The Great Tours: Civil War Battlefields

Overview

Explore the Civil War—right where it was fought.

Course No. 80510

For historians and teachers, Civil War battlefields like those at Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg are a veritable extension of the classroom. They afford unique opportunities to answer a host of questions. In these 15 lectures, two renowned experts invite you to join them on the battlefield for an on-the-ground examination of how the Civil War was fought.

It’s an immersive tour of the places and moments that show the viewer what was happening during each battle and the objectives for the battle, while also explaining how the military engagement fit into the overall strategy of the campaign. Why did Civil War soldiers fight the way they did? What tactical philosophies did commanders employ? How did soldiers make sense of what unfolded around them? How did individual experiences shape the nature of the war?

More than all the letters, memoirs, and newspaper reports tracing the events of the Civil War, it’s the battlefields themselves, where Union and Confederate soldiers fought and died, that best connect us to a war that tested the promise of democracy and ensured both the end of slavery and the preservation of the Union.

Whether you’re well-versed in Civil War battles or entirely new to this period of history, The Great Tours: Civil War Battlefields offers fresh insights and new stories to review.

Course Structure

01: The Power of Place: The Civil War in Context

Start your journey with a closer look at why battlefields matter. Turn next to how soldiers fought. How did the rifled musket limit tactical choices on the battlefield? What was the purpose of artillery? Why did Civil War officers persist in launching frontal attacks?

Duration: 27 min

02: Manassas: The First Battle of Bull Run

Examine the first Union advance from Washington under General Irvin McDowell, whose troops were stopped short by Confederate forces under P. G. T. Beauregard at a small stream in Virginia called Bull Run. Take a tour of Henry House Hill, where the Union line collapsed, then follow the Union retreat across the Stone Bridge.

Duration: 27 min

03: The Seven Days’ Battles

On June 25, 1862, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s newly christened Army of Northern Virginia launched a series of battles that sent General George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac reeling away from Richmond. Go inside this campaign, known as the Seven Days’ Battles, and discover how the bloodiest week in American history changed the course of the Civil War.

Duration: 31 min

04: A Return to Manassas: The Second Battle of Bull Run

Go back to Bull Run for a second battle that saw the dazzling movements of Lee’s lieutenants, James Longstreet and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. On the field, you’ll stop at Brawner Farm, where fighting first erupted. Then, you’ll go to Deep Cut, a critical portion of railroad bed, and Chinn Ridge, where Union army officer Fletcher Webster met his end.

Duration: 26 min

05: Antietam: America’s Bloodiest Day

Go inside the bloodiest day of the Civil War at the battlefield at Antietam. Here, you’ll learn how the terrain—cornfields, woods, farm lanes, and creeks—obscured troop formation and left soldiers vulnerable to assault. Look back and consider the ferocity of the fighting, including the wounding of Oliver Wendell Holmes, and more.

Duration: 27 min

06: After Antietam: Photography and Medicine

Examine the aftermath of Antietam by following in the footsteps of the war’s first photographers. You’ll explore the physical and emotional trauma the battle inflicted on the men who fought there, as well as how surgeons and nurses, including Clara Barton, cared for the wounded.

Duration: 27 min

07: The Battle of Fredericksburg

Discover how the fiasco at Fredericksburg proved what many soldiers feared when President Lincoln replaced George B. McClellan with Ambrose Burnside: They would have to pay in blood for a purely political decision. Also, consider why General Robert E. Lee was frustrated in the wake of his lopsided victory.

Duration: 31 min

08: The Battle of Chancellorsville

Explore the Battle of Chancellorsville, where an audacious Lee divided his army three times against a more numerous Army of the Potomac. Despite the Army of Northern Virginia’s victory, Lee’s losses at Chancellorsville were staggering: nearly 13,000 men were killed, wounded, or missing—and among the dead, the irreplaceable Stonewall Jackson.

Duration: 35 min

09: Gettysburg: Day One

Turn now to Lee’s second raid into the North, which resulted in the Battle of Gettysburg—perhaps the most well-known battle and battlefield of the Civil War. On the field, you will stop at McPherson’s Woods and Willoughby Run; Barlow’s Knoll; and Cemetery Hill, where the first day’s fighting ended with the arrival of more troops.

Duration: 32 min

10: Gettysburg: Days Two and Three

Continue your look at the Battle of Gettysburg with the significant moments of July 2nd and 3rd in 1863, including the battle’s most famous attack, Pickett’s Charge. You’ll spend time exploring locations like Peach Orchard; Little Round Top, and Chamberlain’s memories of its defense; and Culp’s Hill.

Duration: 31 min

11: Remembering Gettysburg

How does a killing ground become a healing ground? Close out your time at Gettysburg with a focus on the aftermath of the battle. You’ll learn how the Union victory became a moment of redemption for the Army of the Potomac. You’ll learn about how burials were conducted and about the creation of a national cemetery to commemorate such sacrifice of life lost.

Duration: 38 min

12: The Wilderness

After the Battle of Gettysburg, there would be no major military action in Virginia until the following spring, when Ulysses S. Grant joined the Army of the Potomac in the campaign that began in an area of Spotsylvania County and resulted in the Battle of the Wilderness. Explore Saunders Field and witness the disintegration of the Confederate line at Widow Tapp’s Field.

Duration: 30 min

13: Spotsylvania Court House

First, stop at Laurel Hill, where a Union charge dissolved into a rout and the death of Union commander John Sedgewick. Then, explore the Mule Shoe, where federal troops fought to capture a formidable series of earthworks. Lastly, visit a bend in those earthworks that came to be known as the “Bloody Angle.”

Duration: 29 min

14: Petersburg: The Crater

Plunge into one of the most shocking events of the entire Civil War. To break a stalemate during the siege of Petersburg, some Union soldiers dug a tunnel under Confederate lines and detonated four tons of powder. The explosion created a giant crater in Lee’s lines, but a bungled Union attack meant the siege would continue for months to come.

Duration: 27 min

15: Lee’s Surrender: Appomattox Court House

Conclude the series with a discussion of Lee’s surrender to Grant at the Appomattox Court House. Consider why the way the war ended was impactful then and now, and continues to resonate with Americans.

Duration: 37 min