Casualties in getting to the same place. They maintain great hope lee would triumph. Certain that lee and his men would somehow inflict a fatal blow to the norths willingness to fight. In the union army that june, soldiers saw the spires of richmond just eight miles away. Union soldiers, too, gained hope from that. But recognized, too, how hard those last eight miles would be. A pennsylvania soldier wrote of the moment, in the prospects, theres a magic influence in the expression as it passes from lip to lip. Eight miles from richmond, boys. Only eight miles from richmond. What treasure, what a restored peaceful happy in the United Country and the a free government can pay for the precious blood that must be shed in the inexpressible sufferings that must be endured before this short distance can be accomplished. That pennsylvanian could not likely have imagined just how painful the answer to that question would be. We hope that you will join us, the staff here at fredericksburg and pospotsylvania and petersbe. One that reverberated across america, touching families and communities across the land. It is a sad but difficult story to be sure, full of bitterness and pain, loss and sacrifice. But the hardship is also a measure of the commitment and the determination of those who are here. And we hope as you walk these fields and woods, home places, and crossroads, in the coming days and weeks, that you will constantly ask yourself this question. Why . Why did these men consent to such hardship . Why did they do what they did . The answers to these questions are on these fields. And in the words of those who were here. We hope you will join us in our collective quest for answers, for their questions that are essential to the health of our nation. We thank you for coming. [ applause ] next, on the civil war, author dpord an rhea discusses the significance of the battle of cold har bar, which took place in virginia 150 years ago in may and june of 1864. Rhea describes the strategies of grant and robert e. Lee. As well as the challenges they faced during the battle. This hourlong event took place at the Cold Harbor Battlefield in mechanicsville, virginia. Well, thank you very much, bob. I appreciate it. And as i told the folks i talked with this morning, its an honor for me to be here. Theres Something Special about the battle field here at cold harbor. I came about my interest in the american civil war, im sure very much like most of you did. I got it from my father. My dad was born in 1901 in a little town on the tennessee alabama board. It was just 35 years after the end of the civil war. Most of those old men sitting around the Grocery Store were veterans. He grew up listening to their tall tales and talking to them about their battles. I was born in 1945. And when i grew up, when all of my friends were hearing fairy tales and stories from their parents, my dad was reading me books with names like lees lieutenants, stuff like that. So we visited all the battlefields. We visited obviously gettysburg, chancellorsville. We didnt make any trips to cold harbor, though, because there really wasnt all that much here. We didnt go to the north anna battlefield because it didnt even exist. The overland campaign, which is the campaign that brings grant and lee to where we are now, really wasnt the focus of that much American Military history. All eyes seemed to be on the earlier battles in the war. What id like to do is take a couple of minutes to orient you to help you understand why it is the armies ended up down here at cold harbor, and then ill take a little bit more detailed view of that battle itself. You can understand what happened here and why its so special. So those of you who heard me talk this morning, if you can put up with me for four or five minutes while i repeat a little bit of background to get everybody on the same page, then ill move on to some more detailed information. But id like to think back to the spring of 1864, the war had been going on for some three years. Massive casualties and losses. Tremendous disaffection in the north with the war. It looked like it would go on forever. Abraham lincoln, of course, is up for reelection. Its important to have battlefield victories for the north and its important to win battles in virginia. Virginia is still the preserve of robert e. Lee and the storied army of Northern Virginia. So lincoln brings east his best general, thats going to be ulysses s. Grant, the general who won all the battles in the west. And he gives grant a basically a twopart requirement. First, to bring organization, to bring continuity to the union war effort. And secondly, to defeat the army of Northern Virginia. And grant goes about making it possible to carry out that charge with a vengeance. First he puts together a program, unlike any that the war has yet seen. He realized that up to this point, battles would last a couple of days, and then the armies would pull apart for months. Grant would not let that happen anymore. The union armies were to fight them until they were destroyed. He also realized that the old goal of capturing territory didnt make sense anymore. Henceforth, the goal would be the confederate armies, the goal would be to destroy them, and only by doing that could the rebellion be brought to a close. Finally, grant realized that the armies in the eastern and western theaters had to move together, so the confederates couldnt shift forces from one theater to the other. In the spring of 1864 is the opening campaigns in the east, grant riding with the army of the potomac, and in the west under the direction of grants close friend and subordinate general sherman, and these will be battles that will run day after day after day with the goal of bringing the confederate armies to their knees. In the eastern theater, in our parlance here today would be virginia. Grant comes up with a program to destroy lees army of Northern Virginia. And his plan is this. He will take the union army of the potomac, the main federal force, move it directly against lee. He will outnumber lees forces about two to one. 120,000 federal troops to about 65,000 confederate troops. At the same time, he will have an army move down the Shenandoah Valley southward, cutting off lees supplies from that quarter, and hell have another army move up the james river, attacking richmond and then moving into lees rear. So there will be a threepronged attack against the army of Northern Virginia, basically replicating that amassing of armies that grant sees for the entire nation. Lee finds himself in a tough situation. The army of Northern Virginia is quartered just south of the rapadan river here in virginia. The massive army of the potomac is just to the north of him, just on the other side of the river. Lee is the kind of general that likes to take the initiative, but he cant. Hes massively outnumbered. Hes also aware of that army in the Shenandoah Valley and the army forming below richmond and realizes he may have to shift reinforcements from one to another. Lee basically takes a waiting game. What is grant going to do. Grant is going to move one way or the other. Lee is uncertain. So he for fits the initiative to his opponent. This is unlike the lee that we usually see. But in this instance he has no choice. He sends his cavalry out past each ends of his lines sort of to act as a trip wire to let him know where the federals are coming from and then waits. The army was commanded by general George Gordon lee, the hero of gettysburg, mead at this point was in a hot seat. He failed to destroy lees army at gettysburg. He was being investigated by congress. We all know how bad that can be. And so mead was in a bad situation. Grant visited him and was impressed by mead, because what mead told grant was that he would step down willingly and let grant bring some of his own people from the west to run the army of the potomac. Grant decided to keep mead on. He needed somebody with meads knowledge of that army in order to run it in detail. And that, of course, is knowledge that grant didnt have. So what grant decides to do is travel with the army of the potomac, look over meads shoulder, make sure they were fighting the way he wanted them to. But at the same time, not interfere with their operations. As i mentioned this morning, grant will keep that promise for about one day, as the armies move into the wilderness. I talked this morning generally about the relationship between the commanders of these armies. Id like to talk a little bit now also about some of the subordinate commanders. Here on the battle field of cold harbor theyre going to play a big park. Grant and mead have a very bad relationship. Initially mead will be hopeful it will work out, but these are two very different kinds of generals. Grant likes to do the unexpected. Is willing to take risks. Mead is much more cautious. Socially theyre very different people, and their age comes from different social strata. They write home and tell their wives basically that the relationship is deteriorating. After a few days of fighting, mead basically writes home and tells his wife that he would resign from his position if he could, but honor requires him to stay on. There will be a breakdown in the union command relationship. Of course, robert e. Lee will have no such problems. He will be the head of the army of Northern Virginia and everybody knew it. Who were the subordinate commanders that each of they was generals were going to have underneath them . Well, the union army will have four army corps, four infantry corps and one cavalry corps. The unions second corps will be led by hancock. Im sure youre all familiar with him. He will not perform well against grant, though, because hes been badly injured. He was shot at gettysburg, had a wound in his thigh. He will spend a lot of the campaigns against lee here in virginia in an ambulance. The unions fifth corps will be under a gentleman by the name of warren. General warren is an unusual character, a young man. He had been an engineer, had fathomed Little Round Top at gettysburg. Hes something of an odd duck. As a matter of fact, some of his cohorts would laugh at him. Im sure we all know people like that. Thats general warren. General warren also thought a lot of himself, and as youll see at this campaign, often thought his plans were better than those of his superiors. The unions sixth corps will be in the hands of general sedgwick. He will be shot down by a South Carolina sharpshooter at the battle of spotsylvania courthouse. The sixth corps will be beheaded by Ambrose Wright. Horacio Ambrose Wright is a general that most of you probably have not heard about. And he comes to the sixth corps without much background. The union army will also have within it general ambrose burnside, who will be commanding the ninth army corps. Burnside is the general who headed the army of the potomac during the battle at fredericksburg. Grant is now bringing him back to join the army of the potomac. Because of burnsides former position, grant decides that burnside cant serve underneath mead, and instead will report directly to grant who will coordinate him with general mead. You can see of the command confusion thats going to take place, and some of that will become evident here at cold harbor. The Union Cavalry, most of the commanders that you historians would have been familiar with are now gone. John buford has died. General kill patrick has been exiled to the west. What grant decides to do is bring one of his generals from the west, general Phil Sheridan, eastward and put him in charge of the cavalry of the potomac. General grant will be selecting the cavalry commander who will be reporting to general mead. A very awkward command relationship. And a command relationship that wont work, because each of these are extraordinarily strongwilled men. I suspect Phil Sheridans appearance might have had to do with problems as well. Writers tell us as the campaign opens, Phil Sheridan was about 55 tall, weighed about 115 pounds. Bowlegged, with a pointy head, looked like his black hair had been painted on. Abraham lincoln who had a good way with words explained that Phil Sheridan didnt have enough neck to hang him by. And also, noted that he was the only man he knew who could scratch his ankles without bending over. This is a new commander of the Union Cavalry for the army of the potomac. As well see, well see a lot of sheridan here at cold harbor. A fascinating figure. But also a lot of problems, particularly for general mead. What about robert e. Lee and his force . The people here at cold harbor . Well, lee had three Infantry Army corps, and one cavalry corps. Robert e. Lees first corps begins under longstreet. But longstreet will be badly wounded after the second day of fighting grant. And he will be replaced by general Richard Heron anderson, a South Carolinan. A man who liked to smoke mirchon pipes. Well see a lot of him at cold harbor. The confederate second corps is under Richard Stoddard ewell. He will be replaced by early, a former prosecutor, tctjstrongwd erasible guy. Well see how early performs here at cold harbor. The confederate third corps commanded by Ambrose Powell hill of virginia, out of culpepper county, a. P. Hill, though, had been quite ill. Hes now commanding the larger remnant of stonewall jacksons old confederate first corps, as well as his former light division. A. P. Hill will do very poorly. Theres one thing about a. P. Hill that most people havent really focused on that i think would make an interesting story. Being a storyteller and historian, i would like to write a book about it one day. A. P. Hill had the unusual talent of dating women who later married Union Generals. And its hard to figure out how he was able to figure this out ahead of time. I know most of you are familiar with the fact that he went out with this marcy, who, of course, married george mcclellan. What you might not know is he also went out with a young lady from baltimore, her name was emily chase, and just before the battle of gettysburg, she married general warren. Now, warren and hill first came up against each other at a battle called bristol station in the fall of 1863. And this was a few months after warren had married emily chase. When i was digging through some of warrens archives up in new york, i came across a copy of a letter that warren had sent across the line to hill, after that battle. Warren had defeated hill. And he sent a note across the line that said, general a. P. Hill, i have defeated your army corps, and i have married your old sweetheart. So this will give you an idea of the state of affairs as were approaching the battles here at cold harbor. This thing is getting pretty personal. Well, what brings the armies here to cold harbor . The union plan of campaign is a plan of maneuvers. Grants plan is to swing downriver from lee. Lee is just below this rapid ann river. Grants going to swing the army of the potomac downriver, across, and then come back at lee. Basically turning his flank. On may the 3rd, during that night, and into the Early Morning of may 4th, this union juggernaut crosses downriver from lee in Central Virginia and comes at him from below, stops in an area called the wilderness of spotsylvania. The union forces stop there in order to get supplies, their supply wagons catch up, and also because they dont think lee can catch them in the wilderness. Lee, however, realizes that he has to hold that line up at the rapadan river, 50 miles north of richmond. He feels he has to hold that line, otherwise he would be driven back to the confederate capital, and find in the entrenchments and would be unable to maneuver. So lees goal is to maintain his flexibility and his maneuverability. What lee does is to attack grant in the wilderness. He divides his army into three parts, launches a threepronged attack. The battle is brutal. It goes on for some two days. Something like 11,000 confederates are killed, wounded and captured. Something like 18,000 Union Soldiers are killed, wounded and captured. 30,000 americans in all. The wilderness catches on fire. Some of the most brutal scenes of the war up to that point take place. But grant at the end of those two days finds himself stymied. Lee is in a powerful position in the wilderness and grant cannot break through. What does grant do . He maneuvers. He decides he will pull the army of the potomac out of the wilderness, swing south about ten miles to a place called spotsylvania courthouse. This will put him between lees army and richmond. And as lee figures lee will have to come out from the wilderness and fight him on open ground. This is a tactical maneuver aimed at pulling lee out from his entrenchments. The army of the potomac starts to shift south. Up to this point, whatever Union Generals had been trounced as bad as lee, had defeated grant in the wilderness, they always retreated. But grant moved south. Lee gets a finger in his army in front of grant, blocks him at spotsylvania courthouse. There is brutal fighting in places like the mule shoe, the bloody angle, that goes on for over a week in spotsylvania courthouse, almost ten days. Finally grant realizes he cant break through there. Grant maneuvers again. He pulls the union army out from spotsylvania courthouse. Sends a finger of it out on a big looping march, hoping to endice lee to come out so he can pounce on him. That doesnt work. Theres a race to the north and a river. The next defensible position, about 25 miles north of richmond. The Confederate Forces take up position below the north anna. Lee throws his army up into a wedgeshaped formation with the tip of it touching the south bank of the north anna. He realizes it by doing this. Each wing of this wedge is on high ground. A very defensible position. The union army comes across and is basically split