may conjure a very few of them
by pressing a button that activates a recorded message on a modern-day
battlefield display. Or read a few words from a soldier inscribed on a
battlefield marker. Most people, I fear, visit battlefields without hearing
much direct testimony from the eyewitnesses of North and South.

I like to bring those old soldiers along with me when I walk a battlefield,
because I consider them to be essential companions, and great company,
too. They began in the 1860’s as the callow youths who eagerly
volunteered to fight. Soon they discarded the lard of mythology for the
lean reality of war. If they survived, they became gray-bearded wise men,
writing about the war for their descendants, reliving the days when their
life blood was transfused with their nation. They are learned and
eloquent because they were there, saw it, heard it and felt it all.

Many of these old soldiers (and civilians, too, for that matter) invested a
great deal of time and energy recording what it was like to have been a
player in the great drama. As officers, it was part of their duty to file
bureaucratic reports about their units on maneuver and in battle.
Unofficially they wrote letters, kept diaries or – years later – penned a
memoir. Some assumed the responsibility of querying their ex-comrades
and assembled these fragments into a history that told a regiment’s
history. A lot of books were published from this material; other times their
words wound up bundled and secreted in an attic trunk. Today these
correspondents are assembled in libraries and archives, still standing
sentinel, awaiting the call to action.

That is where I seek them. These first-person narratives, or “primary
sources,” as historians call them, are the framework upon which Civil War
Weekend tours are constructed. Years ago, I learned the value of
allowing these accounts to take the lead on battlefield tours. This was the
technique of my teacher, Jay Luvaas, an author and professor of military
history, and a man I followed on battlefields for some 17 years. His simple,
accessible and profound philosophy was to reconstruct the battles
directly from the words of participants, while standing on the proverbial
ground zero of their deeds. It’s the most honest and revelatory means
possible for touring battlefields. Additionally, it allows direct contact from
Civil War soldier to present-day tourist. At the scene of a real battlefield,
history leaps into three dimensions.

Most of my research is conducted at a very fine archive, the Special
Collections Department of the Carroll M. Newman Library at Virginia Tech
in Blacksburg, Virginia. Within is an extraordinary assemblage of rare and
valuable old books, many published over a century ago. These memoirs,
narratives, articles and regimental histories are foundation stones for
any contemporary Civil War book, listed in the footnotes and bibliography.

So while we do discuss overall battle strategy and its context in the war,
our tours feature the words of famous (and lesser-known) Civil War
soldiers. We have even delighted clients with accounts of their own
ancestors’ service. Our methodology allows you to be your own historian!

Our experience – and those of many repeat clients – during eight years
of leading battlefield tours have validated our approach. Additionally, our
orientation toward smaller tour groups enhances the experience by
maximizing contact with the tour guide, while promoting familiarity and
camaraderie among our customers. We hope you’ll join the ranks in 2008.

"I've just got back to the UK and I want to
thank you and Robert for an excellent
Weekend at Shiloh. Robert really is a superb
guide and is a never ending source of
information about the Civil War.
He's also a damn good bloke of course!"

Richard Steed
Winchester, England, 2006