>> next, author and historian eric wittenberg discusses the battle of trevilian station which took place on june 11, in 1864. he explains how general grant raid toto send him on a destroy rail rode junctions. he describes a decision -- and how those choices led to the decisive confederate victory. this was hosted by the emerging civil war blog. like to say the man i'm about to introduced needs no introduction. mostly because it's so cool to be introduced that way. but we although that within the civil war community there are

rock stars, like guys, historians, women, we've all heard of, we've seen them on tv, we've read their books. everybody knows who they are. we talked about them in hush tones and it has been my privilege to be friends with one of those rock stars because truly eric wit bigger is a name that is known by -- eric wittenberg. he's known not only for his expertise in the union calvary, many o his knowledge on controversial topics where he is constantly challenging people to reconsider what they think they know. he's never one to take a position because it's popular but he takes because it is well considered, well researched and it is well thought out. and so he's sometimes not so afraid to challenge conventional

thinking on things. and it's that sense of going for the truth that has always made me admire his work. tarting out when i first got into the civil war as someone reading books and just thought this guy is fantastic. he's got 17 books you can read. but as our friendship has grown over the years, someone who is constantly challenging you to rethink what you think you know. it's really my privilege to bring here from columbus, ohio the fantastic eric wittenberg. [applause] >> now, that's quite an introduction. he don't know how to handle that one. thank you, chris. thank you so much. it's a plur to be here. this is go -- it's a pleasure to be here. i'm a litigator. that's what i do for a living.

i'm used to walking and talking so for me to stand still in one place for the next nearly an hour is going to be a chalefpk. if you see me vibe ate -- vibrate after a while, you'll understand why. our topic today is the second the brutallimaxed in battle he -- brutal of trevilian station. this is one that one can actually use the word decisive. it means it had an impact on the outcome of the war. by contrast as much as i love the battle of brandy station and i have devoted a large part of my adult life in preserving it, db e end the battle

trevilian station -- let necessity do a little stage setting for you. i'm going to introduce some of the important personnel here. i'm going to begin with bringing ulease ees grant east and promoting him to lieutenant general. he is given command of all of the armies of the united states. first and foremost he's got to decide whether he's going to lead george in command. this is an army that had a lot 1863.ual -- casualties in three of the commanders were either badly wounded or killed outright. so you've got the likes of william h. old blinky french who i said the aggressive move he ever made in his life was on a bottle of whiskey, commanding

the third core. you've got john newton who is a solid soldier but not spectacular and is probably not well suited to command. hancock, having been badly wounded, we've got to restructure the army. ultimately the first and third core were merged into other cores and basically eliminated. this is how they got rid of blinky french. and also you've got john newton being transferred to the western theater. hancock comes back to duty. the entire structure of the command has been moved around. we have a bigger problem. the bigger prop -- problem is while 1863 was a decisive year, the problem is that everything fell apart at the end of the year. it begins with the death of john buford, the best the union had on december 16, 1863.

after that you have the debalkal of the raid which ends up having kilpatrick being relieved of the third division of the army. they said kill pat trick is a hell of a dam fool. what does that tell you? ultimate my -- ultimately alfred pleasantton had one real supporter in the army and it was george gordon immediate. his testimony for the joint committee on the conduct of the ar when he testified that he wrote over to george gordon immediate and said general i'll give you a half-hour to prove yourself a great general by ordering a counterattack. i'll bet you my house and everybody else's house in this room that never happened. but pleasantton is another guy who was allergic to the truth. he had a real serious allergy

problem. so immediate after this testimony -- meade revokes his basically authority of keeping pleasantton in command and he suddenly finds himself in missouri where he spends the rest of the war chasing sterling price. we've got a calvary core that needs a core commander and two of its three division commanders replaceded. the first situation we deal with is who is going to command the corps. by right it judd have been the division commander, but it's not going to be greg. instead, it's going to be this fellow. phillip heny sheridan, born in eland, raiseed in somerset ohio, remember of the west point class of 1853. nearly got himself tossed out of west point for threatening to

he spends his -- regular army career in the years before the war doing unspec tar not very nd is really well-known fellow when the war breaks out. he ends up as a staff officer for henry alec. northwest thing you know he's commanding a brigade. he doesn't do too badly. before that, he ends up being appointed the colonel of the second calvary. his stint as a commander of cal i have -- calvary is going to last about 60 degrees. .e will command a brigade he is then promoted to brigadier general and ends up in command

f this diff, of intpwhantry -- infantry. he is appointed commander of the army of potomac calvary corps. he says who do you want to command and he suggests sheridan to which grant's response is just the fellow i had in mind. so sheridan is a drinker. he's a little guy. .e's 5'2" he said his arms could treach down wount bending over. he had a very large head and tended to wear a funny looking hat. he was known for having a titanic irish temper. nd this will come into play. we now have to replace the first ivision commander.

toll bert resigns as confederate commission ends up spending up until the winner of 1864 all of his time commanding infantry. he commanded a six can -- when he's appointed to take command of the first division of the army calvary corps, he has this much experience. but this is the division commander. instead it should have gone to this man wesley merit. wesley merit will spend 43 years in the regular army. ends up in command in the expedition that captures in 189 during the spanish american war. he will end up commanding the calvary corps as its last commander. instead he gets skipped over and

they bring in tolbert this creates another problem. we've got george custer here. custer is a chander of a brigade in the third division. -- hird commander needs a instead, another officer is brought in by the name of james h. wilson. wilson is known as grant's pet. he's been an engineer officer in the west. he's a brilliant guy. custer and wilson were class meats at west point. they hated each other's guts. wilson was promoted over custer to take command of that division. custer said he's junior to me i won't serve under him. and i hate his guts anyway. theyened up having to pick up custer's brage aid move it out of the third division and move it into the first and switch it

into the third brigade because it's commanded by a commander of the third calvary in order to keep the sebyort and the rarveing issues straight. harry wilson has never commanded anything better than a squad of point.. cadets at west so let's recap. we've got a first difftigs commander with zeer toe days of experience commanding calvary. we've got mcmurtry who is a solid capable soldier and finally we have james harrison wilson who's never commanded anything bigger than the squad of cadets at west point. friends, does this sound like a recipe for disaster? you bet. devin was known as buford's hard

hitter. he once said i can't teach him anything about calvary. he knows more than i do. it david mcmurtry, west point class of 1855, one of miff favorites. he ended up spending the rest of his life in my hometown of reding, pennsylvania. i always was a big ad mirer of david gregg. he will command a diff egg of calvary longer than any office ner the union service. he will resign as commission in february of 1865. big deer general heny dive yeas of the second new york calvary, a new york city lawyer, no military treaning before the

war, turns out to be half decent . this is his first cousin john irving gregg. '5". 2sh6 ends up being captured in the days just prior to the surrender in april of 1865. not exactly a sterling attribute . mcwarter r cummings pennington. begins the war as a lieutenant, ends as a colonel. during the civil war does some of the finest artillery work commanding battery m second united states artillery. it was his guns that blasted the confederate horse off the field with some of the finest work done in the war.

his battery will play a big role in the story we're about to tell. on the confederate side we have this fellow, navy general wade ampton the third, columbia south carolina, the wealthiest man in the south. when south carolina succeeded, he chose to draw his sword on behalf of his native state. out of his own pocket paid for e formation and quing of the hampton legion. ultimately the hampton legion infantry will remain as it is. the four companies of calvary will actually filled out and formed an actual regimen which will become the second south carolina calvary and the battle -- hampton tillly was 6'3", 240 pounds. he was very, very proud of the fact that as a young man he had

killed killed a man a -- killed a bear with his bare hands. he wound up killing 13 yankees in battle in one-on-one combat. when jeff stewart was mortally wounded it is going to create a big problem for robert e. lee. the big problem that lee has is e's got a void in command. stewart was the eyes and ears of northern virginia. robert e. lee relied on him heavily. wade hampton is not a west pointer and he's not -- ease a member of south carolina air stock crassy. his handpicked choice was his army soul mate, lee. he's the favorite nephew of the commanding general of the army of northern virginia.

fits lee had exactly four good days in the war s yet he ends up being the final commander in the army of northern virginia's calvary corps. go figure. fits lee and stewart were very much kindred sowls. he was tch shared the vovep jeb stewart's handpicked successor. the problem is hampton outranked him. hampton's commission as major general was ahead of fits lee's on the promotion list so therefore he was the senior general. so general lee who's got a third division under his second son, roony lee decides that rather than appoint a new commander for the corps he is going to create these independent commands reporting directly to him. do you sew a problem here? who's going to be in charge in

the field? hampton is that guy. this is matthew butter, hampton's protege. succeeded hampton in command of he hampton legion calvary. m.c. butler had a leg taken off by a shell at the battle of brandy station has returned to duty in the spring of 1864 with a brigade of very green mounted infantry from south carolina and with the death of stewart and hampton's succession to command, -- l end up in command of tom rosser, one of the brigades that make up hampton's division will talk about rosser later. this is colonel gib wright. is command of young's

brigade. gib wright is an interesting fellow. he was aquited of murder in the years prior to war. liked his whiskey and was a hard fighter. there's fitz lee, 5'3", prone to being obese. by the time in the spanish american war he was 320 pounds. which is why he came back to the service of the army for the spanish american war it wasn't possible to get him up on a horse which is why he in turn ended up not serving in the field. as i said, the favorite nephew -- nephew of the commanding general of the army of northern virginia, i've identified four good days this guy had in the entire war, one of them happen to be may 7, 1964.

fitz will conduct a delaying ction at the tavern. it will hold off the union infantry advance long enough to allow dick anderson's troop to get ahead of the army of the potomac. that's one of got days that fitz lee. trevilian stations will not be one of those four good days. igadier general williams wickham will resign his commission. williams wickham regimen at the time broke at brandy station which in turn allowed union troopsers to surround and mortally frank hampton, the

younger brother of wade hampton. wade hampton never it forgave wickham for that. roger preston chew. his battalion was attached to hampton's division and finally breathed who james commanded -- these are the adversaries we are going to see take the field as we head toward trevilian station. set the stage for you. after some inause suspicious ginnings for -- inausepishes for sheridan, he's been almost constantly engaged with the confederates, that one being the battle of yellow tavern. other than that he got his butt

kicked regularly. grant comes up with an idea because he's been himmed in at cold harbor. he comes up with a brilliant idea. this is a brilliant idea that's actually based on something that he tried out in the early phases of the vicks burg campaign. he's going to launch a calvary raid with the idea creating so much chaos and havoc that will allow his army to steal a march. now he's going to do it with two divisions. one of the lessons he's learned is he's allowed sheridan to go off on a raid. i do need to address that riefry for a minute.

back to may 7, 1864. the union cal varies engage with fitz lee almost all day before finally they drive him off. when thare dan arrives -- george gordon arrives at todd's tavern, he finds the two commanders and their troops with their horses on saddle making coffee, writing letters, doing what soldiers do when they have spare time. why? sheridan is nowhere to be found and they have no orders. hey do what soldiers do. he issues orders directly to the two division commanders. about the same time these orders arrive sheridan shows up and he gives conflicting orders. it's a mess. thare dan gets summonful sheridan gets summoned to mmediates ten and he ends up

engaging with immediate. immediate didn't have the nick name -- it nicknamed the goggle eyed snapping turtle for no reason. his staff officer used to call him the great peppery for his language. meade had a titanic temper. and sthare dan had a titanic irish temp per and the two of them ended up engaging in a screaming match. the end of which sheridan looked at meade and said, fine. you want to giffords to the calvary corps go right ahead because i won't do it and stomped out of the army's command. in other words, he told his boss to go stuff it. gross insubordination. meade goes straight to grant to report the insubordination and get permission to relieve sthare dan of command because he knows he can't go it without grant's

permission. e finds grant sitting and he tells grant what happened and grant doesn't react. then meade makes a mistake. he says sthare dan wants to take the calvary out and go finds stewart and bring him to battle. grant looks up and says general sthare dan usually know what's he's talking about. let him go do it. sheridan has been insubordinate with his boss and has rewarded. it creates a great deal of friction. part of the problem is when sheridan goes off on this raid he takes all three divisions of calvary with him. it nearly blunders into a greath great mess and it ends up being with the slugging match here at spotsylvania courthouse. it's not a good situation.

so we've got a great deal of conflict intention between meade and sheridan such that they can't work together. going -- going's to keep wilson's division with the army. he's going to send sheridan with two divisions. he's going to take with him toll bert and gregg. the object is to march along the north bank of the river, fall upon the railroad junction at gordonsville, march down the virginia central railroad to sharlsville where he is to destroy the railroad junction this and pete up the with david miller. he will join the army of the potomac which will have crossed the james river and moved on peetsburg. butler's army in the east,

hunters army with the calvary from the west. it's a brilliant plan if it works. so sheridan leaves on the morning of june 7 and within minutes the confederates know about it. why? because a servant who was loyal to the confed rassy left the union camp went straight to tom rosser and reported the movement of this large body of calvary. so robert e. lee is going to respond by sending hampton and lee's division to pe percil. there's nobody really in charge of this expedition. but hampton sort of is but sort of isn't because he doesn't have the authority. but somebody's got to have some ability to be in charge. so they follow along sheridan's and sheridan's gross inexperience as a calvarymen really begins to show for the simple reason as his column

marches across the virginia countryside, 9,000 men strong, he doesn't send out scouts. he's got no idea that hampton is in pursuit with two divisions. hampton's iron scouts on the other hand are buzzing all around the edges edges of this union colonel lum. sheridan has no idea that hampton is pursue -- pursuing. he hampton figures out that gordonsville is the objective. he uses the inside route and he gets squarely across sthare dan's line of march in a place called trufle station which is stop about cure eight miles east of gordonsville. the two manders are going to pitch their camps in the area to

the north of triffle station. sheridan again no scouts no flankers has no idea that fitz lee is in the town and hampton's division is at trevilian station and they begin to develop plans for the next day. the plans are sheridan is going to split his command. he's going to march through trevilian station, cross the railroad and head out in the direction of gordonsville. custer's column is going to take position just to send up some lee mpton's plan is fits will -- and they're going to pinch sheridan and push him back against the north anna river. the difference is the hampton

has got perfect intel and sthare dan has none. earlier in the morning, and i'm talking 4:00, 4:30 in the morning fitz lee marches up the and they engage with the seventh commission calvary, have a sharp little squirmish. fitz breaks off and falls back and we don't hear about him again for a number of hours. again, thinking these are bush whackers sends his guys marching down the mine creek road which is the road that he used to use as his flanking column. when they get to a crossroads called bibs crossroads at about 5:00 in the morning and the leader -- the fellow who's in the lead of the column at this ponet is the commander of the

second u.s. calvary, they run into picketts out there of the fifth and sixth south carolina of butler's command who opened fire and immediately captain did -- goes down. captain grdyoon comes up and takes command of the regimen. gordon gets captured almost immediately. within the open minutes of the battle, sheridan is down two commanders. they begin to fall back. in the meantime, the picketts do what they're supposed to do, which is send up the alarm. they begin to fall back. in the meantime, tom rosser and matthew butler have been talking and trying to understand exactly what they're role is to be in the plan and they decide they're going to ride over and go find wade hampton and ask him directly.

they find hampton sound asleep. they wake him up and they say to him general hampton, what's your plans for today? and the sleepy wade hampton looks at them and says my plan is to fight. and that's exactly what happens because by that time they hear the first shots. they ride out and they find the action on the fredericksburg stage road and they begin to commit forces to the fight. first butler's south carolinaian and then gilbert wright's combig aid and finally rosser's brigade. at one point there will be a rode -- it's one of those late 1890's met -- medal of honor were given for political reasons. he is one of my favorite soldiers. he will end up come back to

duty, will be wounded severely at third winchester and he lost an arm. he will still retire as a bridge deer general which considering he had no formal military training is pretty darn good. there will be a point where sheridan is going to engage. it's the one time that he was spotted -- that i could find in all the years i researched the battle of trevilian where i could find everyday of sthare dan actually being out on the front lines that day. there's a situation where hampton is beginning to get pressed. hampton is k -- being pressed. you see this little position, this is the little plateau. . wade hampton is going to ride off to find the only troops he can find which happens to be the

citadel cadet company. hampton will fall in with the citadel rangers and cam ton moses humphrey. carried a large broad sword and he will personally lead a the yankeeshing into calvary. he killed two of them. sthare dan sees this and he orders an attack. he calls over tom devin and he asks devin to send a unit. e will end up ordering the ninth new york command. they will make a dispointed attack that will hit hampton's line just at the right moment because hampton has ordered his command to fall back. as this ninth new york calvary

is kicking off, hampton is ordering his men to fall back. o they end up blame -- colonel sack et was killed in action. he was buried in a temporary grave on the battlefield and . 's quite a story i don't have time to get into it today. in any event, the reason why hampton is ordered to withdraw is custer column has come down the road and his turned out on to the gordonsville road, custer is the head of the column has spotted a glittering prize .ecause they're in front of him you see wade hampton's entire train. he spots this and without doing order, - he gives the

they come charging down the road in column of four. they crash into this confederate wagon train. they end up capturing much of it. he then starts to commit his other troops. one of the other units that will be committed here is the second nit in line, the sixth calvary command. kidd leads his unit into the direction of the wagon train. about this time, hampton has heard this chaos and orders his troops to begin falling back and the nearest unit to start pitching in. gettingdd and -- end up captured. kidd is freed by one of the quadrons of his company.

he survives andersonville. he then survives an explosion. he lived to the ripe old age of 85. this was a tough customer, folks . so custer pitches in blindly as was want to do and suddenly fitz lee division arrives on the field and custer finds himself completely in circle. it's a june day. custer has made a charge blindly into the enemy without doing any recognizance and has found himself surrounded and cut off. does this sound familiar? [laughter] this is custer's first land stand. the difference though is this time custer got reinforced but not for a while. he quickly reizes -- realizes

that he's in serious trouble. the officer that he's put in charge of the confederate train and rides over him, he says general where do you want me to take it. he says take it to the rear. then he turns to the officers and say where the hell is the rear? so having gotten his command into this terrible mess, custer was at his finest for the rest of the day. he fought bravely. at one point along with a couple of other men that he mustered around him made a dispointed attack in order to allow the gun crews of pennington's guns to escape. the gun crew was also tended by a fellow by the name of john kennedy and it was another soldier who was with him. kennedy and this other soldier respectively with the hand spike and with their rammer stood at the gun and defended it long enough to allow the rest of the

crew to escape. for their troubles they got a trip to andersonville. one of them did not survive. kennedy did survive. and in the 1890's got a very well deserved and much earned medal of honor for his stand at the guns. so custer is in trouble. he's complotely surrounded. he's being fought on all sides. in the meantime, toll bert is trying to find out what custer's disposition is. he starts sending staff officer after staff officer to try and find custer to find out what his dispositions are. one of the staff officers that got sent to him was captain marcus reno who didn't get through. another was captain john kay hopin jer who also was part of the rose butt bud in 1876.

george yates who was a company commander under custer at the little big horn was commander of a company in seventh michigan calvary that got surrounded and made it through the first land stand. finally, one of the staff officers gets through, toll bert finds out with the serious problem that custer's got. he orders an all out attack by is brigade and david gregg's two brigades also pitch in. en though custer and merritt didn't like each other, he actually told him how glad he was to see him that day. he's managed to keep the michigan calvary brigade in -- tucked into his uniform so that it would be safe. it's a big deal. one of the people who was captured was his black cook who was known as the queen of sheeba

for good reason. eliza was captured by the confederates when the wagon train was captured and so was custer's personal baggage and they ters for libby and were published in the richmond nupes. -- newspapers. she was so obnoxious that they sort of turned their backs and let her speak away and let her escape. that's how bad she was when she got captured. having liberated custer's he is seeingcan -- the elephant this day. it's his first fight and he gets killed in action during the

attack to breakthrough and free custerer's command. colonel mcallister is buried in will endery in -- what p happening is that rosser and butler will fall back and they'll fall back to a prominent ridgeline that's just to the west of trevilian station. nd as the afternoon is going away, they decide to make an attack. with rosser on one side and butler on the other, they're going -- going to launch an attack and this is one of only two mounted engagements during the entire battle. rosser is immediately wounded, bullet breaks his leg. he's carried off the field but not before telling colonel delaney that he believes that thrainy should not fight

dismounted. he should continue to fight mounted. this attack is repulsed by the union troops and that ends the fighting at the end of the first day at the battle of trevilian station. hampton is going to fall back to a position about three miles away. sheridan again, for reasons i cannot begin to comprehend, doesn't send out scouts. he just assumes that hampton has been beaten and has withdrawn and the battlefield is his. he has no idea that hampton's command is just about three miles away. none whatsoever. so hampton spends the night preparing an incredible stout defensive position that uses and f the railroad sheridan spend spends the morning having his troopers tearing up the railroad between luisa and trevilian station.

finally about 1:00 in the afternoon he tells toll bert to take his division and make its way to gordon'sville. because it's time for them to move on to gordonsville. so with custer in the lead, followed by merritt and devin, they move out and they see this defensive line that hampton has forged. they assume that this is infantry they're facing. cut -- custer makes an attack up the railroad tracks and falls back and refuses to attack again and is out of the fight for the rest of the day. which means the focus of the fighting shifts over here. there are seven union attacks launched if that position on the second day of the battle of trevilian station. by the end of the day, the two forces are no more than about 15 yards apart on either side of

the railroad tracks. in the meantime, lee's division has made a long flank march around and has gotten into osition such that lo max's brigade has gotten around and they have no idea he is there. -- rder is given that l with him attacking on the flight and with all of the rest of hampton's command attacking from the front, they roll up toll bert's plank and send his command off the field, ending the battle of trevilian station. sheridan claimed that this was a union victory. his orders are to go to gordons vill. he doesn't come close to

gordonsville. he doesn't come close to accomplishing any of the objectives that he's been sent on, and he calls it a victory. so it's kind of like richard nixon. declare victory and go home, like we did in vietnam. sheridan ends up not returning to the serve with the army for another 21 days because he ends up on this extended march. he ends up having to pick up most of the supply depot at white house landing. he's got to bring the forces back to the army of the potomac because on the 13th, the day after the second day of the mar ofs list ees grant across the river undetected. it's only because of a spectacular defense cobbled together with a scratch force that they're able to prevent

grant from taking petersburg on the 16th of june. on the way, sheridan fights another battle at a at a place .alled samaria church he pounced on gregg. think about this. seven brigades versus two. gregg was lucky to get out of there alive. nearly got captured himself on the way. i don't think he ever forgave david sheridan for that. i think it played heavily in his position to resign. i think he knew sheridan was going to be coming bab and i think he wanted no part of serving under him again. it's not documented and gregg was too much of a victorian gentleman to say such a thing. but i truly believe that's the case. so we have the trevilian raid.

ant's move on peterburg in purn meant that the army's were going it end up in basically seethe warfare. grant knew it and robert e. lee knew. and he knew that the numbers did not favor him in such an adventure. he knew from 1862 by sending jackson to the sthan dougha valley -- to the sthan dougha shaly that -- sthan dougha valley he could sthan dougha , on the 14th ugha the corps ends headed in the direction of lynchburg. they march through trevilian

station three days after the battle. by then the railroad is nearly repaired. they take the trains all the way to lynchburg and they arrive just in time to repulse david hunter's army which then falls back up the ohio river valley and is effectively out of the war for the better part of the month which freeze early to march down the shenandoah valley and advance on frederick, maryland. they finally defeat the forces there. they move forward and actually engage the outer defenses of washington which in turn forces the 19th and 6th corps to be detached and sent to defend washington, setting the stage for what phil will talk about this afternoon with the 1864 shenandoah valley cam bane. i'll suggest to you that by beating fill sthare dan at

trevilian station, this was a decisive battle of calvary fight. by defeating sheridan and his preventing him from linking up with hunter, that in turn enabled the movement to the valley. and the movement to the valley abought the confed rassy another six months of life that it otherwise might not have had because hampton defeated sheridan at trevilian station. i want to finish with a touching story. this is sergeant robert tolls. he had enlisted with his . others one of the brothers was killed in october of 1863. the other one was killed at todd's tavern.

robert towels was mortally wounded on the first day of trevilian station and he will daie few days later. his family decided that they were going to keep the brothers together even in death. the other two brothers were disentered and they were brought to luisa and all three of them rest under a single monument in the cemetery. it's a very moving thing. it's sort of akin to a civil war version of the saving private ryian type of a story. you can go visit the towles brothers to this day. there's another grave a few feet away that was to another sergeant of the fourth virginia who was mortally wounded carrying a wounded combat -- comrade off the field. and i have every reason to believe that the wounded comrade he was carrying was robert towles. you can go and visit the towles

brothers and you can spend some time and reflect on the single decisive calvary battle that was fought in the civil war. and i'll think you for your ime. >> i have a couple of questions. >> eric, you missed one major thing there that you didn't tell custer got his personal belongings confiscated he was left for one thing. we happen have to know what that is because we need to laugh about that. >> bill is referring to the fact that the only thing custer had left was his toothbrush. and he'll end up -- all of his possessions will end up in the

custody of tom rosser. he'll get his revenge on rosser at the battle of tom's brook in october of' 64 when he'll capture rosser's uniform. he'll end sending a note -- he and rosser were very close friends at west point. he'll end up sending a note saying hey the next time you have a uniform made, have it made a little shorter so it fits me beat better. >> i'm having a hard time imaging in my mind what it means to say custer and his brigade are surrounded by confederate calvary. now does that mean they're sort of in a circle pointing outwards because they've got a front completely around them or do they start dismounting? i'm trying to picture -- >> that's a good question. thank you. and i did neglect to raise a little point which i should. is tom rosser will hear the

commotion and will order his brigade without orders to do so to make a mounted charge and that's what actually crashes into custer's command. so they're being fought on the front by rosser when hampton falls back, they fall back to a middle position and fitd lee fills in. it is literally encircled. some of the veterans called it a living triangle. these guys are getting shot out at all sides. they do end up dismounting because their horses are a liability in those circumstances. they end up fighting in a circular position back toward the middle until they get relieved. >> [indiscernible] >> the question was did he continue to use standard tactics which is when you dismount calvary one out of every four ends upholding the horses of himself and three of his buddies.

somebody had to watch the horses and you've got to maintain the horses as safely as possible. the answer is yes, they did have o do that and use that tactic. >> [indiscernible] >> the question was -- the answer is by that time probably 85% of the army of the potomac's calvary corps had been armed with spencer car beans. they had an effective range of about 300 yards. confederates for the most part are going to be armed with a smattering of miscellaneous single shot such as the confederate sharps. ll of butler's brigade will be armed with rifles. there is a major difference in the technology and a major

difference in the weaponry used and it is that weaponry i think is one of the reasons why they wanted toll bert because that weaponry allows them to fight like infantry. and toll bert actually conducts much of the battle of trevilian station as if he were commanding infantry. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> by this time in the war a lot of soldiers have been away from their homes for about three to four years. there were letters sent home saying the farm is falling to pieces. they're taking supplies if us, when are you going to come home. there's a large problem with the decertifications at the time. it wasn't desertions from the standpoint of soldiers not wanting to go into battle but

their families really needed them back home. what lee had imposed was a fairly strict set of orders that desserters would be sometimes several definitely occurrences of this happened. the morale was so low about this lesmiserables came out. shelf. it on the >> every weekend we're marking the 150th anniversary with the civil war with our series about the people and the events that shaped the era, saturdays at 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. here on american history tv on c-span 3. >> monday night on the commune indicators, wade baker, chief

technology officer and security director for verizon on the recent data breaches. >> we have worked with law enforcement agencies who have busted down doors and dragged people out of their basements literally. have also participated in fairly large scale arrests of multiple individuals that are very highly connected together, we vl organized. .hey each have individual roles and ne writes the software another has the money. there are others that are working on behalf of the government. they have an office. there's recon photos and all of that kind of thing. they go to that building. that's their job is it hack into companies and steal information on behalf of the depoft. i've seen some photos of eastern

pals where an in-- in some towns where an insane number of people drive lamborghinis, a lot of that is the spam, the fake pharmaceuticals, the financial fraud, tax fraud and medicare fraud. it's a staggering amounts of money that are at some point along that chain traced back to data that was stolen, stored at a corporation or government. >> monday night at 8:00 eastern on the commune indicators on c-span 2. >> today at 4:00 p.m. eastern. the commission which investigated the november 22nd assassination of president john f. kennedy released its report in september 1964, 50 years ago. today at 4:00 p.m. eastern, cbs report 2 hour that details the findings.

it includes interviews with a cbs special report and the warren report, today at 4:00 p.m. eastern here on american history tv on c-span3. collegeckinson professor dissects steven spielberg's movie "lincoln." goes into the historical evidence of the events betrayed, but also highlights areas where steven spielberg exercises artistic freedom. this is a portion of the 2014 civil war symposium. it is about 45 minutes. speaker is matt