Civil War: West

This immersive journey begins in central Tennessee, where participants explore the critical Western Theater of the Civil War through visits to Stones River National Battlefield in Murfreesboro—a hard-fought engagement that proved pivotal for Union morale—and the Nashville area. The itinerary includes the Battlefield of Nashville as well as Carnton Plantation and the Carter House in Franklin, sobering sites that illuminate the ferocity and human cost of the 1864 Battle of Franklin and the collapse of Confederate power in the region.

From Tennessee, the group travels south to Fort Defiance and then to Fort Donelson, where Ulysses S. Grant’s decisive 1862 victory opened the Cumberland River and reshaped Union strategy in the West. The journey continues to Shiloh National Military Park, the site of the bloody 1862 battle that shocked both North and South and underscored the war’s unprecedented scale and intensity.

Crossing into Mississippi, participants visit the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center, whose interactive exhibits examine the strategic importance of the railroad crossroads. The itinerary then includes Brice’s Cross Roads Battlefield, highlighting Nathan Bedford Forrest’s audacious cavalry tactics, followed by the Harrisburg (Tupelo) Battlefield, where Union forces fought in 1864 to secure vital supply lines and blunt Confederate mobility.

The tour proceeds south to Vicksburg National Military Park, where guided exploration of the siege and battlefield reveals Grant’s innovative operational and engineering strategies that ultimately split the Confederacy in two.

Due to the Vicksburg National Military Park being closed on Mondays and Tuesday, we have reversed the route. Participants will still see all the historic sites, just in a different order. Teachers should fly into Nashville, Tennessee for the start of the program. The journey concludes Jackson, Mississippi from where participants will return home.