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 th