Transcripts For CSPAN2 The 20240706

We have gordon rae with us this morning. Gordon rae, did you write this part . Gordon ramsay is considered the foremost on the Overland Campaign. He has written seven. Gary gallagher who wrote . He edited it. Right. Yeah, thats right. Gordon rhea has written several Award Winning books about the american war, including cold harbor the battle, the to the north and a river the battles of spotsylvania courthouse and the road to Yellow Tavern on the petersburg and in the footsteps of grant and lee published in 2021. His most recent book is stephenie swales black Freedom Fighter in the civil war and reconstruction. Mr. Rae is lectured across the country on topics of military history and the civil war era. Hes also appeared multiple times as as historian and presenter on nationwide Television Program teams, including the History Channel channel, Discovery Channel and cspan. Lets give gordon welcome. Well, good day. Im delighted to be here. Finally. Finally, yes. Not just usual travel stuff, but im particularly delighted to be here because i. I dont know how many times ive talked at this symposium, but over the few decades ive been here many times, and it always me think back to when i was a kid, back in the late 1940s, early fifties. My dad and i used to visit the civil war battlefields. He was a real civil war nut, and rightfully so. He was actually born in on the tennessee alabama border back in 1901. And so if you think about it, that was only three, six years after the war. And all the old men who were sitting on the you know, the porch of the Grocery Store were confederate veterans. So for him, it was real and personal. And i think he conveyed a lot of sense to me. But what i remember coming around this part of virginia is that everythings seemed to be dirt roads. There was no pamplin. And if you wanted to figure out where things happened, you had to look at your books, look at the old maps, and drive around and try to figure it out. So thank you so much for what you all have done here at pamplin park and impressed. And im always delighted and excited to have chance to come here and and talk, although im sorry to announce that today im going to have to try to disabuse you of the title of my talk. Im going to be talking about the battle of cold harbor. But i see that the title for your set of talks is lopsided victories, stunning defeats. And if i do my job right, i think youll end up persuaded that there was not a lopsided victory or a stunning defeat at cold harbor, and that maybe, maybe grant actually won that battle. So how do we there. Well, let me let me ask you to step back in time with me. If you could, to the spring of 1864. I need to put cold harbor context. Of the civil war had been going on for some three years. Massive castles. There had been in the north. There was a great deal of dissent, a faction. And of course, this is going to be an election year. Abraham lincoln up for reelection for second term and the war hasnt gone so well in virginia. Robert he leaves army in Northern Virginia, of course is, still here. Its unbeaten, unbowed. And all of the battles lee has fought in virginia, he has won, hasnt done that well. And hes gone up to places like antietam or gettysburg. But virginia still is his preserve. And in the spring 1864, the army in Northern Virginia, about 65,000 soldiers is just south of the Rapidan River that runs through central virginia, around area of orange courthouse. And its in good good metal. Everyone is ready to win this war for the south. Lincoln is quite concerned that the Union War Effort shows some more energy. And hes particularly concerned that lee not win more battles, particularly with an election coming up. And so he decides to bring his best, ulysses s east to virginia. My good friend richard mcmurry, whos probably the eminent civil war historian of the western theater, always accuses me of having what he calls virginia disease or vd is, how he. Is, how he delicately it. And i always have to remind richard that, back in the spring of 1864, everybody had. This is where all eyes were focused. Washington and are 100 miles apart. This is where the cockpit of war really was. So grant is brought east. Now, grant is new to the east and hes going to be new to the armies in the east. He doesnt know a lot of these generals. Hes not sure what he wants to do. So he decides he will down and visit with the army, potomac, the army, the potomac, as you know, is the main army in the east. Its commanded by general George Gordon mead, who had done quite well at gettysburg, but really not much had happened since then. A few little scrapes at places like mine run whatever, but no real big battles have been fought now for many, many, many. So grant comes down in march of 1864 to culpeper courthouse, just on the north bank of the Rapidan River. Visits with meade. His plan apparently was to get rid of meade. But after he talks to the man, he decides to keep him because meade offered to step down and let grant bring in someone that he wanted. Grant was impressed and he also realized that he needed have a general running the army, the potomac that knew the army, and he didnt. So he kept meade on and they worked out sort of a deal. Meade was supposed to handle all the details of running army, the potomac, the tactics of the battles. Grant would be traveling with the army of the potomac but. He wasnt going to be handling details hes going to be looking at National Strategy coordinating the different armies. Well, well see in a couple of minutes. Of course, grant keeps that promise for about 4 hours. Once the fighting in the wilderness. But thats a problem of with your boss, whos looking right over your shoulder. But that relationship between meade and grant is going to play a big part at cold harbor. Now, grant also brings a new way thinking about fighting the war. And i like to think of it as sort of a three Point Program up to this point in the war the armies would fight a battle that would last two or three days at chancellorsville, fredericksburg or wherever. And then theyd pull apart. And theyd sit sometimes for months actually by the time the spring 1864 campaign opens, i think its been some ten months since gettysburg, which was the last big battle. And of course, those resting periods, the armies were all able to refit and but it was hard to make any progress. So grant decided he was going to change all of that. Battles were to start and to keep going. He was thinking in terms campaigns, not of individual battles or fights. Thats going to play a big part when we take a look at cold harbor. The second thing that that he realizes is, is that obviously the armies in the eastern theater, in the western theater have worked sort of independently. He said they were like a bulky mule team. They were never coordinated. He was going to change. Armies east and west would move together basically against the confederacy. The confederates couldnt shift forces from one theater to the other. Its going to change the way the war was being fought. And finally, grant changed the objectives. No longer was objective going to be to capture confederate and hold it because you always had to leave people behind you had long supply lines. Henceforth, the goal going to be to destroy the confederate armies and as grant. So that was the way to bring rebellion to an end. So hes going to bring an entirely different kind focus to this war, which again, is going to play a big part when we talk about cold harbor. Grant decides that hes going bring to the war in the east a lot of this same kind of concentrate and of force. The army, the potomac which is on the north bank of this Rapidan River, is going to be his main fighting force. Lees army is the south bank of the Rapidan River, so the two armies are facing each other. The army, the potomac is going to be grants main bludgeon, the powerhouse that hes going to use to go after lee. But also, another union army is going to move the Shenandoah Valley. Thats going to be an army under frank siegel. Thats going to harass lees flank, cut some of the supplies coming in from the valley and another army at the same time is going to move up the james river. Thats going to be general benjamin butlers of the james threat in richmond, perhaps. Take richmond, which would be a fantastic victory at least a good propaganda victory. But also, it would cut off lees supplies, enable butler to move on into lees rear. So basically grant has come up with a plan, a plan for virginia that sort of mirrors what hes thinking nationally. Several armies, lees army in Northern Virginia. We often think of billy as just facing the army, the potomac, actually. Hes got all of these other forces to deal with. So this is grants big plan. What about robert lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia . Well, theyve had a since gettysburg now to get pretty much back up the strength some 65,000 soldiers in army very high morale when you read the letters of confederate soldiers as this new Spring Campaign is about to begin you they thought they were going to win tremendous faith in. Their leader robert e lee and lee knew his men knew his commanders very different than the situation grant was himself in. We think of lee, though, as being a general who liked to maneuver, who like to take the. And this time he couldnt do that. He was sort of stuck. And heres why. Heres the union army of the potomac rapid n river, lees army in virginia. Lee, know what grant was going to do with federal was going to go attack him head or were they going to try to come either side of him basically going down river or upriver and, then come around . He wasnt sure. He was also worried about general sigel. General butler. The armys there in, the Shenandoah Valley. And then down on the james river. And concerned that he might have to send reinforcements, support them. So what he ended up doing was taking general longstreets first corps basically third of his Insurgency Force and his best moving it down to gordons ville several miles south of where the rest of his army was stationed, so that it would be on the orange and all im sorry, would be on the Central Railway and could either hop on railcars and support confederates in the valley or zip down to richmond and support confederates fighting against general down there. So lee is sort of stymied. So we see him frozen in place, which is very unlike general lee, and he also realized the importance of holding that line along the rapid and river. And he said, as a matter of fact, a message washington saying that im sorry to richmond saying we must hold rapid in line. Otherwise great injury will befall us. And what he was talking about this if he had to fall from the rapid end line, he would probably have to end up dropping back to richmond and perhaps petersburg. He would have to get into the entrenchment around the city and basically army and order virginia would be frozen. Hed his his mobility. So this is this is lees big concern. He wants to hold that line up there on the Rapidan River. So this is the way the campaign is going to start. Im not going to go detail about the battles that lead up to cold harbor, but i want to give you a sense of the developments that were taking place, because thatll a lot of what happens at cold harbor. Im also doing this to save you a lot of time and money because now youre not going to have to buy my five books about the overland. All right. Dont tell lsu press that ive done. Thats thats the deal we got to make. Okay. So let me just you a snapshot on each of those with respect to developments that are going to play a big part when we hit cold harbor. So may third, 1864, union army army of the potomac starts its movement. And what does it do . Well, i know theres popular image of grant as being a general that like to make headlong assaults. Who would needlessly throw men against entrenchment who never maneuvered. Well, he begins a campaign with a maneuver. The union army of of the potomac moves down. About 20 miles and then crosses the Rapidan River and then comes back lee from below the river. So this is going to start off with a big movement. Lee of course, also has a mythological existence in which writers talk about him as being able to almost magically fathom the plans of his enemies and to move quickly to thwart them. Thats not the lee that we see. Lee is sitting there underneath the Rapidan River waiting to see what grants going to do. He has no idea whats going to happen. Suddenly he gets word that the federals crossed the Rapidan River off to his right and he has to decide how do i respond to this. Well, an interesting thing happens and. I think its going to be an event that start the rupture between grant and meade. General meade decides once his army has crossed the Rapidan River to let it sit there for a day so that supply trains can catch up. And so the union army sits for a off of lees flank in a heavily wooded area known as the wilderness, really not doing much of anything. Lee, of course, learns this very quickly from jeb stuart. His cavalry scouts, and decides that he to take the initiative. And so what he does is to take the army of Northern Virginia divided three parts. Two elements are are to move down parallel roads, orange turnpike and the orange plank road lock the union force in place in the wilderness because he figured a force could hold a large force in place in that wooded. And then general longstreet was supposed to take confederate first corps leave gordonvale where hes been waiting to see whats going to happen go down road the guitar open road and come into the underbelly of the union and drive it back across the river, just like he had done, just like lee had done to joe hooker the year before, very near to the same place, the battle of chancellorsville. So this is lees plan. Hes going to take the initiative. Its a risky plan because if grant figures that lee has divided his army into three parts, grant could basically focus on each of those different parts independently and wipe out. Its the kind of plan. If it works, everybody says youre a genius and. If it doesnt work, they say, why did they even make robert lee a general in the first place . Okay, you cant win anyway. Thats kind of the setup for the wilderness battle. Im not going to go into the details of that battle. You can, as i said, read them in great detail. Or you can not worry about them. Were really going to be looking at cold harbor now. Grant watches as meade figures out what has happened. Lee manages to push his army right up basically against the union force and the. Union fifth corps headed by general who we heard about not long ago, decides that he would like to attack the confederates at a field called saunders field. But he wants wait until other union forces come up, reinforce him. Grant comes down and sees meade still sitting there. Its now been five or 6 hours since the confederates have appeared and meade hasnt done anything. And so grant basically directs me to order warren to attack and warren makes his attack, which doesnt very well but this is grant now getting very frustrated with general meade and intervening in the details of battle. The next federal forces attack the confederates down on one of the other roads and the confederates are driven back. Actually, the first confederates to retreat are the North Carolina units. I hope we dont ever want to hear from North Carolina, but i do know that North Carolina celebrates that retreat. When you look their license plate, it says first in flight lost to talk it. The. Minute i dont see any guns coming out, im going to be okay. All right. Hey, man, lets roars on at the end of two days, though, grant finds himself stymied. Lee has basically. Well, lees gambit has worked. What does grant do to to keep pouring men needlessly against the confederate lines . No. He decides im going to maneuver. So what . What he decides to do is pull the union army out of the wilderness, drop to spotsylvania courthouse, which is a little town about ten miles to the south. And he does it one day after, getting stymied in the wilderness. So on the evening of may, the seventh union army, during night goes pouring south along the brick road and some other subsidiary pouring down toward spotsylvania courthouse. Grants plan is, is that by moving south, lee well, lee will that the union army is getting between him and richmond, the confederate capital, and will have to come out from the wilderness. And grant can then have his battle on open ground that he wants and use his massive numbers to crush the confederate force. Thats the big plan. Also, by the way, it changes grants reputation. Totally. Because up to this point. Whenever union armies had gotten beat, more or less or stymied by the confederates, the Union Generals have retreated and given up. Grant didnt do that. Grants thinking in terms of campaigns, not individual battles. Okay. Couldnt beat him there. Lets move south and try it and again. And the soldiers, according to several accounts, were delighted to see this. And there was cheering and singing to see that all the fight for the last three years had not been in vain. I remember several years ago, i was a symposium with gentleman by the name of ed barres, and i think. The title of the symposium was the critical point in the war, the turning point of the civil war. And my position was that the decision by grant to move south after the wilderness, the turning point of the civil war. Ed bars being obstreperous as ever. I said, no, gordon, youre wrong. The turning point of the civil war was the battle of belmont bell. Not, by the way, an obscure little battle. The west during the beginning of the war when grant had his first engagement and says thats when when grant began his movement up to ultimately command the the army. I well if youre going to use that type of logic, ed, wed have to say that the real turning point, the American Civil War was when grants dad got a gleam in his eye. Those years ago. So anyway, thats why history. So much fun, right . The what . Anyway . Armies moved to spotsylvania courthouse. Grant is stymied there. Lee does manage to get some some troops in position to able to stop the federals. And theres a series attacks that grant makes and hes taking over the telling me what to do. But theres a series of attacks made against the confederate line there in spotsylvania courthouse. The big attack takes place on may 12th. Thats the one that that we hear so much about. And that my good friend jeff word has just done a nice book on the the battle is possibly a new courthouse that involves the assault against the confederate militia at the battle of the bloody angle. What happened there is fascinating. Again, itll play a part in what happens at cold harbor and i promise ill get to cold harbor. But this background is critical because it really sets the stage at spotsylvania courthouse, there is one part of the confederate line that formed a big protuberance in military terms that would be called a salient. The soldiers called it the mule shoe for all, mainly because it looked like a big mule. And if you think of me, the confederates, youre the union. This mule shoe is a weak position because the confederate and by the way, was about half a mile across in about a mile deep and trench line. It was selected by the confederate and approved by lee because it held high ground. He wanted to hold that high ground. But if you think about that shape, soldiers enemy attacking, the head of it, have a great advantage because the soldiers on either side of this mules, you cant help the men out in front, or you can attack it from both sides, crush it in. If i had more arms, i could show you a lot of bad things about mule shoes. Sally but there are there are militarily very, very weak position. Grant figures out and launches a massive attack. Biggest attack of the war to that point. Against this mules on may 12th. He has his second corps under hancock come crashing straight into the head of it. He has his ninth corps crashing into one side, his sixth corps into another side. General warren, with the fifth corps is going to be engaging over to a different part of the field. But basically the federals break, but lee then rides down into this area, pulls his best brigades in, and they drive the federals and basically hold the mules. You line while lee a new line on Higher Ground behind it. This is going to be critical when we take a look at the big attack at cold harbor because they will resemble each other very much. The big problem with the union attack this week, part of the confederate that initially succeeded because it broke through and some 3000 confederates were captured. But the big problem was that there was nobody really in charge down at the front to make sure that all these Different Union units were coordinated. Meade and grant were back to the rear about a mile, a mile and a half. And general hancock, who nominally was in charge of this this big attack, was not in good shape. He was physically ill from his gettysburg egg wound that he had received. And got down to the front. So there was no coordinate. It was like the cat that had caught the mouse but couldnt figure out what to do with it. Thats thats exactly what happened there at mule shoe. Any event, more attacks take place there at spotsylvania courthouse. Grant cannot break through. So he decides im going to maneuver again and again. Hes maneuvering around the same of lee pushing his way down toward richmond because he knows lee has to try to defend richmond so hell be able to stick lee a place where he can finally getting the end up moving south. The next defensible position, which is the north and a river, gave me the chance. Write another book called to the north and a river. Anyway north and a river, if you think about it, confederate get below the river. Thats where lee is. Grant then the and i use grant loosely. This is the army the potomac wants to bust through. Lee misjudged what grants maneuver was going to be, did not defend the river line itself, but he wanted to defend the railway that ran just below the river. The virginia Central Railway, because that was a main supply line, not only for his army, but also for richmond. So lee suddenly finds himself confronting grant again. Grant gets the finger of his army across at a place called jericho mills, another place by chesterfield bridge, and then launches a big push to get across the north and a river and basically finally beat lee. Lee comes up with whats probably his most ingenious plan. He takes the army in Northern Virginia and bends it up into a big salient. Now, i just got through telling you that civilians are terrible things because they can. They cant be defended. Well, this salient that lee put his entire army in Northern Virginia into the left wing of it runs along some high hills. And so it was extremely defensible. His third corps was placed there on the right hand side, the salient, more high heels. And so salient with its is right against the Southern Bank of the north and our river in ingenious because as soon as the sunlight would come up the next day, lee figured the federals would would move forward and that salient would basically split the union army in half part of it going off on one side part on the other side. So lee would have now divided the union force in half. He could then take large portion of his army and attack either side basically with parity of numbers. So this was ingenious. What with this great idea. Well, doesnt work out quite as lee had hoped. It was a great defensive position. Grant fell for it and, as a matter of fact. Sends a note back to washington next morning saying the army is in retreat. Were going after crosses the river. His army gets split in half across this inverted v or wedge that lee has put up but lee does launch this big attack that apparently he had been thinking about doing. He falls extremely ill. He gets dysentery. Other diseases is confined to his tent. And according to one of his aides, he wrote about it. Lee lay there saying, we must not let them pass. Meanwhile, strike them a blow. We must not let them pass. But he couldnt do it. His entire command structure was in shambles. Longstreet been badly wounded in the wilderness. General ap hill had been screwing and his second Corps Commander richard stoddard, who was also in terrible health. And so, of course, his cavalry commander, jeb stuart, had been killed on may 12th. The our wounded on may 12, on may 11th, died on may 12th at the battle of Yellow Tavern. So had no good subsidiary or secondary leadership, so he couldnt do much with. So heres the army stuck in place confederates in this inverted v union army split in half on either side of them. They sit like this for a day. Two like two schoolboys out of countenance as one of the Union Commanders put it, and grant decides, okay, im what do i do . Im in over and hes going to do it again. He decides to pull his army from the north and river, run it down the Northern Bank of the river. And then theres other rivers that join it becomes the monkey. And then he will cross down by a place called hanover town about 20 miles downriver. This will him quite close to richmond, and he will have caught lee totally by surprise. Then he can make a dash for. The confederate capital, hopefully grab richmond and then be in lees rear. Okay, well the plan almost works and it will get to cold harbor finally. And heres the plan. Heres heres what the plan does. Neat. During the night, grants soldiers get to use grant loosely. The soldiers of the army the potomac play Musical Instruments do everything that would make it appear that they were still in place south of the river but then cross the river on pontoon bridges and then go marching down. And its not until the next day when lee gets reports from his scouts that theres now federal army appearing way downriver, that he realizes what had happened. So now lee has respond. So with grant, theyre at the monkey and now we can take a look at one of the maps. I dont want to give you too many maps because i want to keep this more picture because its such a big picture. But if you look at the first map that we just handed out there, it shows the Overland Campaign, the movements may 29th and may 30th. Youll see at the top of it is a monkey river and basically on the Northern Bank is where the federal army would have moved. And it crosses and you can see once its crossed how you have grant mead, the whole army, the potomac, youll also see a line called tana pottermore, a creek that runs from left to right on that map in the middle of it. Tana pottermore creek and by the way, the natives in the area call it the potomac creek. So but tana pottermore be if youre going to pronounce all of the syllables which a lot of people in virginia dont like to do anyway but was born in virginia. So i can say these things things. Anyway, tana, potty mouth creek runs along. What leigh was able to do was to swing the army in Northern Virginia down and get it on the lower side of todd. A part of my creek facing the federals so todd of pottermore creek appa will end up operating like a moat that leigh is able to hold. Leigh sends out in his cavalry which now commanded pretty much by hampton, not formally, but wades the thing and they fight a battle with philip sheridan, the Union Cavalry commander at a place called horse shop, and are able to determine the exact location of the union forces and. Basically lay that strong line along town upon him like creek there will be for the next two or three days whats known generally talked about is the battle of tyler pottermore creek. Its mainly a bunch little skirmishes. Its not really huge battle the Union Second Corps tries to push way across town to pottermore creek and is to do so because the banks are the confederates have well have it well defended below the creek theres another attack thats made by the union forces to try to bust through that doesnt work and it looks like this might end up as a stalemate again, federal, though, decide. Well, look, why dont we take union fifth corps, drop it across the creek and then let it swing toward lee below lees flank and behind lee. That was a good idea. And if you take a look at that little that big map, that is our map number one, youll see war fifth corps all the way down on a road called old church road. Thats where general warren will pull down with his fifth corps across the potomac. Lee tries to drive warren back, figures out, heres a part of the union army separated from the rest of the union army by a waterway top to bottom creek. Lets grab them and he has jubal whos now commanding the confederate second corps coordinate with Richard Herron. Anderson, his command, the confederate first corps. So they can attack warren along parallel roads, one on old church road, one over on shady grove road. That thing doesnt work out at all mainly because early and Richard Herron anderson despite each other and end up calling each other all sorts of names are never able to coordinate their warren is able to escape that trap and basically the union army gets a good foothold below tied apart them like creek but now it gets really interesting the union forces in the Shenandoah Valley were defeated obviously at the battle of newmarket back around the 15th 16th of may. That stopped sigel and that branch. By the way, my friends, vmi, tell me that there were five or six vmi soldiers single handedly defeated the entire union force. I dont know if thats true or not, but anyway, general breckinridge was a confederate commander up there, stopped eagle, and general butler was stopped. General beauregard below and also at about the same time. So what this does for grant is it means that his subsidiary armies are now stymied pretty much. But he draws. He figures he can get reinforced mounts for the army, the potomac. And so he has butler send him the union 18th corps. This is commanded by bald smith. William farrar smith, who was nicknamed baldy . Baldy smith takes the union. 18th corps runs up the River Systems and ultimately up to the monkey and offloads at a place very near where they where the where the armies are basically adding his strength to the army. The potomac. So what the federal commanders decide to do is are look even further south, three or four miles south of the town of pottermore creek is a intersection at a place Old Cold Harbor. And theres a tavern there. Its called burnettes tavern. People always ask, why do they call a place cold harbor . Im told by my historian that in mary england, if you stayed a tavern, it did not have warm food. They called it a cold harbor and so, i dont know, maybe burnettes tavern didnt have very good cooking. But anyway, thats what the place is called. And it did have a tavern and federal commanders. Okay, this is interesting. If we could send a big force into go through there, punch out the other side, be below ollies army, we can then shift up. It will be in lees rear or can push on to richmond, which is from there only about ten miles and what a victory that would be. So we can go to map number two, which talks about the battle of cold harbor actions of june one. And just to give you an overview, whats going to happen . Its this union army predominantly still up in area of tartar, part of my creek, trying to figure out exactly what to do. Smith though landing now on the mucky river is to move his army corps, the 18th corps, down toward cold harbor burr and. General sheridan rides first into the Old Cold Harbor area drives the confederate cavalry. Thats out there and in trenches. His men, lee decides, oh no problem popping up and orders the confederate first corps under general anderson to move down and retake Old Cold Harbor from these cavalrymen lawrence, one of the South Carolina fire leaders, is leading a south. The South Carolina brigade. Thats the sort of the attack point for the confederate first corps attacks. Oh, cold harbor. And believe it or not, Phil Sheridans boys, who now entrenched, managed to defeat, managed to basically wound larry kit and stop the entire confederate first corps pretty work for a few cavalrymen to stop for the entire confederate first corps. So confederates drop back and then you end up with situation thats that is that map called actions of june. And what you have is this there andersons men on the confederate side and joined by general hawkes Division General hoke by the way had been with beauregard a guarding richmond but now that he wasnt needed because had been defeated he was released to join lee. So both lee and grant are getting basically reinforcements from the richmond area. So hoke and anderson face off against smith and and the union six corps, which also joined smith. And thats going to be general horatio wright. And so you see smith and wright holding the Old Cold Harbor and they attack on the evening of june one. Anderson and hoke and the attack is a vicious attack, but its not launched until about or 630 in the evening. They break through the confederate at a few spots, but really cant overrun it, but theyve made it very, very good showing. And grant extremely encourage urged so he decides, okay, im going to pull the rest of the union army down to cold harbor. So ill have massive force. And then i can definitely bust through and. Ill make an attack tomorrow morning, which would be june 2nd. Well, didnt quite work out the way he wanted it to. It was kind of like me trying to get an airplane yesterday when theyre all running late. General hancock was supposed to march down to cold harbor by the morning, june two, as were the other main other federal forces, along with warren. It doesnt work. They get lost. They go on rolling roads. And so the morning of june two arises and there are no union reinforcements. Lee realizes whats going and and pulls his forces most of his forces from the town of pottermore creek area and swings them down to join anderson and hoke so hell have strong force to guard the whole cold harbor area. So grant to decide now what to do and he decides okay cant make the attack today but by tomorrow morning, by the morning of june 3rd, all my men will be down. Then i can make attack. And so he decides to make the big attack on third, which is sort of the attack that lives in infamy. Why did he decide to make an attack on third . Well, several. And actually, theyre pretty good reasons. First, he realized that, okay, lee now has his army, one flank of the upper flank on the top of pottermore creek, the lower flank on the chick, a harmony river. Its going to be hard to ever flank him. Hes got really good natural protection. So a frontal assault, something that makes much sense. Secondly, we would need to do something because its its hotter than hell here and in richmond area. And this is low, swampy areas, a lot of mosquitoes, fevers. We dont want to stay. This is a terrible, terrible thing. But also, ive been studying army and lees army, not in very good shape. Lee was unable to beat me there at the north, a river. I was able to get away from him and get down across in hanover town and confront him over here. I think hes beaten and. Then word came to grant that lee was sick. We found several resources show or sources that show that that information gotten to him as well. And then he also recognized that that attack that lee made against general warren, warren was separated from the rest of my army, didnt work at all. The fight has gone out of the confederates. This is the time to make the big attack and. Finally grant was moved i think a lot by politics because within a week or so there was going to be a nominating convention for lincoln and what better, better prize for the president than to be able to through the Confederate Army defeat e lee and take richmond. Good lord that would assure reelection. So every all the stars seem to be aligned and so grant orders the big attack to take place on june 3rd. The is in many ways an attack that lives in infamy and i to talk a little bit about it again you can read the gory details in my book on cold harbor but in a nutshell grant decides hes going to do a frontal attack and then he delegates to meade the responsibility of putting all the parts together. That was a big mistake at point in the Campaign Grant and need had really fallen apart. They werent traveling together anymore. Meade was really at grant for a variety reasons, which we could talk about in some length. Hed actually written home to his wife, margaret, who was who was there in philadelphia. Hes margaret. If i could find a honorable to retire, i would do it. And he had had it with grant. He also did not grants style, because it was too aggressive. He didnt like these frontal attacks, of course, grant and his men were very upset with meade who didnt seem to be showing any initiative. And sometimes ive wondered if meade had been in charge and there had been no if the army of the potomac still be there in the wilderness trying to maneuver for perfect position, he just never know. But anyway, so all of this was delegated to by grant though, and they didnt do anything. There was no reconnoiter in the lines to make sure where the weak parts are. There was no plan as to how to coordinate army cause, and there was no sense of okay, lets find the weak spot and on that it was just to be one great big push and theyd pretty much extricated from from doing much of anything. He the only messages that survive are orders that went out or basically to his Corps Commanders to go ahead make the attack in the morning. So thats what it was going to be. The confederates course have now had a whole day to entrench. Theyd thrown up fantastic earthworks all along the the line, running up right up there through cold harbor. They had cleared fields of fire by cutting down trees, etc. So attacking forces would have to go across open ground and they had sent out engineers into the open ground to drive stakes into the ground, to measure out the yardage so that the artillery could be dead accurate. On approaching soldiers. Basically, you would know what the distances were when you were managing the artillery. So powerful position, by the way, lee had very little to do with laying out the cold harbor line. He still quite ill remained in the remained pretty much in the rear. So this is largely done by the various confederate Corps Commanders during. Third, 430 in the morning attack takes place, but it doesnt take place across the entire union line. The was horrendous. The Union Second Corps general hancocks command launched their attack. And you can see all of this on the next map, which is june three one. If you go down to the bottom of it, you see bernie barlow. And given those are hancocks boys, they make a spirited attack against the confederate position. Theres they do to break through at one spot by the adams but are quickly repulsed and it turns basically into a slaughter. Theyre pinned down even hancocks headquarters is heavily cannon, aided by the confederate house to the north of hancock is. General wrights six corps. Thats going to be on the map you see in they have Russell Ricketts and neill those of the Division Commanders in the confederate six corps. They dont make much of an attack at all. They had been involved in that attack on june one. They know that attacking that confederate line is a terrible thing to do. And by most accounts the union six corps generally moved forward only a small bit. And then stopped based and then started digging again and one of the confederate generals with hoke, who had been sort of the object of the six core attack, later wrote, they never knew an attack was being made at all so the union six cause is basically theyve been there before they aint going to do it again and that was sort of the the attitude and method barley smith if you look on the map his his brigade are going to be brooks and martindale the smith orders his forward they charge mainly down ravines and of course them or some of kershaws boys. Confederate first corps men and. Its interesting confederates had like a lot of those ravines that the federals were charging down. And i like to liken to the federal charge was like a pencil a going into a pencil sharpener goldsmiths men got ground to pieces artillery hitting them from both sides and from right in front. So it was a total slaughter. As a matter of fact, one of the statements that ended up as a book title made by one of the confederates who was there, its not war. Murder was made by confederates who were fighting right against both the smiths guys. It was it was total slaughter. General burnside and general warren, who were up on the northern end of the union line, didnt really attack until a few hours later. And then their attacks of sputtered around until around noon or 1 00. And then grant called the thing off. So it was definitely a botched botched assault on in later years. A lot of account were written about the cold harbor attack and statements were made along the lines, you know, the attack was for minutes and 15,000 men were killed. You see kinds of numbers and timings there. It lasted an hour and, you know, 20,000 soldiers were murdered. I decided years ago when i was working on my book on cold harbor to find out what were the casualties really. And so i spent a lot of time digging the National Archive materials where you can get the returns from the various regiments were actually engaged and worked several of the park Service People also im trying to put this together and we were to determine that the big assault on may 3rd im sorry june 3rd on the mainland by those by the unions second six and 18th corps which was the big push led to about 3500 casualties. Thats it. And that the Union Casualties for the entire and also that were 3500 casualties in a couple of hours not in 10 minutes or whatever you see some of these reports and the Union Casualties for the entire were in the range of 6000 the when we then compared that we were able to determine other battles we were able to determine that this definitely not the bloodiest attack or of the war or. The Bloodiest Day of the war, actually, there were more soldiers killed on Union Soldiers who were killed, wounded or captured the during the two days of the battle, the wilderness on each day and during some of the spotsylvania courthouse days. And of course, if you compare with battle of antietam, gettysburg, we can go down the line these these numbers pale by comparison. So the big assault failed. It could not break through liza lin, but the massive slaughter is usually attributed to it. Theres no evidence all that that actually occurred, although it became a real big myth sort of in the in the popular imagination. The armies then are stuck again. Its an utter stymie. This the fourth one, the ground got stuck at the wilderness spotsylvania in anna and cold harbor so what does grant decide to do . Does it give up now . No, he says. Okay, im going to try something else. Im going to get this boy. He decides im going to cut lees supply lines. He sends cavalry to the north, try to cut the virginia Central Railway and starts to make to attack petersburg to the south, which the other main supply hub for the in Northern Virginia and for richmond. The cavalry attack doesnt work out so well at the battle trevelyan confederates under wade hampton are able to stop Phil Sheridan and that doesnt get anywhere but the other movement is very interesting and if you can go to our last map. The confederate planners decide okay were going to out of our line at cold harbor and that would be up on the left hand, upper portion of the map. You see the dots that show all the Different Union army cores. Burnside smith, right. Hancock and warren are grant decides okay were to pull these guys out during the night of may 12th under cover of darkness, just like we did at the north and a river our bands will play and the men will leave and lee wont know where were going. Union planners up with a exc evacuation that was going to take several different routes, but bring them down basically the james river to the south and from the james river, they would either be able to slip up the north bank of the james and get into lees rear and take richmond or send all or some of the force across to go after petersburg and hit petersburg cordon fighting with general butler, who was at a place called bermuda 100, very near petersburg. So thats grants plan. And believe it or not, it works marvelously first. And although grant didnt learn right away, lees army is now very weak. A more aggressive Union General up in the Shenandoah Valley general david hunter was making progress. And so lee first sent breckinridge back up to the valley and, then detaches on may 21, sorry, on june 12th, his entire second corps commanded by early to go up to the Shenandoah Valley. So lee has just now had to diminish the of his army by a third by sending off an army corps. Grant, of course, has been reinforced by smith send smith out to join butler and this big movement takes place so i could talk on forever about that and you can take a look at my book called on petersburg and get all the details of that movement. But what is the bottom line on this whole thing . Bottom line on whole thing is that the i think in many ways grant won the battle of cold harbor burr. So thats going to really make people here angry because they call this lopsided victories and stunning defeat. There were none. The reason i say that comes out ahead is this first lee is now tremendously weakened, having lost a lot of his army. Secondly, lee doesnt know what the hecks going on. Again, hes stuck. Grant has suddenly from his front whats grant going to do and where is he . Lee sends out scouts finally discovers that grant is heading down toward the james river, but doesnt know what grants going to do down there. Is he going to cross the river or is he going to come back up the river and then hit richmond . So lee tries to hit grants is blocked at a called rudderless shop by the union corps and finally settles at malvern hill, which, as youre all familiar from the 1862 campaigns, but settles down at melbourne hill hes stymied. He doesnt know what grants going to do. If it looks like grant might be thinking about going to petersburg. But if lee goes to petersburg, then grant just shoot up and hit richmond. And lees job is to protect richmond. So he has been stymied so this movement by grant has done one of the things that grant wanted to do, and tha this movement by grant has done one of the things grant wanted to do which is to pool lee out of the war. He had to guard richmond. Lee will stay there even after the attacks at petersburg have started. After portions of the union army are able to attack petersburg because lee is not sure what grant is going to do and cant leave richmond uncovered. What about from the union side . Grant has now set the way from lee and has the initiative and the advantage. So he is leaving this battle with the same plus that he did after he left the wilderness, spotsylvania and north anna. This is another repetition of exactly the same set of moves so for that reason i have to say that this isnt a lopsided victory or lopsided loss. It looks like all those other movements of the Overland Campaign and it puts grant, grant comes out in a better position than lee came out in after the end of it. I hope you love Business History but thats how i see this one. Any questions would love to answer them. Or at least give you my best shot. [applause] yes, sir . How did grant learn where to cross the james . Grant sent two aids out to look around and figure out where was the best crossing spot. They went down to the james river, visited with butler and then they went along the james and decided the peninsula below charles city courthouse would be the best place to do it because it pushes its way close to the southbank, the waterway is narrower there and the ridges or bluff on the southbank is not as high as it is and a lot of other places and theres good road networks. They scouted it out ahead of time. Grant did a marvelous job of coordination to get the pontoon bridge parts together. A massive pontoon bridge was built across the river. It was impressive. The union armies brought our cross, the Petersburg Campaign unfolds, by fairy and across the pontoon bridge. The pontoon bridge, consider the approach, it is about a mile and it had to open in the middle so the ships could come in and go up the james. Okay. Maybe everybody is hungry. When im not doing history, trial lawyer and use to talking to trial people who dont want to be there. And have to persuade to believe me. 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