bloodied hosts gravitated toward a place of cold harbor. soldiers found it more a bake oven than cold. cold harbor was a little more than a dusty intersection of two country roads. as may turned into june it was obvious to both sides that the escalating skirmishes were reaching a point of a full scale battle. grant's resolve was as strong as ever. however, his opponent was not in good health. overlooked throughout the last few years was the fact that the war had taken a heavy toll on robert e lee, then 57. he has suffered already in the war a broken hand a sprained wrist, rheumatism, in the previous year, a massive heart attack for which there was no treatment or cure or medication. these sapped lee's strength. as he inspected his lines at the opening of june, lee was not a top traveler. he was in a civilian carriage. he did not have the strength to ride a horse. nevertheless, lee's soldiers had become champion engineers and at some point, they had but hours to construct earthworks and sometimes one to two days. as with the case at cold harb

i try and understand why cold harbor on june 3. i don't think we need the maneuvering that led up to cold harbor. i need to understand why grant would commit to that. and obviously there's a short history here beginning at the wilderness that leads up to the culmination on june 3. >> uh-huh. >> how can we explain this? >> a lot of people have looked at that and grant was heavily criticized for his attack at cold harbor. if you look at what he was thinking at the time, though, there were very good reasons. by the time the armies had gotten down from cold harbor, they were seven or eight miles from richmond. richmond was in the confederate rear and of course, there was a river between the confederates and richmond. a good chance to attack the confederats because they could be overrun. lee had gotten some reinforcements but there were still a lot available and grant wanted to attack before lee got fully reinforced. and lee's anchor was basically on two streams and grant had no good way to flank him out of position. grant was about as

army of the potomac and a portion of the army of the james pulled away from the fortifications at cold harbor and began the movement toward petersburg. some troops to the bermuda region north of petersburg to begin the attack on the city the following day of june 15th. petersburg in 1860 had been virginia's second largest city. with a population 18,266 folks. since the war of 1812, it had been referred to as the -- four railroads radiated from the city by 1860. the petersburg railroad which ran south to weldon, north

at more people die in the bloody angle than die at cold harbor. what we view those actions wa significantly differently. the real question is, was there any payoff? pay the answer is no. there's no payoff.om >> he talked about with people from the beginning of the campaign, there's an idea that a will go around, that all of a sudden, inspiration struck grang on june 4th or 5th.he jam i guesses we'll go to the army the james, just call amazon prime and get pontoons moved to the james river. >> grant had a much better understanding logistics. rather he thought about this ino the u beginning.kn go across st. ped to the james. the failure to take petersburg, and the story of this being a matter of time. robert e. lee.hought i it's not a matter of time, everyone forgets the matter of time that is involved here is o that it's aof presidential election year, you're going to run out of time on the first two -- in november, 1864.cumben. you have to produce the resultsu that persuade the electorate to elect the incumbent. the last president to be renominate

overland campaign in virginia, including the battle of the wilderness, spotsylvania court house, and cold harborthey explore the tactics of generals robert e lee and ulysses s. grant and compare the two leaders. this event was part of the gettysburg college civil war institute annual summer conference. it runs about an hour.

at more people die in the bloody angle than die at cold harbor. what we view those actions wa significantly differently. the real question is, was there any payoff? pay the answer is no. there's no payoff.om >> he talked about with people from the beginning of the campaign, there's an idea that a will go around, that all of a sudden, inspiration struck grang on june 4th or 5th.he jam i guesses we'll go to the army the james, just call amazon prime and get pontoons moved to the james river. >> grant had a much better understanding logistics. rather he thought about this ino the u beginning.kn go across st. ped to the james. the failure to take petersburg, and the story of this being a matter of time. robert e. lee.hought i it's not a matter of time, everyone forgets the matter of time that is involved here is o that it's aof presidential election year, you're going to run out of time on the first two -- in november, 1864.cumben. you have to produce the resultsu that persuade the electorate to elect the incumbent. the last president to be renominate

he will write one more volume from cold harbor. >> it is getting near completion. [applause] >> thank you so much, gordon. >> you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook. >> up next, author and national parks service historian jerome greene talks about his book, "american carnage, wounded knee, 1890." the book takes a comprehensive look at south dakota massacre, the causes and the aftermath. talk, he recounts firsthand recollections from lakota indians about the day in which the u.s. cavalry fired on their camp. the kansas city public library hosted this program. >> i am curious how many of you have heard of wounded knee before today? it is well-known next to the battle of the little bighorn. my first knowledge came from school, probably junior high school. i grew up in northern new york state. i remember reading in the magazines of the day, this is way back in 1958, 1959, probably most of you were not even around then. i remember reading in the pulp magazines of the day that provided f

overland campaign in virginia, including the battle of the wilderness, spotsylvania court house, and cold harbor. they explore the tactics

army of the potomac and a portion of the army of the james pulled away from the fortifications at cold harbor and began the movement toward petersburg. some troops to the bermuda region north of petersburg to begin the attack on the city the following day of june 15th. petersburg in 1860 had been virginia's second largest city. with a population 18,266 folks. since the war of 1812, it had been referred to as the -- four railroads radiated from the city by 1860. the petersburg railroad which ran south to weldon, north carolina. the richmond in petersburg, obviously connecting those two places. the south side which ran from city point, modern day hopewell, virginia, through petersburg, to lynchburg. and the norfolk and petersburg. in addition to petersburg's railroads, the city possessed four cotton factories, three flour mills, four iron foundries and three planing mills. the discussion we were just having about the importance of places are going to be cranking out supplies and food for the confederacy throughout the war. in addition to that industrial activity, the confederacy operated severa

during the preceding 24 months before june 1st, 1864, before the fighting at cold harbor, lee had lost roughly 100,000 men. of course, he was keenly aware of his diminished strength, but at the start of the overland campaign, robert e. lee was still searching for that elusive victory of annihilation, or you can call it an american waterloo. what's really odd here is lee's thinking on this subject, after 1863, in no way evolved, or changed many of his peers, especially on the union side, they had adjusted to the reality of civil war warfare. they recognized that civil war armies were virtually indestructible. and that the battlefield almost never resulted in decisive strategic results. '64, lee has the grandiose plans. and the expectation that grant would be destroyed in a single battle. what's surprising is the southern press and the southern people, they were modest, and realistic in their expectations. this was not the case in the north. brook simpson wrote a very good piece called "great expectations." if you've got your pen out here, to write down the book titles, this is a fine vo

she graduated from cold spring harbor high school in new york in 1973, the year i was born.ucers are telling us. sweet us your guesses. ♪ >> live from bloomberg headquarters in new york, this is "market makers," with erik schatzker and stephanie ruhle. >> welcome that. -- back. >> i am matt miller, in four erik schatzker. he is on personal business. week to fed meets next decide the next move in monetary policy, tonight yellen will find a few empty seats. there are still two vacant seats on the board of governors and time is running out for president obama to get them filled before the end of the year. peter cook has more on this story and why can't -- i don't understand why we feel like the president cannot do this by january when it is july right now. calendar, but it is not the washington calendar. right now, effectively, time is running out to get anything done in washington, including naming two more people to sit on the board of governors. there are 12 legislative days between now and the midterm elections in november. after that, maybe they come back for a lame-duck s

the idea that iran is going to advance -- iran has played hot and cold with al qaeda. they have harbored senior al qaeda people. i would be awfully careful about working with a country that is so vocally for trade us as the enemy and supports terrorism. >> let's go back to maliki. everyone agrees he is a disaster. the iraqis are struggling for a replacement. one name is mentioned. critics say that he played a role in going to war in 2003. what would be your view of him as the new prime minister? >> i'm somebody who wanted to install them as -- first of all, i would be labeled as someone who would want us to install a prime minister. i never thought it was our place to install prime minister. unfortunately, we have done a lot to damage our relationship with him. we went after him in 2004. i think some of it may have been fair and some unfair. no one in that system is an angel. chalabi is not an angel. you have to be careful who you work with but you need to work with everybody. the problem is now that we put them in a situation where he has become much too close to iran. i would worry abo

cold front finally arrives. down the shore lots of clouds but the future is looking bright, melissa is in stone harbor. hey melissa. >> hey there cecily, as you have been saying, the humidity is dropping and we felt the decrease in humidity throughout the day in stone harbor, a big celebration as we celebrate christmas in july, he is off with rudolph and his elves, getting ready for the holiday season. we have the shore forecast covered for you tomorrow for friday high pressure stays in control and it's a good looking day sunny and nice, we get into saturday, a mix of sun and clouds and 80 degrees, the humidity will start to come up late in the afternoon on saturday, otherwise it's still a good looking day, by sunday, sunshine and clouds, a high of 86 and warmer by sunday with a thunderstorm around as we get into the late evening hours, i think most of the day down at the shore on sunday looks to be dry. we are having a fantastic time in stone harbor, as they continue to enjoy their centennial this year. cecily if you are not in stone harbor hopefully you have fun at the shore. >> cecily i hope you giv

harbor. heavy downpours working to the east. it was a squall line that main line of storms ahead of a cold front that slowly is moving in that produced the powerful wind gusts. and philadelphia reporting a washington at 59 miles-an-hour. and lancaster 58. wilmington is 51. south of allentown 51-mile wind gusts. we have lots of report was trees and power lines scattered across our viewing area. expect for the shores as the stormed weakened. a lot of people without electricity. i have been getting a lot of scenes like this from my twitter account. the tree toppled over to her pool. a lot of cleanup on the way tomorrow. more what to expect behind the system in the full accuweather forecast. jim. >>> thank you, cecily. and chad is live in mount airy. what have they seen? >>reporter:a lot of damage. you know this was a fast-moving storm. when it hit it hit hard with the strong winds. this is the scene on the 600 block of vernon. decade-old trees snapped like a toothpick. it brought down power lines. it has played across the region. this was in old baltimore pike. the storm hit quickly but it packed a punch. >> loud wind came through and c

the picture from national harbor, a picture of the woodrow wilson bridge. the first line of storms just moved out. the cold front causing all this is well back to the west. until that cold front clears the i-95 corridor, we can't give the all clear. it's on southern maryland and the eastern shore right now. it's lifting to the northeast. a severe storm warning on the bay bridge of the eastern shore. in southern maryland, the storms are packing a punch. they are not severe, but the rain is coming down in buckets across calvert and much of st. mary's county. you can stee lightning taking place here. this is a serious thunderstorm. you need to be inside, for sure, for 30 to 45 minutes past williams wharf and mechanicsville. that's where the worst of the weather is now. there's signs of more showers that could become thunderstorms west near i-81. that's a little closer to the cold front and they may intensify as they come back into the warmer, more humid air here in the mountains. that's the next line we need to watch very, very carefully. the latest high resolution trend says that's not quite as strong as the

harbor fest in boston all weekend long. terrific weather there. arthur is moving out to sea. the cold waters of in the north atlantic.ather in its wake. still rain showers there for portions of maine. we talked about that earlier. severe weather, mostly across the northern plains. thunderstorms across the south. we're talking the gulf coast. also through florida. comfortable heat. temperatures in the 80s and lower 90s. lower temperatures for kentucky and tennessee. the monsoon is back up and running against in the desert southwest. expect afternoon >> reporter: good morning, everyone, i'm meteorologist chris sowers with this accuweather update. looks like a fantastic weekend for the delaware valley, 83 this afternoon, 87 tomorrow, heat wave number two begins on >> okay, that weather report brought to you by bush's baked beans. ryan, bianna? did i get it right? >> you got it. >> you got it. >> someone did it. >> yea. >>> coming up on "good morning america," who is hacking celebrity twitter accounts? the big names forced to denounce outrageous stories. and how you can protect your own. >>> the cat determined to master

harbor here. >> william kristol, thank you so much. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >>> a polar invasion with potentially record cold temperaturesmidwest, making parts of the country feel like a chilly fall day today but in new york city's rockefeller plaza it was chilly for a different reason. matt lauer survived the ice bucket challenge. someone challenges you to pour a bucket of ice water over your head, accept or donate money to charity. if you complete the challenge, you pass it on as hall of famer greg norman today to "today's" matt lauer and bill clinton. lauer accepted with chilling consequences. we don't know what the former president did. >> okay. here we go! >> impressive. >> is my hair messed up? >> no. >> all right. so now i am calling out brian williams, martha stewart and howard stern. >> over to you, brian. ever the class act, eastbound though he accepted the challenge, matt is donating money to charity, a very cool move. now the challenge is on. avo: waves don't care what age you are. take them on the way you always have. live healthy and take one a day men's 50+. a complete multivitamin with 7 antioxidants to s

harbor? >> that's a question. >> yeah? >> was it china? >> china? >> i don't know. >> close? >> korea, right? >> i don't think korea. >> not korea. >> russia? >> not russirussia. >> was it the koreans? >> japan. >> very good. >> who won the coldar? >> i'm not the best historian here but -- >> you don't say? >> the russians won. >> no one. didn't we just like agree to disagree? >> america and russia came out together after world war ii, kind of shaky, kind of frenemies. i feel bad. i'm blaming everything on the french. >> i'd say we won because our goal was to stop communism to spread. >> who did we fight against? >> i'll say usr. >> ussr? >> yeah, usssr. >> why did they call it the cold war? >> i think it was cold in russia, right? >> because like no one was making advances, right? it wasn't like an actual fighting. >> which dictator did the u.s. topple in iraq? >> what do you mean, topple? osama bin laden. >> osama bin laden. >> you know, we kill everybody. >> you mean we bring them to justice. >> yeah, we bring them to justice. >> saddam hussein. >> which president took him out? >> that wouldn't be barack obama? >> obama. >> obama. >> no, no. it was g.w.? >> it was bush. >> it was george bush. >> which one? >> w. >> i feel