UC History Department Presents: Civil War Revisited II

In 2011, Willard Sunderland, head of the UC History Department, and Herb Reisenfeld, owner of Provident Travel and a UC alumnus, developed an initiative that would enlist history faculty to lead groups of interested alumni on a series of tours to historical sites, providing insights from trained experts on the events and issues covered throughout the various trips. 

In 2012, coincident to the 150^th anniversary of the American Civil War, Christopher Phillips, a professor and published specialist, led more than 25 members on the inaugural, weeklong tour, The Civil War Revisited.  This exciting historical journey offered exposure to the most bitter struggle in American history, where disputes over Union, states’ rights, slavery, and the meaning of freedom pitted countrymen against each other and resulted in more than 620,000 American lives.

The group visited a number of prominent and lesser known Civil War and Lincoln sites from the eastern campaigns lying within two hours of Washington, D.C., including Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg National Military Parks, Harper’s Ferry and Lincoln Cottage National Historical Parks, as well as Ford’s Theater, the Petersen House, and the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd, key sites associated with the Lincoln assassination.

The event proved so successful that on June 1-8, 2013, Phillips will lead The Civil War Revisited II, visiting numerous historical Civil War sites associated with the western campaigns and relating especially to noted Ohio-born Union commanders Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman.  Highlights will include visits to the Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Stones River, and Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Parks in Tennessee and Mississippi, the Confederate White House and the original Confederate capital in Montgomery, Alabama, the Cyclorama depicting the Battle of Atlanta, a laser show at Stone Mountain featuring the carving of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis, and the birthplace sites in Kentucky of both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis.  In Memphis, the tour will also enjoy a different era of history in an evening of food and entertainment in the famous Beale Street music district.