to us. i kind of feel the same way. thank you for listening toand 'r

next speaker who so grateful for him coming in and joining us last minute and he is going to continue with our theme of bridges over troubled waters. we've got ryan quint, who's going to present defending the bridges monocacy, another maine native like our first speaker, ryan quint is a park guide at the fredericksburg and spotsylvania national military park. he formerly worked at the

richmond national battlefield park, colonial williamsburg and george washington foundation. ryan has a history degree from the university of mary washington. he's one of the emerging next generation of civil war historian. mr. quint is the author of determined to stand and fight the battle of monocacy, july 9th, 1864. and he's contributed to other several service baby civil war titles. let's give mr. quint a warm welcome. let's see. well, thanks, everyone, for having me. wish i was under better circumstance, but i know we all wish peter the best. a couple of quick tests. one, can everyone hear me? yes. check. second, check the clicker. hey. okay. here we go. all right. i'm going to borrow a question from brad last night. how many of you ever been to the monocacy battlefield? all right. that's i love to see that. it's a park that has a

remarkable history and it has the unfortunate distinction of being about a half an hour or so below gettysburg. and so everyone goes to gettysburg and they see that brown park's on the side of the road. it's monocacy. then they went by it about 65 miles an hour. so today we're going to spend about 45 minutes or so talking about this very important battle that takes place in july of 1864. so let's jump right into it as all good talks. let's start at the beginning. all of the maps i'm going to show you. you have on the table in front of you. so if you have trouble with the screen, feel free to use the maps that were handed out to you in the spring of 1864. right. ulysses grant has been promoted to general in chief of the united states army. he arrives in virginia in march of 1864, and he makes the decision to to join the army, the potomac in the field. but the army, the potomac and george meade are not going to be the only armies fighting in the spring. in virginia alone, you have what's going to be called the overland campaign.

benjamin butler, the army, the james attack from june 100. there will be cavalry campaigns in the southwest of the state. and you have another force assigned to neutralize the shenandoah valley. this story really starts with the shenandoah valley, something that has vexed union commanders since very beginning of the war. stonewall jackson in 1862, the second battle of winchester. later in june of 1863. this continuing problem. and so in the spring of 1864, the shenandoah valley will be the responsibility of a man named fran siegel. and it goes absolutely nowhere. fran siegel is very quickly defeated at the battle of newmarket 15th, 1864, and retreats back towards harpers ferry. he is going to be replaced by a man named david hunter, who is again, given the responsibility of basically fixing siegel's broken force and making another push into the shenandoah. one quick thing about shenandoah valley geography, right?

if you're heading south through the valley, you are moving down the valley right? or moving up the valley. excuse me. it helps if i get it right. the first time. right. so they're moving up the valley. so when we talk about jubal early counter in just a few minutes, he's going be moving down the valley towards, the potomac river. so if i say david hunter moves up the shenandoah valley, what he's trying to do ultimately is target the city of lynchburg, which is a vital railroad hub in the southwest part of virginia. but david hunter is going to introduce a new brand of warfare to virginia in the early summer of 1864, david hunter is a radical republican. david hunter is one of those guys who doesn't just want to beat the confederacy. he wants to punish the confederacy. he's been branded an outlaw by another jefferson davis for his recruitment of black soldiers in the carolinas. and so as he moves up the valley, hunter's men will start to burn and pillage parts of the

valley. and that really reaches climax when he gets to lexington, virginia, home of the virginia military institute, home of washington college. because of the vmi involvement at the battle of newmarket hunter orders, the college. okay. and so after burning lexington, he will make his move on lynchburg as that problems of those problems continue. you have the more famous battles that we all are familiar with as the overland campaign, ulysses s grant and robert e lee are making their way through central virginia. you know, the battles, the wilderness spots in courthouse. norris and a river. todd a pardon me, creek cold harbor, tens of thousands of casualties in the space of these of weeks. but even as robert e lee gets his back up against richmond in closer and closer to petersburg, lee recognizes the significance of lynchburg. if you lose lynchburg, you lose the ability to bring in vital

resources, mainly even things from southwest, salt and gunpowder and salt. peter if you lose those abilities, what are we even doing here? so he knows. robert e lee knows he needs to secure the town of lynchburg. and so he makes the decision on june 12th, 1864, to detach what's left of the second army corps army in northern virginia. and i say what's left because these guys, again, have been through it. they've been there, done that, gotten the t shirt a few times. and so on june 12th, 1864, as the rest of the armies maneuver around cold harbor, what earley will do with about 8000 men, that's all. that's left of the second army corps, army, northern virginia is makes his way west right. and what he will eventually early is he successfully defend the town of lynchburg at the battle of lynchburg on june 17th and 18th, 1864, a two day battle of lynchburg, early wins that fight. and why that is important. when david hunter retreats away

from the engagement, he does not retreat back down the valley. he does not go back to harpers ferry. he hops over the mountains into the canal valley of west virginia. all right. so if you're jubal early and you've just secured lynchburg and you've saved the railroad town, this, that and the other, you've got three choices to make choice. one, stay in the valley, baby. sit it, make sure there's no other union threats. choice two, go back to lee. lee at this point is in is in petersburg. he could certainly use the help or choice three go north. it's a risky maneuver but everybody is aware of what's coming up in november. abraham lincoln is up for reelection in november. nobody yet knows who will run against him. right. the democratic national convention won't meet until august, but they know somebody. and so if if the confederacy and jubal early can make this war even more costly and even more

embarrassing to the lincoln administration, who knows what happens, right? the u.s. senate has just passed the 13th amendment in april of 1864. what would a confederate victory look like in repelling that amendment? and repelling lincoln choices for reelection and so early decides to do exactly that. he's going to bring the war north. one more time. and having given this talk more than a few times, i've met people who say, yeah, it's not that big a deal. what is he going to be able to accomplish in the summer of 1864, as early has made his way west and begins to make his way north, he picks up reinforcements. so he's at about 15,000 men. what can 15,000 people really do? and i think that's missing the point because jubal early tells us exactly what he's trying to do from the city of stanton on 28, 1864. lee says this very important quote, right? he's talking to robert e lee. he's writing to robert e lee back in petersburg.

and he says, i proceeded. i decided proceed to according to your instructions, and proceed north to washington. and if i find a chance to take it, you will early is telling us not after the war, not in his memoirs, not in a cover your -- report. what exactly he is trying to do go north, threaten washington and if possible, take it. can he hold washington? probably not. but if he takes washington even for a day, what is that going to look like to the lincoln administration? how many of you would vote for a guy that confederates walk into the city? they rob the treasury. they throw the confederate flag above the capitol building. you feel really confident in that guy, right? and so early wants to see what he can do. in the summer of 1864. so he begins to make his way down the valley heading towards harpers ferry. his original intent was to get to harpers ferry. and as you probably all know, right, the confluence of the rivers there, the shenandoah and

the potomac rivers, if he can get to the potomac and he can use that right into washington, kind of like an underbelly of the city, if he can get there, he can get into the d.c. defenses of washington. federal forces at harpers ferry will delay that. there's a couple of couple of days worth of skirmishing on july 2nd and third and fourth early will eventually capture harpers ferry. and they have a heck of a party because all of these rations were left out on july 4th, independence day. they go into confederate bellies, but because he can't go down the potomac river early, is forced to go all the way around up through sharpsburg, south mountain passes and down into frederick this does not go unnoticed in the late days of june 1864, but it doesn't go reported by union soldiers goes are reported by railroad. the map here is the baltimore and ohio railroad. the red line heading from baltimore west towards ohio and the first reports of this confederate movement moving down

the valley come from railroad agents who don't know exactly how many, don't know their end destination, but they start to report back movement of confederate soldiers in the shenandoah valley that those reports ultimately come to the baltimore and a house president named john w garrett, who wants some action done by the federal high command. and so i think this letter here, i find from various quarters statements of large forces in the valley, i am satisfied the operations demand greatest vigilance and attention. june 29th, one day after jubal early made decision to move north from stanton, this was not a surprise. it was not a sneak attack. railroad executives were reporting back this almost immediately. the ironic thing is garrett himself was not outright secessionist leaning, but secessionists and kind of sympathies. he kept undertone, but he answers to a board of directors.

all right. and those board of directors would really like their capital investments to be protected. thank you very much. so what are you gonna do about this problem? and garrett's words fall largely on deaf ears. ulysses s grant and chief of staff henry halleck get these reports and largely ignore them. scott used earlier the phrase of chicken little. right. that's what grant and halleck think this is all about. there is no way there's 15,000 confederates are moving down the valley. garrett is whining and moaning and complaining about a phantom threat. that is expressed by grant on july 3rd, 1864. earliest corps is now here in petersburg there are no troops that can be threatening the valley. robert e lee had sent deserters or kind of fake deserters into lines to spread disinformation. and so on july 3rd, you have ulysses as grant reporting back. it's really nothing to worry

about. it is a almost catastrophic failure of information and telegraphs and reaction to those problems. fortunately for garrett, he's not willing to take that as an answer, and he's got basically an ace up his sleeve and so on july 2nd, 1864, he pays a trip to baltimore. and what garrett is most concerned about is this bridge right here. we're going to ultimately talk about three bridges total. this is the first of the three. this is the railroad bridge over the monocacy river, the b.a. junction is just on the other side of the river. you can see the sketch there. and then from there, the railroad branches off has two spurs. one continues towards ohio, one heads into downtown frederick. this is the bridge. garrett is concerned about, because every stinkin time confederates come here, they mess with that bridge. in 1862, they caused almost $11,000 worth of damages. during the gettysburg campaign, they burned some of the railroad buildings and kept moving. and so, john, quite frankly, is

tired of, going to board, directing meetings and go by the way, they burned our stuff again. so he would really like, if possible to get some help. and so when ulysses grant and henry halleck are not going to give that help, that's when garrett goes to baltimore to see this guy here, lou wallace, i'm sure many of you, the book he wrote right after the civil war, it's the best song, american up to gone with the wind and of course, ben-hur, a tale of the christ. lou wallace is a fascinating guy, and i wish i had more time to get into it. all of the ins and outs his career. so let's just take a couple of minutes. born in indiana, born to a well-connected indiana family, his father was the acting governor of indiana, served in the mexican war, is not professionally military trained. he was a lawyer when the civil war broke using those political connections to get to colonel c in the 11th indiana zhukov regiment fights extreme well at

fort donelson in february 1862, under grant's command and earns himself a promotion to major general. when he was promoted to major general, he was one of the youngest people in the army to be so promoted. and then shiloh happens again, not getting into it a whole lot. but lew wallace was not with the rest of the army at pittsburg landing when the battle shiloh starts on april 6th, 1862, there are disagreeing parts grant orders. wallace to move to pittsburg landing. there are disagreements on how he got there and how he should have got there after battle was over, grant and halleck together scapegoated, wallace claimed he got lost, claimed was his fault and this and that and the other. lew wallace got so angry. he was actually demanding courts of inquiry in the summer of 1863. you know what, grant was doing in the summer of 1863, capturing vicksburg. so how much is his work going to fall on a sympathetic ear? you're telling me, you want to challenge us, grant, who just

captured vicksburg, who just cut the confederacy in half. you're in check on that guy. and so lou wallace lets the matter matter drop. he is promoted to the administrative command of the middle department, which is headquartered in baltimore. it was largely a political appointee to watch over the city of baltimore and even that angered henry halleck. he said it was a little better than murder to give wallace commands like this. he wrote angrily to his wife, susan about all of these battles were about to happen in 1864, and he was sidelined in baltimore. and he said soon be heard. the trumpet and the shout of the captain and the clash of the spear. and i will not be there. he was a kind of guy who liked action, liked battle, like the marshal air. but he's in baltimore, headquarters of the utah hotel, which no longer stands but was about three and a half blocks away from where the baltimore orioles play today. right. and that's where john finds him on july 2nd, 1864. and john garrett says, i got

this bridge. i'm worried. and lew wallace basically says, say no more, because here is lew wallace's chance for action. a man who was watching action looking for action, and now almost gift wrapped. here it is, the railroad and the river is not in technically administrative command. it's outside of his boundary. is that going to stop him now? so on july 5th, 1864, with one staff officer lew wallace makes his way west out of baltimore out of the camden yard station and makes his way to the monocacy river. and then he realizes i may have bit off a little bit more than i could chew, just a little bit, because lew wallace has, 1500 men under his command, most of them are a 100 day emergency militia men who have been formed. the ohio guard have been sent to baltimore as well as them some potomac, holmberg aide units are sent to guard the river here.

the problem with that is it's kind of like the island of misfit toys. everybody who was basically too politically cancerous, has been sent to the middle department. wallace's second in command is gone into rest is tyler tyler's enemy, andrew humphreys, who was the chief of staff in the army, the potomac. right. tyler got into a tiff with humphreys because of the battles, fredericksburg and chancellorsville and was ultimately court martialed. so now political enemy is the chief of staff. so is he going to have a very high ranking position? so the island of misfit toys, a general on the wrong side of grant, a general on the wrong side of andrew humphreys in about 1500 guys. that's what wallace has to rely on to defend railroad bridge. and to their credit, they try what they can in. the early days of july, they start to build fort vacations, they build block houses, they get a 24 pounder howitzer into position to guard the railroad.

and that's where they are on july 6th and seventh when jubal early vanguard starts to come down off the south mountain passes railroad junction is here. this is a photograph taken in the 1850s. the river is off to the right of this photograph. this shows the early actions on july 6th and seventh. what comes to be known as the battle of west frederick. it's a little bit more of a glamorous title than it deserves. it's a lot. a whole lot of shooting, a whole lot of noise and not a whole lot else. but as more and more and more confederates come down off the mountainside and william wallace can see this dust being kicked up off the south mountain and could talk to the mountain. he realizes his 1500, 100 day militia are not to be able to do anything. and so he starts to send and dispatches back to washington, d.c. and that's actually the first notice. henry halleck has that he's there. he doesn't ask to go. he just says, by the way, i'm at monocacy if you want to send

some help, that'd be much appreciated. and it's actually. wallace first word of warning, that kind of wakes up the canton of henry halleck, you see, realizes that this might actually be a problem as these 15,000 confederates come down off the mountainside. and that's what spurs halleck to action. halleck sends orders to grant who sends orders to mead? who sends orders to six corps commander harris. you're right to. send one division from the defenses of petersburg to secure the baltimore railroad. it's ultimately james ricketts division, third division, sixth army corps, who have been through the absolute wringer. they've lost numerous commanders of the wilderness. they've been they've been everywhere. so this whole division numbers about 3500 soldiers as it and that's what henry halleck thinks will suffice to guard this railroad. these soldiers love it because they're out of the trenches. they happen to a nice little boat ride. they come down the potomac river. they're in the time of their life. and then they're told where they're going and all of a

sudden that enthusiasm goes right out the window. so ricketts men will arrive at the monocacy junction july 8th into the early morning hours of july ninth, 1864, and wallace decides to do is retreat back across the monocacy river. he uses the monocacy to his advantage. there are three bridges over the monocacy river on your maps. right. you'll see them dispositions. two in the middle, the railroad bridge, the wooden cross, the wooden covered bridge. and then further to the north is the stone bridge, which covers baltimore pike into the city of baltimore the shawnee called the monocacy river of many bends. it curls and it bends and it bends back again. and so what wallace hopes to do is use the river to limit the places the confederates can cross. he knows the confederates have to cross the river somewhere somehow. so he those bridges are going to be at a premium with the arrival

of ricketts his force. lou wallace on the morning of july 9th, just shy of 6000 soldiers, he has seven cannon six rifled guns from the baltimore light artillery a 24 pounder howitzer coming him ah 15,000 confederates with 45 cannon and he has to make a stand. he writes the night of july 8th. i am falling back across monocacy the enemy is within 55 miles of georgetown. here we go. right. we are out of time. the morning of july 9th, 1864. lou has no hope or intention of winning the battle. it's about to happen. everything is the name of the game of buying time. hopefully, if they can fight for an hour or two or three or four, they can buy time for more reinforcements to be sent to washington. because the problem is cities like baltimore, washington have been stripped of their fortifications. so you hear all about how heavily the city is. all these forts and redoubts and all of that, how useful is a

fort if there's nobody in the fort? and so to make up for losses of the overland campaign regiments been transferred to grant's or grant's command, they'd been given rifles and told the infantry. now, so all of these men who have been trained on the heavy are given muskets, told, hey, go that way. so all these forts are all but empty in the city of washington. there's fear was so high they were training war clerks, people in the pensions offices on the unloading of nine times. here's a musket. how it works. hopefully get it they're getting in the invalid reserve corps. soldiers who have been wounded elsewhere have been assigned to light duty. they're taking part in the fortifications. that's the city of washington on july 9th, 1864, and 55 miles away at monocacy. you have this battle beginning. wallace splits his force. he puts tyler, the 1500 militia basically at the stone bridge. and with the bulk ricketts men he plans on guarding the two the

two larger bridges over monocacy river. let's see here the battle starts around 9:00 in the morning with heavy artillery bombardments. remember they got 35 cannon they're starting to on limber and they open fire near where is today the national park service visitor center. that's where the first shots of the battle are fired. and these these confederate cannon shells down into ricketts men, and they cause horrific casualties and that's how the battle starts. for wallace to start respond to these threats. he is aided i'm just going to say it by the incompetence of his foe, jubal early, who you think of as lee's battle man and a good commander. and he is. but on the morning of july 1864, early is not with his army. he is not providing front line command leadership. he is in the town of frederick haggling with town leaders for $200,000. so those ransoms a year earlier. yeah, they're just continuing

those early was incensed by the fact, though, they pay ransom. the town of middletown, frederick, middletown, maryland, it's supposed to be $200,000. and the calvary officer who demanded that ransom drop to zero accidental lee in the dispatch so $200,000 became $20,000. so in that officer wrote up to early and said here's your 20 grand early said where is the rest of it? and so on the morning of july 9th, early himself says, well, i can't do anything, you know, best the way to do it yourself. he stays in frederick and he demands what town leaders. his headquarters is across the street from the town hall. he never walks over to the town hall. it's this kind of comical they send a dispatch, your obedient servant, jubal early town leader, send it back. respectfully, no. and it just goes back and forth with couriers across the street for hours, because if you're the town leaders and you can hear the battles start, why would you spend the money?

some hail mary attempt happens and the union army wins. the battle of monocacy. and so mayor william cole delays all day and they delay and they delay ultimately early gets his ransom he gets his $200,000 but for the time being there is no military leadership at the front get all these confederates and they go i don't know where you told what to do. no. where you told what to do. no. so they just kind of mill around, make a lot of noise. and wallace takes that happily. he's not going to counterattack. he's just going to say, you know what, you take your time do what you have to do. the second of our bridges, this is the covered bridge i was telling you about. almost 300 union skirmishes were sent across the river as a holding force. lieutenant george davis of the 10th vermont ultimately takes command of these skirmishes. and so the fighting begins with these skirmishes guarding the covered bridge. davis is an experienced veteran his soldiers are experienced veterans. the problem is when confederates

do start to attack, gets gun shy and orders. this bridge burned but he doesn't get davis men across the bridge before he does that. and so we'll come back to these guys and what their experience is like. the battle starts with them in the hollows and in the depressions fighting off these attacks. fighting then shifts to the north, the stone bridge and tyler's national guardsmen, who do a wonderful we don't really we being the capitol historian we don't really know what confederates were trying to do at the stone bridge. this is a photograph of the bridge taken on the 20th century. we don't know that because the two confederates in charge of those attacks, steven ramsgate and robert rhodes, two confederates who are killed later in 1864. so they never write memoirs. they never write reports. they never write dispatches. so we don't really know what they were trying to. rhodes deploys his his battalions of sharpshooters

commanded by a man named eugene blackford. and they will spend the day pick pot shotting with these union soldiers and the ohio national guard are again more than happy to just let the confederates do their thing. the fighting is heavy. there's a quote here by an aide to general who says they couldn't even put their heads above hillside because the sharpshooters are plunking in rounds. but all told, we don't really have a battle yet. we just have a really loud skirmish. there's a lot of noise, there's a lot of smoke, but no one is really making that decisive movement to make a difference on this battlefield. and that's music to wallace's ears. you want to take your time. i'm not going to. you do your thing right. the decisive part of the battle starts to spin its wheels when john mclaughlin brigade of mounted infantry crossed, the monocacy river, at a place called the worthington mckinney fort mclaughlin thinks, that he

has nobody in front of him but some of these militia units right. and so he tells his guys, get off the horses, we're just going to advance on foot and we're going to push these militia guys aside. it's going to te us 5 minutes and we'll have that story before. all right, mclaughlin's men come up to the worthington, get off their horses and advance as if they were infantry. they're not advancing towards militia. they're advancing towards james ricketts of the army, the potomac a guy, again, guys who have everywhere under the sun ricketts his men take up a position next to a garden orchard. they put their rifles upgainst the fence rails and they wait and as these confederates sweep down the hillside, ricketts his men experienced, trained intentionally allow the confederates to get within 100 yards and then they open fire and the whole ranks of confederates shot down. and they're in their spaces. mcclellan's men retreat back and they'll try again.

in the middle of all the fighting, only because scott mentioned the 17th virginia earlier. i'll mention them now, the 17th virginia is advancing their. lieutenant colonels, a man named william tavener. tavener can't see over the gun smoke. so how do you see? he calls for a volunteer here and going to do a human trapeze effect. tavener is going to climb on this guy's shoulders and try to stand up above the gunsmoke. if you're a union soldier, who do you shoot at? then? tavener and his volunteer are both killed in a matter of seconds in the front yard of the worthington house. worthington house, right remains a landmark on the battlefield today. the red house there and in the basement is a six year old named glenn worthington, who appears and to the left of that, he's watching the fighting through boarded up windows. father had boarded up and. almost 70 years later, glenn worthington had who had grown up to become a well-respected judge in frederick wrote one of the first books about the battle called fighting for time.

and he uses his childhood memories to relate all of this. the ironic thing is that the worthington family started the war off in baltimore, and his father, john, thought with the riots in baltimore and this, that and the other, it was too dangerous of a city. so going to move to a quiet place. so they buy the house here in the spring of 1862. they move and then the antietam campaign happens. then the gettysburg campaign happens and now the battle of monocacy happens all within really just a few miles of their homestead. so mclaughlin's are retreating back and glenn's mother says it means death to them. either way, because these confederates are getting hit by musket tree to their front. and now other officers are hitting the soldiers on the backs with their swords, trying to get them refocused refocused. that's how we get from 9:00 in the morning to about 1:00 in the afternoon. a whole lot of time is has passed, but not a lot has happened because the confederates lack that voice at

the front rickets as men are doing just fine on their own and then problems start to climb. the bridges burned, talked about that union army has a 24 pounder howitzer. they load it incorrectly. new soldiers knew what the job. you know how the powder goes first and then the cannonball. yeah, they do it. the earth's. and so these soldiers in battle for the first time, they put the cannonball first and then go, oh, i never knowow to get that out. and no one really knew. so the 24 hour four pounder howitzers sat quiet through most of the battle because it was loaded improperly. so bridges on fire cannon is loaded incorrectly and now we've got real problems because reports back to confederate infantry, i found a ford, i found a crossing, but not before he launches another. this photograph was taken in the 20th century. it shows the landscape today. the worthington house is in the upper right hand corner of

modern day to 70 route to 70 runs right through the middle of this image, which is part of the problem of preservation at monocacy. i have to assume mclaughlin's men looked carefully both sides before they crossed and so as these attacks continue right again records this men are able to repel the attack. and so maclaughlin realizes about 230 he's not going to be able to push these union soldiers back without help. i'm pretty sure a subtitle of this conference can just be called john b gordon does things, because i'm pretty sure he's been mentioned every single time about 230, 3:00 in the afternoon, john b gordon's division at the field. gordon's men cross the monocacy river and they are peeved, i guess is the word i'll use. they had engaged at harpers ferry and they had been told you get to sit this one out. our mclaughlin's men will take the front, it will be no problem. and so they had been told, you can sit this one out and you can just sit down.

and now they're told, just kidding, we need you to fight. and so his crossed the river in a tiff and they form up for their assault. gordon's men are as tangible. a reminder of the cost of the overland campaign as you can after the bloodshed of spotsylvania courthouse, the second army corps was reorganized and they were kind of amalgamated together in gordon's division, he commands the remnants of individual infantry regiment, 30 of them pepper strength infantry regiment is a thousand guys, right? on july 9th, 1864, he commands the remnants of third infantry regiment, and he barely breaks 3000 soldiers. so the infantry regiments are averaging about 100 men each. and what gordon decides to do is attack ricketts. his front in echelon, which is a french term for staggered assaults from right to left. and that begins around 330 in the afternoon. clement evans's georgia brigade steps off towards what's called

the thomas farm. so from the worthington farm to the thomas farm, evans's men will be by themselvefor about 15 minutes. and the idea behind an excellent attack is to draw in the enemy and then be able to fight them or, flank them with other fighting units coming out of the fid later. problem is for minutes evans is managed by themselves. so who's getting shot at? so casualties will be extremely high. evans brigade. these georgians. clement evans is on the left. so i had a photo of him earlier. he gets hit in the chest. if i say the word the house wife or a soldier's housewife. people know what i'm talking about. it's a kit of sewing needles and not to get too graphic, but the sewing needles explode mode. when this musket ball hits him. and when gordon wrote his memoirs literally years later, he said that evans was still picking needles out of his chest from the combat on right there is james van valkenburg of the

of evans georgia brigade, who had fought extremely well the wilderness had helped capture the majority of the seventh pennsylvania reserves on the first day of the battle of the wilderness. he's killed at monocacy. and so gordon's his men are being just absolutely ripped to pieces. colonel john lamar, the 61st georgia, he's killed. and so this this fighting attack will ultimately succeed, but is just tearing into these union soldiers. up next is zebulon york's louisiana brigade. i don't have as many main references dez does earlier, but zebulon york is from maine, which is interestingly enough. right. he's a maine born, moved to louisiana, got into a very wealthy plantation family and thus fights for the confederacy after him comes william terry's virginians. that is the remainder of the stonewall brigade. so this attack and the fighting on the on the thomas farm. right. 90 minutes of fighting in the union army records. this man is specifically start

to fall back. this is a keith rocco portrait fighting at thomas farm lasts 90 minutes from about 330 to 5:00 in the evening on july 9th, 1864. and when we talk about 1864, everyone has in their mind entrenchment and digging in and rifle pits, not here. there's no time and. so this fighting on the thomas farm is a stand up, knock down brawl between two of the most experienced fighting units. either army has to offer in these 90 minutes of combat, there'll be one casualty every 5 seconds. right. the majority of the battles casualties come in this field. casualties are not just restricted to. the confederates. right. we've got some union casualties. the ninth new york heavy artillery suffers the most losses of any union regiment at the battle of monocacy their commanding officer is william seward jr. he's the secretary state's son. his horse is killed beneath him. it rolls over his ankle and

breaks his foot. right. so he's off the battlefield. sims stoltz of the 14th new jersey. i include him because the 14th new jersey loses five commanding officers and five regimental color bearers. and the regimental historian says in the time it takes to tell it, he says, the flag bearer was killed, fell down, second flag was picked up. he's killed in the thomas farm fields. and what eventually ends up happening as these 35 union or confederate cannon start to tell on the union battle line, they've been pushed up to the front and they start to inflate, fire their the union positions. so if you if you are a union soldier, you've got no choice but to flee. and so the union battle does begin to start buckle and break. ironically enough, the last bridge to fall is the one held by the least experienced soldiers. the ohio national guard and the potomac home brigade are the last union regiments to fall back off the field. i know it looks like antietam,

but this is a sketch in the 1890s of the stone stone bridge at monocacy. tyler's men hold off long enough for ricketts, his men, to retreat behind him. and then tyler pulls out and the growing dusk. so we've got our two bridges, right? we've the burnt covered bridge. we've the stone bridge. that's our last. our last bridge. what about george davis and his merry band of skirmishes? we come back to the bridge that started it all the only way across the river is the iron railroad bridge, the bridge that john garrett was concerned about, the bridge that starts, the battle becomes their lifeline george davis, his men have to quite literally hopscotch over the railroad ties. it's about 45 feet up and i always enjoy this story. glenn worthington tells us that there was a wooden board posted at the end of it and painted letters. no pedestrian use. and they just start to hopscotch across the river.

george davis ultimately gets the medal of honor for successfully getting men off the battlefield. but it came at a cost. almost a third of his skirmish tours are killed wounded or captured in this endeavor right. so by about 630 battles over july 9th, 1864, it's about over the last couple of hours, there have been about 2200 combined casualties, about 1200 union and about a thousand confederate. the problem for jubal early, who does arrive on the battlefield towards the tail end of it, the problem for jubal early is that his men are casualties are all killed and wounded. he doesn't suffer any prisoners. and why that's a problem as that is a major percentage of your fighting force. you only have 15,000 men to march on washington and you lose a thousand of them. you're fighting capabilities are being diminished and the night of july 9th into the morning of july 10th, it's early. his response, ability to police

the battlefield, take care of the wounded them to hospitals and things like this. early second in command is john c breckinridge, who makes his headquarters at the worthington farm. as i showed you earlier, john worthington loses mind because he was a breckinridge supporter. he's he's so in thrall. see him. breckinridge has to politely excused himself out of the conversation because john worthington was for lack of a better word, fanning all over. right. it's so good to see you. and i got in and breckinridge was just, you know, i need to do other things by on july 10th, early starts to make his move towards washington. the march continues until july 11th. temperatures are in the high nineties. men are starting to fall out not from battle disease but from heat exhaustion. so he's losing even more men comes up to the defenses of washington on the evening of july 11th. fighting continues on 12th as three days gained by the stand.

obnoxiously, that is time for the rest of the sixth army corps. the 19th army corps to go into the defenses of washington. thomas hyde, who left a wonderful account of his service in the sixth army corps, says he sees civilian ants who were never more excited to see soldiers than on july 12th, as they're literally coming to the steamboat landing and they're hopping off the off the ships and they're double clicking through the streets of washington. and abraham lincoln's there. and here a classic quip. he you can't be late if you want to get early. right. and so these so these union soldiers double hook them themselves. so the city defenses and start to occupy these forts most famously fort stevens outside of washington, d.c. what today on georgia avenue the battle of fort stevens takes place on july 12th. jubal early sees them following through into the fort and he sees them through his spy glasses. and he sees the very distinctive greek cross of the sixth army corps. and he's reported to have said,

-- them, we see them everywhere we go. right. so the sixth corps is just everywhere early. is that night he has a council of war with his commanders. he makes a decision to retreat back out of. washington he blames his supported officers for the failure to take washington. i think more than a fair share of blame sits on early shoulders himself, but he ultimately retreats back across the potomac river on july 13th and july 14th, 1864, union army pursues. and that's how we get into the campaigns of 1864 as an epilog pg and august 1864, there is a conference of war at the thomas farm on the monocacy battlefield. u.s. grant was there. david hunter there, bill sheridan was there. and that's where the plan was hatched for the following fall campaign, sheridan's victories for third winchester and fishers hill cedar creek were put into movement at the thomas farm, a place that was fought over so

heavily on. july 19, 1864. lou wallace wanted a monument dedicated on the battlefield, wanted to be a stone obelisk. and one of the inscription to say, these men died to save the capital and. they did save it. monuments not there. but i think the testament is there. and my last concluding remarks i'm going to give to a guy named isaac bradwell who fought in the 31st georgia, one of the last surviving veterans of the battle doesn't die well until the 20th century. and he advocate cuts from an to be turned into a national park. he lives long enough to see the monocacy national battlefield park created in 1933. right. so he says by all means, let the government make this place a memorial park. okay, so that is a conclusion. thanks for your time. and i think we've got time for questions. so we're going to have a microphone and then i'll take the questions questions.

can you talk a bit about what happened? the early cavalry since they weren't there? sure. so the question was about earley's calvary and his calvary is all over the place. he's has calvary contingent under the command of bradley johnson and harry gilmore and on morning of july 9th, 1864, they were sent away earley's army for a wild goose chase of an affair to liberate the prisoner of war camp. at point lookout. and the idea is these confederate calvary men would ride into the fort or the camp liberate the prisoners. confederate navy would sail up and bring them all back to petersburg. and the time line was unrealistic. they were supposed to ride from frederick all the way down to point lookout hundreds of miles in about two days, liberate the prison, meet with the navy, and sail back. so they are gone and so early, lost his eyes and ears. the troubling thing. excuse me.

trouble thing is that bradley johnson was from frederick. he knew the river. he knew the crossings, but he sent away. and so early loses his eyes and ears because of the point lookout rate, which was robert e lee's idea. it was his idea to send them so, so he got a dispatch from lee junior robert ely junior saying, send these guys away to point lookout. so they're out of the picture completely. anybody else have questions how forward they get outside? so the question was how far did the confederate calvary get to to point lookout, the environs, baltimore one of my favorite accounts is that the confederates again, it's july 4th or the proximity july 4th. and so some of the confederate officers and men captured, for lack of a better word, an ice cream truck, a wagon of ice cream and a confederate soldier explains what can only be to me brain freeze. he doesn't call it brain freeze, but he says he he dove into this ice cream so quickly his mind

hurt and had a headache. he's describing brain freeze right. so they get distracted by these union supply convoys. william b franklin was a union general who was responding to the threat. he got captured by confederate soldiers who got distracted by the spoils of war. and so franklin escaped in the middle of the night. he just waited for them to fall asleep and he was out. and so they did not accomplish nearly as what they wanted to. but they get near baltimore and then they realize it's a bridge too far right. i'm sorry. they get caught. they get caught. yeah. yeah. the idea is to link back up in washington. yeah. so what to the money early. got. yeah. good question. it doesn't go to the confederacy. so no one really knows what happened to the money. right. the question was what happened in the money. no. really knows. right. he never forwards it to richmond, never a correspondence. so where is right. $200,000 is a lot of money.

where it. yes. he had a grand old time. yeah it's interesting that the ransom was paid by five banks. five frederick banks put up the money and they charge the city interest on the payback. and so it until the 1950s that the city paid back the five the five banks. so took almost 100 years to pay off this ransom, right? yeah. any other questions if you have questions you want to ask on a more informal basis, i'll be around today and tomorrow. finally, if you'd like. but thank you all again for your time.