but they are not the actors who draw our attention, who make this john reiki photograph one of the most haunting and macabre of the civil war. no, what draws our attention is not the living. it is the dead. how can we not look in this photograph into the hollow, staring eye sockets of the five skulls that confront us? we're riveted to them as the very representation of death. only by tearing our eyes away from the skulls can we begin to make out the rest of the scene. the horrifying, disembodied mass of bone, clothing, and equipment, composed of parts of who knows how many human bodies. in almost a coda of death, we last notice of what looks like the remains of a leg dangling, jarringly from the litter. boot still attached. the photograph sears into the brain. at least it did to mine.

i can't remember when i first saw the picture, and i certainly did not know where cold harbor was at the time. i'm sure i thought it was a port town somewhere in virginia. i may not remember in which book i first saw the photograph, but i know that immediately and lastingly linked the words cold harbor and death in my mind. in subsequent years, i came to read more about the events of the spring of 1864 that culminated at cold harbor, that deadly slog from the rapid ann to the james that saw the u.s. suffer 50,000 casualties, in the confederacy, another 30,000-plus, the bloodiest six weeks of the war. i learned of the thousands who fell in the early morning on june 3rd. and i do know that there are differing schools of thought about what that number was.

i learned that ulysses s. grant would harbor terrible regrets about his decisions at cold harbor to the very end of his days. and i learned that even in a war in which the military and the public had become accustomed to horribly long casualty lists, cold harbor stood out for its bloodiness and its pointlessness. in a mental connection that i can't quite explain, as i sought to find an angle for these remarks by searching my mind of what i knew of the battle of cold harbor, a book i read several years ago came to mind. it's called "the war of the world," a provocative work by british historian neil ferguson. his premise is that the 20th century, with its two global conflicts and a series of more than a dozen others, that each caused more than a million deaths, was the most violent and deadly in human history. in quite convincing fashion, ferguson lays out evidence that helps explain why this was so. now ferguson's book makes no mention of the american civil war at all.

in fact, it does not pay much attention to events in the 19th century united states, period. i suppose that i may simply be trying to connect a time period in the 19th century to one that i know better in the 20th century. but the more i thought about it, the more it struck me that the carnage here helped set the stage for the almost ceaseless fighting that would cost tens of millions of lives in the 20th century. not just in the terrible numbers of casualties. the very nature of fighting here also seemed to portend the way we would fight in the modern era. here at cold harbor, as the culmination of the meat grinder that was the overland campaign, humanity was afforded a glimpse of the future. a glimpse, and a warning. a warning of what war could be. brutal, industrial,

blood-letting, that measured progress not in miles gained, but in inches. and not in winning a given spot of land, but in inflicting more damage on your opponent than you yourself absorbed. in a word, attrition. i think you can make a real case that something fundamental changed here on this plot of land, this small cross roads less than 10 miles from richmond. in fact, i'd ask you to consider in some ways modern war and how humans view the process of killing one another emerged out of those trees in the early morning hours of june 3rd, 1864. now, this past weekend, i attended, along with bud and maybe several others of you, the latest in the virginia sesquicentennial excellent set of annual conferences. this year's focus was on the civil war in a global context.

it was very interesting to hear about the international perceptions of the fighting that convulsed this nation. in one session, the presenter observing that with few exceptions, europe viewed the events of the u.s. civil war as an aberration and learned few lessons of it, military or otherwise. as it turns out, that ignorance proved very costly. i'm struck that the fighting at cold harbor took place almost exactly 50 years before the outbreak of world war i in europe. with advances in weaponry, the sort of frontal assault on entrenched positions we see here at cold harbor in world war i became far more lethal, lethal on an almost unimaginable scale. it's always tempting to take a thesis or a theory and ride it to exaggerated and unsupportable extremes. it would be foolish to suggest that if the british and french militaries, or the german for

that matter had taken the terrible example of cold harbor to heart that human kind would have been spared the horrors of the psalm or the marn. however, i can't help but wonder whether that tactical thinking would have changed if hague or others had consulted one of the few survivors of the second connecticut heavy artillery. or confederate brigadier general law who famously described what he saw as not war. it was murder. would they have repeated the mistakes we saw here among the pines at cold harbor? would the course of the first world 1 and perhaps by extension the course of the 21st century be different? would that generation of european leaders who perished in france and belgium have been able to check the continent slide into totalitarianism and genocide? as a historian, i'm trained to

resist speculation. we all know that what if games are imprecise and dangerous. but i have to say in this case i don't really care. if there was a chance that the terrible example of cold harbor, the memory of cold harbor might have prevented far more awful events a half century or even a century later, it seems worth a moment of reflection and a touch of regret. don't you think? thank you very much. [ applause ] >> today, the name cold harbor inevitably conjures up images of entrenchments. we immediately think of field fortifications, of mile after mile of heaped-up earth snaking across the hanover county countryside.

life in the trenches was a miserable existence with its mud, filth, broiling heat, and ever-present danger. but the soldiers of both armies appreciated those barriers of dirt. to better protect their own lives in a deadly environment. and as one georgia soldier explained, fighting on the defensive from behind those fortifications had its advantages. this campaign is the first in which our troops have had the privilege of fighting behind protection of any kind, and it is fun for them. they lounge about with the accoutrements on and their guns close at hand, laughing and talking until someone passes it up or down the line, look out, boys, here they come! every man springs to his place and waits until the enemy gets close up, when the rear rank fires by volley. then the front rank. after which each one fires soon as he can reload. some load for others to shoot.

each working rapidly, but calmly, until the enemy are repulsed. >> some survivors, the union attacks at cold harbor wrote slightly dazed letters home, often mixing patriotism with anger, sorrow, and hope. that odd compound perhaps reflects what the cumulative effect of constant campaigning and heavy losses could do to the mind and the heart of a soldier. joseph barlow of the 23rd massachusetts in a june 6 letter to his wife is a classic example. the 23rd has lost a large number of men and officers. i am writing all the time to heart-rending cries, but it cannot be helped. though many has fallen and more must before we can take richmond, we are now within ten miles of the rebel sodom. i can only thank god they have

been spared yet. this is a bloody struggle and may it soon be over. the weather has been awful hot and the dust enough to kill any man, let alone the fighting. but now it has begun to rain, thank god. oh, if those men at home had only one spark of feeling for the poor soldiers, they would rush to arms and help them to end this war. >> it's now my great honor to introduce our keynote speaker. more than 40 years ago, i began my career as a seasonal historian at the chancellorsville battlefield. one afternoon in 1973, a group stopped by the visitors center and the leader hopped out of a bus and began to tell the wounding and untimely death of stonewall jackson and brought nearly everybody in the group to tears. i asked the fellow standing next to me, who is this guy?

i was told with great reverence that this is the famous civil war historian bud robertson from virginia tech. well, i knew the rest of the story because, as they say, because i had read and reread his book "the stonewall brigade" before i had arrived at chancellorsville that summer. i also had the good fortune of attending virginia tech and over the years, dr. robertson has been an incredible inspiration to me and many others interested in civil war history. the books he has written cover an entire shelf, but the time he has spent mentoring young historians, both in academic and public history, is immeasurable. i'll share a quick story. dr. robertson is also an excellent and serious editor. he would generously mark up manuscripts, transforming them from white to almost entirely red pages with his red pencils. his graduate students found

buying christmas presents for him was easy. a box of red pencils was perfect, and he always put them to good use. for 44 years, dr. robertson was the alumni distinguished professor of history at virginia tech. and i must ask, how many in this church congregation today attended his classes of civil war history over the years? that's wonderful. i was with the good fortune to attend many of his lectures. i was always amazed in that mcbride auditorium, for those virginia tech alumni seated here, that hundreds would fill that auditorium to overflowing with students from every department, including athletes, scientists, architects, mathematicians, all spellbound in the way dr. robertson made history come alive. in my opinion, there were more

teachers like dr. robertson and david in the public school system, we would not question why students don't understand or care about american history. [ applause ] today, dr. robertson serves as a key member of the virginia sus question centennial commission that was established to commemorate the 150th anniversary of virginia's participation in the civil war. under his leadership and guidance, the commission has been successful beyond all imagination. i'm honored to present to you, dr. james i. robertson jr. [ applause ] >> thank you. thank you very much. i would say david was one of my better students, and i do remember that. i think the worst student i ever had was a football player who drifted into that course that i

taught. and he did not take the midterm exam. and on the final, he failed it flatly. so i gave him an "f" on the course. he came to see me, and he said, dr. robertson, i don't believe i deserve an "f" in this course. and i said i don't either, but that's as low as the system goes. [ laughter ] i wanted to thank david and the park service for the humbling invitation to give the keynote on this important anniversary. one of the first axioms you learn in graduate school is simple. any nation that forgets its past has no future. and i'm grateful to you for coming out this evening to remember a point in american history that cannot and must not

ever be forgotten, june 3rd, 1864. the civil war became more sophisticated, more advanced, and hence, bloodier, as the war years passed. by 1864, seasoned soldiers using rifles and well-built earth works, supported by suitable and well-placed artillery, simply could not be dislodged. by any sort of funnel attack. the fact became indelible early in june in pine thickets and open ground only eight miles from richmond. and about the joseph muffly of the 148th pennsylvania would later declare the assault at cold harbor was an attempt by sheer and furious fighting, to force the advantage, which march and maneuver had missed.

it failed at a cost of life matched by no other 60 minutes in the four years of that war. it was in the civil war's third year that general ulysses grant assumed command of all union military forces. he personally was friendly and approachable. but he always seemed to have what one observer called a peculiar aloofness. he liked to be alone and comfortable with his thoughts and his cigars. on may 4th, grant unleashed that campaign that would destroy the southern confederacy. union military forces would strike whenever they could with all the strength they had. federals would keep attacking until confederate resistance collapsed. this was a simple and elementary plan, but it had never been tried before by a union commander. grant made his headquarters with

the army of the potomac. his attention would be totally on robert e. lee's forces. other generals had undertaken the same strategy and had met defeat. grant regarded a battle loss as merely a momentary setback. if bested, he intended to reassemble and attack again. and again. and again. until lee's outnumbered army was forced to play the sort of game it could not win. put another way, in may 1864, the union army stopped playing chess and switched over to checkers. both armies bled copiously that month. grant took a pounding in a two-day fight in the wilderness. the union general ignored the defeat and began side ling movements to crumble lee's life

light and so began a deadly game of fight, flight and fight and flight and fight again. mile, mile, mile they kept pushing. they were approaching the wilderness, an unpredictable stream whose bites relied on when it had last rained. behind it was richmond. too bloodied but determined hosts gravitated to a place called cold harbor. soldiers found it more bake oven than cold and there was no stream within miles. cold harbor was little more than a dusty but vital intersection of two country roads. as may turned into june, it was obvious to both sides that the escalating squirmishes were reaching a point where full-scale battle was imminent.

grant's resolve was as strong as ever. however, his opponent was not in good health. overlooked throughout these last two years is the fact that the war had taken a heavy toll on robert e. lee. then 57, he had suffered already in the war a broken hand, a sprained wrist, rheumatism, recurring diarrhea, and the previous year a massive heart attack for which there was no treatment, cure, or medication. and these had all sapped lee's strength. as he inspected his lines at the opening of june, lee was not a top traveler. he was riding in a borrowing civilian carriage. he didn't have the strength to ride a horse. nevertheless, lee's soldiers had become champion engineers and diggers. at some points they had had but

hours to construct earthworks. at other points they had one to two days, as was the case at cold harbor. and what those johnny rebs had created was not one line of defense but two, and in some cases three lines. lee took advantage of every swell and gully, but probably the most brilliant engineer at that in the war. his lines zigzag on an uneven chain of low hills and ridges. none of them high enough to look frightening, but all of them just high enough to make an ideal killing ground in front. the union army failed to make adequate reconnaissance at cold harbor. simply put, grant left the strategic details to army commander george meade, and meade left the strategic details to general and chief grant. preparations, therefore, were spotty. the union corps would deliver the assault, yet each was left

on its own, making for an thoroughly uncoordinated advance. in addition, the federal front bowed out slightly to advancing units would expose their flanks to heavy fire. a union colonel asserted afterwards that the assault, quote, would have shamed the cadet in his first year at west point. lee's battle line was seven miles long extending northwest to southeast. by june 2nd, lee's 60,000 troops were more entrenched than at any point in grant's overland campaign. bitter yanks knew all of these things and that thursday night on june the 2nd, amid a drizzle of rain, one of grant's staff officers came upon a brigade. in the battle scarred 2nd corps. collectively, the men seemed to be making repairs to well-worn uniforms. the officer moved closer.

to his shock, veteran soldiers were writing their names and addresses on slips of paper and pinning them to the backs of their shirts so, he said, that their dead bodies might be recognized and their fate made known to their families at home. in the predawn darkness of friday, june the 3rd, it was still raining lightly. survivors of the wet hell at spotsylvania saw a similarity. the whole strength of both armies was being put forth against each other at once more completely than ever before or ever hereafter. on this day, everything would go right for lee. cooperation among subordinate commanders was all that he could have wished. lee had little to do with the conduct of his troops. they proved to be as accomplished killers as they were skillful engineers.

somewhere around 5:00 a.m. in fits and starts with delays here and there, the uncoordinated union battle started to move. this was no parade ground spectacle search as at fredericksburg and gettysburg. the terrain, vegetation and layout of the southern defensive position quickly threw formations out of line. simultaneous attacks were supposed to be at three points with columns of troops six to eight deep. yet, concentrated and intense confederate fire broke the assaulting lines to pieces before federals could make any contact with their opponents. the battle quickly disintegrated into dozens of small onslaughts with brigades and even regiments operating alone. one division broke out of line to avoid a swamp that was on nobody's map. hundreds fell in the cross fire. then friendly fire took out other hundreds. and those who survived the night

nightmare of cold harbor never forgot what they experienced. a sorveer said that the narrow columns of attacking federals were shreds, quote, much as a sharpened pencil. insurgents of the 121st new york wrote that on all sides booming cannon and rattling small arms tell us that the angel of death is hovering just over our head. in one of the north carolina brigades, a tarheel soldier explained the musket fire rained down our lines from left to right like the keys of a piano. musketry and artillery joined in the wild music of the hour. from the start, the battle assumed the characteristics of a slaughter. no one knows how many times union columns attacked. the result was always the same. a bitter yank recalled that his advancing comrades instinctively leaned forward, quote, as if

they were marching into the face of a hailstorm. and they fell, he added, like rows of blocks pushed over like one striking the other. for the 15th alabama, it was a turkey shoot. those men were firing as fast as they could because lines of soldiers behind the front line were reloading weapons and handing them forward at a steady pace. indeed, alabama colonel william oats wrote bluntly, i could see dust pop out of a man's clothing in two or three places at once  where as many balls would strike him at the same moment. in two minutes, not a federal soldier was standing in our front. cold harbor could not be called a battle, a billy yank concluded. it was simply a butchery. by 6:00 a.m., before the sun had cleared the tree tops, the grand attack ended in disastrous failure. at noon, grant called a halt to the entire operation.

yet, fighting continued here and there simply because the two armies were so close to each other they could not let go. grant's first telegram to washington stated, our loss was not heavy nor do i suppose the enemy to have lost heavily. and that's one of the most inaccurate reports in all the civil war history. exact figures can never be known, but grant suffered about 7,000 casualties. five times the losses in lee's army. at least half of the union kill and wounded fell in the first hour of fighting. numberwise, grant's losses in that one hour were equal to and came in the same short period of time as pickett's charge at gettysburg. from any perspective, the attack at cold harbor was a ghastly mistake. not to grant, however. like the wilderness, cold harbor was but a momentary setback in his ongoing offensive against

lee. the union general stubbornly refused to admit defeat or even request a truce to bury his dead and retrieve his wounded. four days passed while the countless bodies on the field became in number less wounded and more dead. one observer declared, never before and never again in the civil war were so many wounded soldiers left so long to suffer in plain sight of their comrades, the enemy, and the buzzards. lee's army was too thin in number and too worn in body to attempt a counterattack. further, there simply was no general capable of executing it. meanwhile, grant puffed on his cigars, whittled on sticks, and thought about the future with that abstracted look on his face. on june 13th, confederate scouts

reported that grant had abandoned the cold harbor line and likely was heading southeastward toward the james river to cross over and advance on petersburg. lee gave pursuit. by mid-june at cold harbor, the pine thickets, the open clearings, and indelible scars of battle lay solid. cold harbor now belonged to history. the battle was lee's greatest triumph and grant's worst defeat. the union commander finally admitted that fact in the last year -- last nine months of his life when he frantically was writing his memoirs. grant said, i've always regretted that the assault at cold harbor was ever made. no advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained. what happened on june 3rd, 1864,

was a wild chain of doomed charges, most of which were smashed in 10 to 15 minutes, and none of which lasted over a half hour. in all of the civil war, no attack has been broken up as quickly or as easily as this one by the confederates. porter alexander turned the confrontation our last and perhaps our highest tide. it was also robert e. lee's final major victory. cold harbor was the climax to grant's 1864 overland campaign. never before had armies fought like they did beginning in may. for a solid month, they had not been out of contact. every day somewhere along the lines, there had been action. in four weeks, union losses were averaging 2,000 a day. generals were dead and others wounded.

regiments, even brigades, had melted away. soldiers on both sides were bone tired, dirty, oblivious to the stench of rotting horses and men in the humid springtime that swept over virginia. a month's fighting had produced near 60,000 union casualties. roughly two of every four soldiers in the army of the potomac. grant, however, had inflicted 32,000 losses on lee. now after cold harbor, federals still outnumbered confederates by a two-to-one margin. grant had a reservoir of manpower in the north. lee could not replenish his ever-thinning ranks. at cold harbor, lee won only time. even victory was becoming too expensive for the army of northern virginia. monuments that should cover these grounds as thickly as they

do elsewhere are absent. preserving as much of the battlefield as possible is difficult because the greed to make money in the present exceeds the gratitude we should have for the past. in the national cemetery here are 1,986 union graves. some 670 stones contain the names of the soldiers. the other 1,300 graves belong to the family called unknown. my graduate mentor dr. bell wally often told the story of private maddox. the young federal soldier was in one of the last assaults at cold harbor. his regiment was shot to pieces. as his wounded colonel was staggering back across the field, he heard a beckoning call. he looked over and saw private

maddox lying on the ground with a gaping wound in his body. the lad was obviously dying. the colonel went to the soldier and bent over and in anticipation of the young volunteer passing along some final words to be conveyed to his family back home. instead, private maddox asked, colonel, is the day ours? is the day ours? and the officer could not bring himself to admit the truth so he lied. yes, my son, he stated, the day is ours. we have won the victory. then private maddox said, i am willing to die. and he did die. and he lies nearby in the national cemetery with his unknown siblings. this battlefield stands so that generations can come here and see here and perhaps feel here what brave men did here on

behalf of their country. each offered the greatest treasure he had. life. and thousands of them gave their supreme offering in the woods and clearings at cold harbor. we do not have to be an intellectual or even educated to understand the totality of what they bequeath to us. the civil war did not permanently shatter our nation. rather, it was a supreme test of endurance for a young, struggling country that now stands in blessed unity. you are north and south. you are here together tonight. and here this evening, as americans one and all, we look back with reverence to learn from the greatest teacher any of us can ever have. history. armed with an understanding of the past, you and i can look forward with common pride and

renewed hope to the years yet to come. private maddox would like that. thank you. [ applause ] >> the overland campaign was the largest and the bloodiest campaign of the entire civil war. both armies lost almost half of their original fighting forces. the casualties were astounding, astounding to soldiers, to generals and to those left back home. amidst the staggering losses sustained at cold harbor, for

every soldier killed, wounded or captured, there was a family. a mother, a father, brothers, sisters, wives, sons, daughters that also directly felt that loss. the loss of the men that fell at cold harbor and on the fields across virginia in the spring of 1864 reverberated through communities across the north and south. the empty chairs at kitchen tables across the country and the gaps in the battle lines and in the camps left indelible impacts on the living left behind. so, too, did the ideas and beliefs for which so many thousands of men fought and died during that bloody spring. indeed, in spite of and perhaps even in light of the loss of so many lives and the widespread destruction wrought by six weeks with of heavy battle, those beliefs and ideas about nation, government, and home became even more deeply enshrined in the

hearts and minds of those left to fight on. in those beliefs, we come here tonight to reflect upon and learn from today. >> writing soon after the war with a perspective afforded by hindsight, richmond memoirist sally putnam came to believe that in its own unique way, cold harbor had been a landmark event in the 1864 campaign across central virginia. she wrote, the battle of cold harbor forever removed the impression of the demoralization of general lee's army and ended the attempt to take richmond from the north side. the barefooted, ragged, ill-fed rebel army which had been under fire for more than a month had achieved a succession of victories unparalleled in the history of modern warfare.

however, putnam also noted the resolution of the union army and its leader saying, the most striking feature in the character of this distinguished commander of the federal army seems to be quiet determination and indomitable perseverance and energy. under similar disappointment, another would have had his courage so shaken that he would gladly have foregone an undertaking that promised so little fulfillment and success. he had received from the battle of the wilderness to that of cold harbor repeated and powerful repulses. his losses in men were unparalleled in the whole history of the struggle, but his perseverance was undisturbed. >> that quiet determination of ulysses grant so evident to a noncombatant in richmond echoed loudly through the fighting men. of the union aerl. when defeat was decisive as it

was at cold harbor the rank and file gained renewed energy from recognizing grant's tenacity of purpose. the effect on the men was perfectly explained by a federal officer named adams. he wrote that the army of the potomac had literally marched in blood and agony. from the rapid ann to the james. all of this fighting has been unsuccessful fighting, hard, brutal, barren pounding. yet, we have a great fighter in grant. he takes hold of his work as one having confidence in himself and not the least afraid of his adversary. he is bold and takes great risk, thus inspiring confidence in his army. one can see that grant believes in incessant fighting and marching as producing necessary results, not only on his own army, but on the enemy. if his army is fought and worked out and exhausted and needs rest, it is not only likely that

the enemy, with his smaller numbers, is even more so. and so, the moment of greater exhaustion becomes that of the greatest effort. >> the battlefields are quiet and even alluring today. it is a notion that the men who fought here believed in something truly worth suffering and dying for. that draws us to this place. and for each of us as we leave from here this evening, we depart with the sacred responsibility to remember those who fell here and to ponder each for ourselves how we can properly honor those sacrifices and the legacy of what happened here. to them, we owe a great debt. two years ago, we concluded each of our seven days' battle commemorations with "taps" which we called a salute to the soldiers. we will do so again tonight. it is moving.

it is deeply appropriate at this place and at this time. it is for them. ♪ ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, that

ends our formal program tonight. i want to thank you all for being with us. it doesn't end the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of cold harbor. there are a few more programs to occur, and i believe that the church has been so kind to display a few more of our 16 colored pages of upcoming events and programs, so please take them with you, and we'll certainly be here to answer any questions, and thank you again for making the switch from cold harbor to fairmount, and we are so grateful to the folks at the church for all they've done for us this last week. again, thank you so much. [applause] american history tv normally airs on the weekends, but with

congress on recess throughout august, we're featuring highlights during the week. coming up here on c-span3, we'll continue our focus on the civil war with a look at the overland campaign, a series of major battles that took place in virginia in 1864 between union forces under ulysses s. grant and confederates led by robert e. lee. over the next few hours, we'll bring you 150th anniversary commemoration ceremonies, marking the beginning and conclusion of the overland campaign. also, a look at the battle of cold harbor, the campaign's final major conflict. tonight, american history tv's look at the civil war continues with the battle of ft. stevens. taking place in the nation's capital in 1864, confederate forces proved the defenses of the heavily fortified capital city before deciding to turn back. tonight, watch as officials from the national parks service commemorate the 150th anniversary of the battle of ft. stevens. we'll also tour the battlefields

of the monocacy and fort stevens as well as visit several surviving forts of the nation's capital. that's all tonight at 8:00 eastern here on c-span3. coming up next, a look at the beginning of the overland campaign, including remarks by civil war scholar james robertson, who explains the strategy employed by union general ulysses s. grant against the confederates and how the campaign impacted the war as a whole. this event took place at fredericksburg and spotsylvania military park in virginia. it's just under an hour. as the armies of grant and lee marched in may of 1864, the tally of victory or defeat depended on their efforts. from "the new york herald" april 13th, 1864. upon the campaign that we are about to engage there depends

the greatest issues upon which men ever went into battle. we fight for the principles of free government and for the existence of a nation whose institutions are the hope of the downtrodden people of every land. our success in this campaign must ensure the integrity of the united states by the final overthrow of the rebellion. success will give a new life to our country and a new faith to the stability of free government to the world. it will also determine the next presidency as certainly as if the votes were counted. but if we fail in this campaign, that failure will be the greatest disaster in modern history. upon general grant there now concentrates the deepest interest with which the world ever watched the actions of a single soldier. he is the foremost man in the greatest contest of the age.

>> when the nation and the world wanted to know how the civil war was going, they looked to virginia. that spring, robert e. lee and his army showed clearly as the confederacy's greatest hope. ulysses s. grant had come east to manage the armies in virginia, but ulysses s. grant had never met robert e. lee in battle. at charlottesville -- a charlottesville newspaper editor wrote in april, the conflict has, in a sense, narrowed down to virginia. and to this campaign. uncertainty reigned in new york financial markets. gold inched upward towards $200 an ounce. the looming union presidential election gave confederates hope. from "the richmond examiner," april 6th, 1864. there is a pleasing prospective collapse and ruin both financial and political for the yankee

nation in this very year. it is due and overdue. but we must not forget to bring an account to a complete and final liquidation. we have to do our part, and our part is one crushing and crowning victory. and so, the armies came. >> welcome to all of you. we're very glad you're here. my name is john hennessy. i'm the chief historian at fredricksburg and spotslyvania national military park, and we welcome you to the opening of the sesquicentennial of the 1864 overland campaign. before i really get started i'd like to introduce our guests here. some we see further introduction as we go. our great and honored guest is dr. james i. robertson, formerly of virginia tech, one of virginia's great historians.

mike caldwell, the regional director of the northeast reege of national park service is here this morning. superintendent lucy lawliss at fredricksburg and spotsylvania national military park. and ashley whitehead luskey, from richmond national battlefield. and frank o'riley one of the historians here at fredricksburg. and our musician today is ray scott. if ever a single place reflects what this war came to be, this place is it. by the time the armies came to grapple over this piece of spotsylvania farmland in may of 1864, the stakes were so large the previous investment so big that neither side would let go. this war was no longer a conflict about secession or even union. it was also about freedom, the extent and nature of the american government and the future of a united states striving for an identity and strength on the world stage. ulysses s. grant came to

virginia in 1864 with a relentless determination matched only by the common soldiers and those he commanded. the men who had the most invested and the most to lose by the effort. robert e. lee by 1864 bore the weight of all confederate aspirations with an army no less determined than grant's but increasingly unable to fill the social, cultural and economic hopes of a nation. today, we begin telling this story. we hope you will join us again and again over the coming days and weeks. john ashley is a student from prospect heights middle school in orange, virginia. he's one of nearly 400 seventh graders from orange county public schools participating in the journey through hallowed grounds of the student, by the student, for the student, service learning project this year.

the award-winning project of the student, by the student, for the student, which john will tell you about, is in its sixth year and has been partnering with nps areas throughout the 150th observance from gettysburg to harper's ferry, antietam and in 2014 with fredricksburg and spotsylvania national military park. john ashley who will also begin by leading us in the pledge of allegiance today, joined by jesse o'cain the director of educational programs for the journey through hallowed ground. john? >> can i ask that we all stand, and remove our hats for the pledge of allegiance? i pledge allegiance to the flag

of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all. indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. delapp days and decay mark the -- both people and place are gradually falling into ruins. an air of suffocating loneliness reigns, the wind has a particular howling sound as if ghosts and witches were mourning over the sad remain. this is a quot from catherine's diary, which supplies us with a woman and unionist account of the civil war in 1864.

she is my topic for the journey through hallowed of grounds project. and this project students script, film and edit mini movies or vodcasts about the civil war and this region. this project has not only taught me the historic all facts of the civil war, but the also often under told events that must be dug out of primary sources. these are things that are not simply found in textbooks, because they cannot be put into words, but are definitely stories to be shared. vod casts from this year's project will focus on john w. patterson, a colonel that lost his life on the first day of fighting may 5th, and sent his family into ruins. then burk, an african-american who joined the fight against slavery. the bloody intersection of

orange plank road and brock road. the use of pontoon bridges and crossing the rapiden river and the constitutionality of secession. these experiences and stories which take history out of the textbooks and turn them into something that is alive. will not be found by me or any students without the of the student, by the student and for the student project. for that reason, i'd like to thank the journey through hallowed ground group, the fredericksburg and spotsylvania national park for expanding my knowledge and the knowledge of all those viewers of these vodcasts. i'm sure they will thank you, too. how many of you are descendants of this participants

of the battle? pretty broad. i hope you will announce yourselves as we go through the programs. one of the things we have learned through time is other members of the audience like to rub elbow with dna that has historical relevance. we are pleased today to have join us today the regional director of the northeast region of the national park service, mike caldwell. in most of the world regional director does not make your blood stir, but think about his job for a moment. in the national parks service, mike caldwell is responsible for some of the most famous, cultural and natural treasures on the face of the earth. from the bridge at concord, to independence hall. to ma'ams edison's laboratories, to the skyline drive and the hallowed fields of gettysburg, and fredericksburg and spotsylvania as well. he has a career built largely in

historical park like valley forge, and new bedford wailing. regional directors do a lot of things, including managing a rather spirited and committed workforce, but by far the most important role is that of an advocate for the parks, and communities with partners, and within the government. mike caldwell is a native of campaignedia, now residing near philadelphia. we are glad to have him as other regional director, but more than that, we are glad to have him here with us today. mike? thank you, john. and first, i think we should give another round of applause for john ashley. that was phenomenal. i'm here representing the secretary of and director of the national parks service, and on behalf of the entire department of interior, i welcome you to

these eventsds as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the overland campaign. we begin this morning with what certainly is the most expansive commemoration of the says question crennel tenial of the civil war, for civil war enthusiasts, which i see many in the audience, i saw many of you on the way down 95 as well, in many of the rest areas. for many of the enthusiasts, the national parks service will have many commemorative events in the coming months, in the couple years ahead. they will honor the stories of the soldiers, to be sure, but also the places and the larger story that reveal the full reach and human impact of the civil war and the 1864 overland campaign. this effort is not ours alone in the national park service. it takes many partners to make things like this happen.

communities along the road from richmond and petersburg, communities and partners have risen up to help us celebrate the civil war. the friends of the wilderness battlefield, city of richmond and civil warp center, petersburg, fredericksburg, the central virginia battlefields trust and all these and many more have stepped up to help americans connect with their shared history. i'd like to give a round of applause to all the partners that have helped to make this happen. no place in america suffered the repeated affliction of war like spotsylvania county did. four battles, the continuous presence of armies for most of two years. a transformative event that imposed suffering on most residents and brought freedom for the more than 6,000 slaves who lived here.

150 years ago abraham lincoln in the midst of the civil war, actually right about the time of the siege of petersburg began form he signed a bill giving yosemite to the state of california, really starting what we know as the national parks system. and here we are today in part of that system. today spotsylvania is part of the same system as yosemite, as yellowstone, as many of the areas that we fondly have either visited or we share in their preservation, and in the midst of the civil war, is that linking had the foresight to start to preserve these places, these special places that we still save today. as part of the national parks system, places like gettysburg and spotsylvania will forever be a part of our shared identity.

thousands of visitor from around the world visit these sites and other civil war sites year after year, so that we will never, ever forget what happened here. and why are we constantly drawn to remember? joshua chamberlain, who many of you know as a college professor, a soldier, a colonel, and then a general, after the war became a great advocate for the preservation of special places like we are on today. he explained perhaps better than anyone else his own connection to the great fields of the civil war. he said -- in great deeds something abides. on great fields something stays. so think about that. some of the stays. understanding this is no academic exercise, it requires no great study. it requires only your presence, like that of today.

it requires a place to remember. it remembers your mind's eye when the words of those who were here, like we heard when we kicked off the ceremony today. as you come to these places to celebrate this commemoration, or even if you are just out here on your own, you know what joshua chamberlain was referring to. you understand what he is referring to. in the northeast region, as john was highlighting, we go from maine to virginia. we care for many natural and cultural resources, including many key historic resources that make up our collective history as a nation. they tell our nation, it is an area where we were born and where our country came of age in the northeast. the nature of our business is that we cannot manage the places alone. thank for you keeping they national treasures vivid and viable in the changing world that we live in, that so many of you are here this morning and

that so many thousands of you will be in the coming days and weeks that follow, in the footsteps of history, and that you visit places like this, speaking well to your commitment to the national parks system. on behalf of the secretary jewel and director jarvis, i offer profound thanks to all of you for caring enough to join us today. as we commence the nation's remembrance of the 1864 overland campaign. and i'd like to send out a special thank toulousy lawless and her staff, as well as the many national parks service volunteers who are here every day of the year so that we will never forget. thank you. from hometowns like

litchfield connecticut and madison mississippi, they came. soldiers and those they left behind sensed that the spring campaign of 1864 in virginia would be unlike any that had preceded it. from the newark, new jersey sent nenl of freedom may 3rd, 1864. the impending tempest. the quiet which prevailing is justly felt to be the hush which foreruns the tempest. the war will soon be poured out with unprecedented violence. the mag any attitude of the ehaven't has produced a great feeling, and even the giddy and thoughtless are rendered comparatively sober and sedate. and the terrific tragedy that is about to be enacted.

>> year after the war, a soldier from georgia bit his fellow soldiers to remember the beginning of the overlisten do you remember how they filed goo the road? when while watches over some elevated point under look three or four miles in front and see the long line of confederates with their guns glittering in the night and the same to be seen by looking behind you. do you have you thinking how we could whip the world. we are a remembers people.

it may seem odd to some of us that we do this, but again and again and again on patriots day, we remember. pearl harbor day, we remember. memorial day, we remember. we remember those who perished certainly we pray for those injured and those left behind. but we also recall those who, by their acts demonstrates the fundamental goods in of people. those who aid the injured. those who rush to protect our people and our nation those who caused in the midst of horror show courage enough to act not solely in their own interests, but in the interests of others.

we are a remembering people, because in some way, in many ways, we know that remembering, though sometimes painful, heals us. as a people we should remember far more often and forget far less. today, this week, this spring we come together on these virginia battlefields to remember we do this for many of the same reasons we pause every 9/11, those our personal connection is separated by generation. we pay respect, we convey honor, we seek understanding, but we do more than that. this spring on the overland campaign, our national parks service asked us not to remember just as individual, but as a nation.

acts both noble and harsh, but to reflect together on our nation's winding complicated road forward to this day. but a moving massive national transformation. we learn, we understand, and i hope we come to value our nation as a result of this shared experience. we do they not merely as spectators, because for though we may not realize it, we come here today there is a connective thread between those who lived here, fought here, sump and died, went on from here, and us, our ancestors did with the hope,

even expectation that we take their struggle forward. we are a remembering people. in setting asite, congress and the national parks service asks us to remember an essential and ongoing part of our national story. our rangers will walk many miles and fields with you, stand and places famous and some forgotten. we will share the words and stories of those who will here, soldiers and citizens alike. stories on which complicated, all demonstrating the best of our nation, our rangers will evoke and perhaps even provoke. we will do this mindful that our acts of remembrance help us remember our forebearers hopes and expectations fulfilled.

helped billed a more perfect union. thank you for remember with us. thank you for coming. before these were battlefields, these were home places, farms, communities, like thousands of others. war transformed them. armies churning across the landscape ruined much and affected everything. slaves ran to free gop. civilians remains behind. twha added bitterness to an already bitter war. from sally todd, may 15th, 1864, whose house was caught in the fighting near todd's tavern

about six miles north of here. mother was awfully frightened, but i did not think we would be killed. i was afraid the house would take fire, but thank god our lives were spared. the yankees were the meanest on earth. they killed all of our hogs, even the little pigs, and the cow, as it was too poor to eat. but they said they killed sesh, our corn, oat and wheat fields are nothing more than the main road. and played destruction generally. but if we can only whip them and gain our independence, i am willing to give up all. yes, everything. >> in the spring of 1864, the first united states colored troops arrived at the front in virginia. more than 3,000 men, some of them former slaves in orange,

culpepper, spotsylvania, and caroline counties, though faced with the prospect of reenslavement or death, and though they entered an aerial harley predisposed to xwrad them, they still came. about four miles north of here, the 23rd uscts, including several soldiers engaged in the first combat with lee's army. much more was to come, including success in the initial attacks in june 1864 after that experience, one of the army's white soldiers wrote, a few more fights like that, and they will have established their manhood if not their brotherhood to the satisfaction of even the most prejudiced. and so they would.

what happened on these field reverberated across america to towns that we have hardly heard of our maybe have never even visited. to living rooms and home places and communities across the nation. and that is the double wound of war. not only the physical wounds on the field, but the main that followed every death and every wound among the family and community from which it came. part of our commemoration of the 1864 overland campaign is an effort called reverberations, where on may 24th, we will be sending staff to communities across the nation. and join in those communities to talk about how what happened here reverberated there. on the back of your programs that hopefully you will be able

to gut -- you'll see a description of it. you can join us at the fred ricks berg national cemetery, but we will connect these events that were so important 150 years ago. dr. james i. robertson, bud has been a giant. he has distinguished for many other members of academicia, with a tremendous commitment to the public's engagement in history. he writing so you can read and understand it. he speaks in a way that -- the most popular history classes in virginia tech and maybe the whole world during his tenure. all of that is born of his if you work in a park that tells part of jackson's story one of

mea little worries was the keynote speaker would be here on time, and then i remembered he wo a biography of jackson, and he was actually here before i was, which shouldn't surprise you. it's a refrain heard often when we talk about questions or matters of history. what does robertson say? i would suggest there's not a agreeder compliment. this anniversary business is not new to dr. james i. robertson. point him as executive director of the nation beleaguered which he quickly righted.

in between the crennel tenial, he strode proudly through one of the greatest careers of teaching and writing that any of us will every see. he has written 18 books, including the agreesest of all biography. today as our keynote speaker, le we are very honored to have with us today dr. james i. robertson. units thank you john, very much. please know i'm deeply humbled by the invitation to be the keynote speaker on this awesome occasion.

chaired by speaker of the house william hale. stay long, spend much, and enjoy yourselves here in the old dominion. months -- western half of the confed rae. virginia was the birthplace of a nation whose government had crafted largely by spacemen from

the old, now virginia was scarred and overrun by thousands of soldiers fighting to the death for domination. as winter melted into spring, the simple question was which would give out first? the union army was on the north side in what was the largest, a ten square mile area marked by tree stumps, filth, dead horses and buzzards circling over head. >> it was in worse, but still defiant. each side waited. but 1864 would be different because of the entrance on the scene of one man.

grant spend eight year in one -- in 1861, his father secured him -- and according to legend. son, you've got a good job now, don't mess it up. sen this commission was certainly not based on good looks. to one observer, grant was, quote, an ordinary scrubby-looking man with a slightly seedy look, neither a conversationalist or mixer, he was a man who always seemed to be alone. nevertheless, while other union commanders were failing, grant had climbed steadily up the military ladder with resounding victories stretching from ft. henry in 1862 through vicksburg, to missionary ridge in 1863.

he was clearly the north's man of the hour when linking ordered to take command of all federal forces. somewhere near 500,000 combat-ready sources, grand would have authority over the largest host any american officer had ever hiv. in the past grant asserted, union armies had, quote, acted independently and without concert, like a bulky team of mules, no two pulling together. and this to shift men from one sector to the other to meet the most pressing dangers. yurch generals seemed content to maneuver. that was not the road to victory, grand announced. the north had far superior

numbers and materiel. it was time to -- several union armies were to take the offensive simultaneous ly a second force would head southward, a third into the mountains, and cut the vital virginia and tennessee railroad. a fourth army would advance up the james river. meanwhile, from chattanooga toward atlanta. grant himself chose to travel with mead, and he did so for a number of reasons. his presence would shield, for example, the north's cha congress was always interested in what the army of the po thomas was dock.

it was just always -- and when sherman heard this, sherman, who had a low opinion of congress, sherman wrote to grant -- i hope you will make it a death penalty for any congressman who enters your camp. or for diplomatic reasons and -- he did not do that. another reason grant we aren't with that army was its commander. george meade was seven years older than grant, a dedicated soldier, but overly cautious. his army had done nothing for the last ten months. mead had a violent temper, which he could not controlled and when unleashed, it sounded to one like cutting an iron bar with a handsaw. he had been appointed to initiate a hopefully successful campaign. thanks to the advent of the telegraph, grant could oversee

all military theaters as easily in the field as he could from a desk in washington. assist for rye actions they were varied. a little jealousy, a little dislike, a little envy. all, however are willing to give him a full chance, for if he succeeds, the war is over. the strategy followed the same pattern he had always followed. he would devise and try something. if it failed, he would try something else. he would hammer unrelentingly, applying pressure until opposition collapsed. in the spring preparations, it is, i think, interesting to note that there were no parades, no

grant reviews, as mcclellan and hooker had always enjoyed. looking intently into the faces of the soldiers, and gives the impression it was far monday important for him to see the men than for him to see them. all they wanted was a competent, aggressive leader. late in april, an eager newspaperman asked how long it would a. then replied, well, i will agree to be there in four days, that is if general lee becomes a party to the agreement. then after pausing, grant added the trip undoubtedly will be prolonged.

he waited, the unabashed aggressiveness and unwillingness to -- striking power of his smaller, ill-equipped army. yet after two years of campaigning, we tend to overlook a vital factor about lee. lee's health was -- southern manpower was dwindling to critical levels, there was nothing he could do about it. he had problem of his owns, inclusion rheumatism, mental fatigue. a year earlier he had suffered unquestionably a major heart attack for which he received no medical aid. the field of cardiology lay in the future. yet to his men, he was a pure patriot as george washington. as april became a young soldier in the 31st virginia made a prove sis in a lot of home, i hope he wrote, we will be able

to give them a good thrashing, is they crossed the bridge, and plunged immediately into a wooded darkness known as the wilderness. dense underbrush, few roads, fewer clearings, a little streams that never saw daylight. and created unexpected ravines and marshing. it was measured in feet. yet one of robert lee's distinguishes characteristics

was ahn unwilling niz to fight where his opponent wanted to fight. could not compete in the stand-up fight. a superior union artillery was nullified because of the thick tangle. union soldiers had to advance in roads along and on both sides by thing woods. this offered lee a moment tear advantage, and he took it. grand's army had been marches when near 7:00 a.m., the confederates attacked, perpendicular to the union advance. mass confusion followed, as billy -- in that impenetrable

underbrush. the park service rangers here, who are some of god's given gifts to this country, gives excellent tours of the action and eliminate my going into detail. suffice it to says, the larger the battle grew, the more invisible it became. unbroken -- man came under heavy fire before they saw the enemy. one determined a battle line from the noise in a certain direction. several battles were raging. soon slashing gun power said woods afair, and untold numbers of wounded men were cremated, because they could not get away. burning treats only thickened the gun smoke. night game, and it never

stopped. sleep was impossible. spasmodic firings went up the lines, at daylight on may 6. they came close to breaking lee's position that day, but the timely arrival of general james long's fresh corps brought a sudden counterattack. both sides were disorganized. and more hours of death passed before grant's men fell back to the load down which they had been traveling in the begins. on the same ground a year earlier. the union arm had suffered 17,600 casuals in two days. confederate losses were less than half that number. >> this is where i digress a bit from pure military historians.

when casualties were mentioned, an average civil war students thinks of aggregate numbers and moves on to a more interesting aspect on the battle. totally overlooked in this approach is the human elements in combat. let me take one example. in the two days of the wilderness, the vermont brigade several 191 killed, and 947 wounded. over a thy of its strength. look again at that number of injured. 947. two days after the battle. he told a friend, i am very tired. i have amputated 100 limbs today. if the surgeon was not

exaggerating, then he was cutting off an arm or leg every ten minutes. a mother-day orth pedic would not even consider working at 10% of that speed. further one can only speculate how many of those fell victim to sepsis and other fatal diseases. and of course, once again it was time for the union army to retreat, attend to its wounds and come back at some future time and do it again. but grant didn't see it that way at all. >> they were but a moment tear setback. he had every aim to fulfill the problem he had made to lincoln, quote, whatever happens, there will be no turning back.

the defeat of his arm was still a major objective. when the column turned toward richmond, a veteran billy yank noted, how our spirits rose that night we were happy. >> this was unquestionably one of the grandmoments. the willers in was not going to be another -- with the union army tucking its tail between its legs and limping back to washington. this time there was to be no turning back. no collapse of mother. no finger pointing. no clamor for a new army commander. it was absorben its losses as a

determined general led it southward. the two airplanes were never out of contact. it was a pounding, unrelending campaign, the one time of war with which robert lee could not cope. he could interfere with grant's plans, but he was in no position to impose plans of his own. fighting to some degree occurred every day from may to the following april. union resources and persistence would shatter confederate resistance in spirit until it all came to a merciful end at appomattox, but it is not an exaggeration to say that the wilderness was the first sign of the sunset of the confederacy. a few miles north of here, on a

little clearing, at the site of where the 1863 battle and -- amid all the commercial sprawl of west fredericksburg is a monument. that monument is to the 23rd new jersey on the front of the stone contains the expected phrase -- to the memory of our heroic comrades who gave their lives for the country's union on the battlefield. the walk around, there's another identical plaque there. on it are the words to the brave alabama boyce. whose memory we honor. think about that. after the battle of waterloo.

but we are americans. we are americans. we see things, and we do things a little different than other people. because underneath it all, we are brothers of it all. brothers of a country like the world has never seen before. so it is right and fitting that we gather together this morning here on ground made holy by the blood of patriots. we remember, because we cannot forget. what happened -- the evolution of a word one rarely hears anymore. that word is union. it was for union that each side fought 150 years ago. it is for union that our dedication must always be. without union, we have no nation.

only with it can we collectively hope for the future. another i spent over half a century in university classrooms, i know that history is not everyone's favorite subject. indeed one occasional encounter the miss guided, in order to change the past. it's called political correctness. it's nonsense. you cannot alter the past. you can only learn from it. believe me, history is the best teacher any of i will ever have. so we have to look back to see where we're going. so today we look back at the wilderness. we look back with all reverence and inspiration. what those men of north and south gave we now share.

we must treasures those sacrifices always as being among our richest possessions may god continue to bless this land we all call our home. thank you. the incredible violence of 1864 reflected the immense stakes and the men in both armies recognized that connection. before 1864, soldiers might have

been under fire for eight hours during an entire year. during the overland campaign, they were sometimes under fire for eight hours or more in a single day. on may 12th, -b÷1864, walter battled of 4th north carolina fought just a few hundred yards from where you sit today. for nearly 20 hours. he recorded that he fired away 120 rounds of ammunition himself, three cartridge boxes full, slogging through trenching filled with water, wounded and dead men. about an hour before day, we evacuated the works. i don't suppose there is any man that can express the relief we felt after getting out of such a place. he remembered fighting for those 22 hours without a morsel of food or a drp of water. you can form some idea of what

our feelings might have been. add to all of this the thought that the next minute may be your last which is another thing all together. there is not a man in this brigade who will ever forget it. for days, weeks it continued. from the wilderness to spotsylvania, the north and up, to cold harbor. a union surge astonished at the continuous tide of battle and bloodshed exclaimed at the end of may 1864 -- oh, why will not the confederacy burst up? the experience left soldiers bewildered. from a letter of a member of the 1st united nations sharp shooters, george a. martin, may 15th, 1864. people say it's monday. i never knew it was sunday

yesterday until about sunset. the days have got so mixed up that i can't keep the run. some days have two nights, and some no night at all. the sun rises in the southwest. i am so mixed up as that. the toil and stress begot exhaustion and inexpressible sadness. chaplain francis perkins of the 10th michigan, may 15th, 1864. you have been expecting doubtless some accounts of the movements occurring during this campaign. but never did i feel so utterly adverse to writing. never did it seem so almost impossible to connect and express any thought as now. all my energies have thought and emotion are used up by the actual passing events. and to recall the past is positively painful. our brave fellows, they have melted away like smoke.

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snoot ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ all that had been wagered in this war, treasure you are, lives, the fate of nations would be won or lost in these months of 1864. for grant, there was no turning back.

for the armies there were no turning points, just crossroads, literal and symbolic, in the wilderness, at spotsylvania courthouse, at cold harbor, on to petersburg. in each case, grant chose the road south towards richmond, towards petersburg. it was a tide rather than a moment. lee could not stop it. still, the confederates remain -- the rebellion dies very hard. one told his hometown newspaper. in june newspapers across the south noted that grant's army stood almost resizely where mcclellan's head stood in 1862, but it suffered horrendous casualties getting to the very same place. most confederates maintained hoped certain that lee and hi men would somehow inflict a fatal blow to the north's willingness to fight.

in the union army that june, soldiering saw the spires of richmond just eight miles away. they recognized too how hard those last eight miles would. a pennsylvania soldier wrote of the moments and the prospects. there's a magic influence and expression as it passes from lip to lip. eight miles from richmond, boys. only eight meals from richmond. what treasure, what a restored peaceful happy and united country, and a free government did repay for the precious blood that must be shed, and the inexpressible sufferings which must be endured before this comparatively short distance can be accomplished. that pennsylvaniian likely could not have manualed just how painful the answer to that question would be. we hope you will join us, the

staff here at 23red ricks burg and spotsylvania at richmond and at petersburg, as we explore what was truly a momentous epic, 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 always a measure of the commitment and the determination of those who were here. and we hope, as you walk these fields and woods, hope 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 and our collective quest for answers. for they are questions that are essential to the health of our nation. we thank you for coming. tonight american history tv's look at the civil war continues with the battle of ft. stevens, taking place in the nation's capital on july 11th and 12th, 1864, conphet rad forces probed the heavy defenses, before deciding to turn back. tonight watch as officials from the national parks service commemorate the 150th an verse railroad of the battle the ft. stevens.

and we'll tour several surviving forts in the nation's capital. all tonight at 8:00 eastern here on c-span3. coming up next author gordon rhea discusses the significance of the battle of cold harbor which took place in virginia 150 years ago in may and june of 1864. we took a look at the strategies employed by union general ulysses s. grant and robert e. lee, as well as the challenges they face. this hour-lounge event took place in mechanicsville, in virginia. well, thank you very much, bob. i appreciate it. as i told the folks i talked with this morning, it's an honor for me to be here. there's something special about the battlefield here at cold harbor. i came about my interest in the

american civil war i'm 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 border. that was only 35 years after the end of the american civil war. as you might imagine, most of those old men sitting around the grocery store were confederate veterans. he grew up listening to the tall tales, talking with 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 lee's lieutenants, stuff like that. so we visited all the battlefields. we visited obviously gettysburg, chancellorsville. we didn't make any trips to cold harbor, because there really wasn't all that much here. we didn't go to the north anna beat, because it didn't even exist. the overland campaign, which is the campaign that brings grant and lee to where we are now

really wasn't the focus of that much american military history, all eyes seemed to be on the earlier battles in the war. what i'd like to do is take a couple minutes to orient you to help you understand why it is the armies ended up down here at cold harbor, and then i'll take a more detailed view of that battle itself. you can understand what happened here and why it's so special. so those of you who heard me talk this morning, if you can put you with me four or five minutes to repeat some background, then i'll move on to some more detailed information. i'd like to think back to the pring 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. lincoln, of course is up for reelection. it's important to have battlefield victories for the north and it's important to win ballotses in virginia, because virginia is still the preserve

of robert e. lee and the storied army of northern virginia. so lincoln brings east his best general. that's going to be ulysses s. grand, the general who's won all those battles in the west, the battles at ft. henry, donaldson, shilo, vicksburg, chattanooga, and he gives grant basically a two-part requirement t first to bring organization, to bring continuity to the union war effort. sectly to dwoo defeat the army. grant goes about making it possible to carry out that charge with a ventionens. first he puts together a program unline any that the war has yet seen. he realized up to this point battles would last a couple days, the armies would pull apart. grant would not let that happen anymore. the union armies were to fasten on and fight until they were

destroyed. he also realized the old goal of capture territory didn't make sense, hence the goal would be the armies, the goal would be to destroy them. 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 couldn't shift forces from one theater to the other. we'll see the spring of 1864 opening campaigns in the east, grant riding with the army in the po thomas, and in the west under direction of grant's close friend, german sherman. they will be battles that will run day after day after day with a goal of bringing the confederate army to their knees. in the eastern theater in our parlance here today that would be virginia. he comes up with a program to destroy lee's army, 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 outfum her lee's forces by about 2:1. 120,000 federal troops to about 65,000 confederate troops. cutting off lee's supplies, threatening the confederate flank and have the army move up the james river and then moving into lee's rear, so there will be a three-pronged attack against the army in northern virginia, basically replicating that massing of armies that grant foresees for the entire nation. now, lee finds himself in a tough situation. the army at northern virginia is quartered just south of the rapiddan river, the massive army of the po thomas 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 can. he's massively outnumbered, also

aware that the army in the shenandoah army, and the army 678ing and realized he may have to shift reinforcements, to lee basically undertakes a waiting game. what is grant 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 forfeits the initiative to his opponent. not what we usually see but in this instance he had no choice. he sends out the calvary past each end of the line to act as a trip wire to let him nowhere the federals are coming from and waits. grant visits the army of the potomac and has to decide what to do. as you historians know that's the hero of gettysburg. he, at this point, was in the hot seat. he fail destroy lee's army at

questionti g getties burg and grant visited him and was impress because what he told grant was that he would step down willingly and let grant bring some of his people from the west to run the army of the potomac. he decided to keep him and he needed somebody with meade's knowledge of that army in order in detail and he dent have that knowledge so he decides to travel with the army of the potomac and look over meade's shoulder and make sure they were fighting the way he wanted them to but at the same time not interfere with their operations. grant keeps that promise for about one day as the armies move into the wilderness. i talked this morning generally about the regularship between the commanders of these armies. i'd like to talk a little bit now about some of the subordinate commanders. here at the battlefield of cold harbor they play a big part.

they have a bad relationship. initially meade is hopeful they'll work out but they are two different kinds of generals. grant likes to do the unexpected. is willing to take risks. meade is much more cautious. socially they're very different people and they're aides obviously come from different social strata. they write home and tell their wives basically the relationship is deteriorating and after a few days of fighting, meade basically writes home and tells his wife he would resign from his position if he could but honor required him to stay on. there will be a breakdown in the union command relationship. fok, robert e. lee has no such problems. he's the head of the army in northern virginia and everybody knew it. who were the subordinate commanders that each of these generals were going to have underneath them? the union army will have four army cores, four infantry corps

and one calvary corp. general has bencock and he does perform well because he's been badly injured. he was shot at gettysburg and had a wond to his thigh and he'll spent a lot of the campaigns against lee here in virginia in an ambulance. the union fifth corp is under a gabby the name of warren. general warren is an unusual character. a young man. he'd been an engineer but he didn't have a lot of experience commanding troops. he's also something of an odd duck. as a matter of fact, some of his subordinates commented on how he loved to recite limb rics and he thought a lot of himself and as you'll see as the campaign unfolds often thought his imagines were better than those

of his superiors. the union's sixth corp is in the hands of general john sedgwick. john sedgwick doesn't last long because he's shot down by a south carolina sharpshooter at the battle at the spots vain yeah courthouse. ambrose wright is a general that most of you probably not heard about. and he comes to the sixth corp without much background. the union army will also have within it general ambrose burnside who commands the ninth army corp. general burnside, most of you probably know, is the general who headed the army of the potomac during the battle at fredericksburg and grant brings him back to join the army of the potomac and because of burnside's former position, grant decides that burnside can't serve i understand northeast meade and unstead, will report directly to gant who

coordinates him with general meade so you can see the command confusion that's taking place and some of that is evident here at the cold harbor. the union calvary is in a very interesting situation. most of the calvary commanders that you're familiar with are now gone. john fwu fobuford has died, what decides to do is to bring one of his generals from the west, general phil sheraton. eastward and put him in charge of the calvary of the army of the potomac. in effect, general grant will be selecting the calvary commander who will be reporting to general meade. aid very awkward command relationship and a command relationship that won't work because each of these are extraordinarily strong-willed men. i expect fill sheraton's appearance may have had something to do with his problems. contemporary writers tell us as the campaign opens he was about

5'5" tall and weighed about 115 pounds. bow legged with a pointy he had that looked like his black hair had been painted on. abraham lincoln who had a good way with words explained that phil sheraton didn't 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. so this is the new commander of the union calvary for the army of the potomac. we'll see a lot of sheraton at the cold harbor, fascinating but a lot of problems for general meade. what about robert e. lee and his force? lee had three infantry army corps and one calvary corp. robert e. lee's first corp starts under long street because he's badly wounded after the second day of fighting grant and

he's replaced by general richard anderson. a south carolinian. we'll see a lot of him here at cold harbor. the confederate second corp is under rich richard you'll and he's replaced. a former prosecutor, strong willed, guy. a fondness for former prosecutors having been a prosecutor myself so we'll see how he performs here at cold harbor. the confederate third corp, commanded by ambrose powell hill, a virginiian out of culpepper county. ap hill had been quite ill. he's now commanding the larnger remnant of stone wall jackson's old confederate first corp as well as his former lieght division. one thing, most people haven't

really focused on that i would make an interesting story system and being a storyteller and historian i'd like to write a back about it some day. he had the unusual talent of dating women who later married union generals. and it's hard to figure out how he was able to figure it out ahead of time. most of you are familiar with the fact that he went out with miss marcy who, of course, married george mcclellan but he also went out with a young lady from baltimore, emily chase, and just before the battle of gettysburg she married general warren. warren and hill first came up against each other at a battle called bristoe station in the fall of 1863, a few months after warren married emily chase. when i was digging through some of warren's archives up in new york i came across a okay copy of a letter that he have sent across the line to hill after that battle. warren had defeated hill and he sent a note across the line that

said -- general ap hill, i have defeated your army corp and i have married your old sweetheart. so -- this will give you, idea of the state of affairs as we approach the battles here at cold harbor. this thing is getting pretty personal. well, what brings the armies here to cold harbor? they have a man this they will cock back at lee, basically turning his flank. on may 3rd and 4th, they cross down river from lee in central virginia and comes at him from below. stops in an area called the wilderness of spots vain yeah. and the union force stopped there to get supplies. and also, because they don't

think that lee can catch them in the wilderness. but lee realizes he has to hold that line up did the river. this is some 50 odd miles north of richmond and so, he feel has has to hold that line otherwise he will be driven back to the confederate capital and find himself ensconced in the earth works and entrenchmentes around richmond and petersburg and is unable to maneuver. so lee's goal is to maintain his flexibility and his maneuverability. so what lee does is to attack grant in the wilderness and divides his army into three parts and launches a three-pronged attack. the battle is brutal and goes on for 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 and the wilderness catches on fire and some of the most brutal scenes of the war take place but at the end of the two days, grant find