sort of dry memoirs and lots of them and letters and so on, journals, and orders, here you get lew wallace who writes his memoir, you know, 40 years after the fact, writes it in a flowery 19th century novelist style. and when wallace says that they arrived here in the morning and lit their campfires, he'll say something like, you know, the steely sky gave way to a brilliant orange sun as we made our way down to the junction and the campfire smoke curled up, which was great. of course, you have to balance what wallace says in his memoir with his telegrams from the battlefield, his after-action report the day after, his after-action report two weeks later, because wallace had a way of making himself sound really good, and, you know s he did a very brave thing here, can't get away from that, and as i say in the book, i believe and i think the judgment of history is that what wallace did here, did save washington, d.c. so this battle took place on july 9th, 1864. right now it's november 2nd of 2007 and it's a beautiful fall day, but one thing to keep in mind about this battle was that it was v

number one, i do believe that what lew wallace did at monocacy stopped this from happening. he was released from his command after this battle but grant within two weeks reinstated him and grant writes in his memoirs, had wallace not on his own come down and blocked early for the day, early very, very well could have caused havoc in washington, d.c. so this is the battle that saved washington and changed the course of american history. you know, think about it, lee's fourth objective and probably his most important in his mind was to try to force grant to take troops out from around richmond and petersburg. grand didn't want to do it and waited until the last minute and finally did it and the number of troops went down drastically from like 137,000 at the end of june to almost like 70,000 two months later. this was grant's grand plan to end the war. yes, it did work but it didn't work until april of '65. if lee had not forced grant to do this, i really believe that the war could have ended sooner. maybe much sooner. maybe it was a matter of six months sooner, maybe three mont

hey here you get lew wallace who writes his memoir, you know, 40 years after the fact, writes it in a flowery 19th century novelist style. and you know, when wallace says that they araved here in the morning and they lit their campfires. he'll say something like that the steely sky gave way to a brilliant orange sun as we made our way down to the junction and the campfire smoke curled up. which is great. you have to balance what he says in his memoir with his telegrams, his after action report the day after and two weeks after. he had a way of making himself sound really good. and, you know, he did a very brave thing here. can't get away from that. as i said in the book, i believe and i think the judgment of history is that what wallace did here did save washington, d.c. so this battle took place on july 9th, 1864. right now it's november 2 nt of 2007 and it's a beautiful fall day. one thing to keep in mind about this battle was that it was very hot. it had to be in the mid to upper 90s and very humid. wallace set up headquarters on a very good tactical spot and that was on the east b

confederate troops were loose in the streets of washington, d.c., so number one, i do believe that what lew wallace did at monacacy did save this from happening. wallace was relieved of his command after he lost that battle, but within two weeks, grant had reinstated him and grant writes in his memoirs and just about everyone else who knows about this agrees, had wallace not on his own blocked early for an entire day, early very well, very well could have caused havoc in washington, d.c., so this is the battle that saved washington and changed the course of american history. you know, think about it. lee's fourth objective and probably his most important in his mind was to try to force grant to take troops out from around richmond and petersburg. grant didn't want to do it. he wait the until the last minute and finally did it. the number of troops went down drastically from like 137,000 at the end of june to like almost 70,000 two months later. it did work but it didn't work until april '65. if lee had not forced grant to do this, i really believe that the war could have ended sooner. maybe much so

sort of dry memoirs and lots of them and letters and so on, journals, and orders, here you get lew wallace who writes his memoir, you know, 40 years after the fact, writes it in a flowery 19th century novelist style. and when wallace says that they arrived here in the morning and lit their campfires, he'll say something like, you know, the steely sky gave way to a brilliant orange sun as we made our way down to the junction and the campfire smoke curled up, which was great. of course, you have to balance what wallace says in his memoir with his telegrams from the battlefield, his after-action report the day after, his after-action report two weeks later, because wallace had a way of making himself sound really good, and, you know s he did a very brave thing here, can't get away from that, and as i say in the book, i believe and i think the judgment of history is that what wallace did here, did save washington, d.c. so this battle took place on july 9th, 1864. right now it's november 2nd of 2007 and it's a beautiful fall day, but one thing to keep in mind about this battle was that it was v

lew wallace was another interesting character and he was from indiana and from a prominent family.iana when the war started. he was their leader. he scored an early victory right after first manassas when the union was looking for heroes and the union press played him up very big and he became a general. that was his high point. his low point was at the battle of shiloh when his regiment got lost the first night. probably not his fault. rough terrain, bad weather, dark, fog of war situation. but grant and halleck were very upset after shiloh. he did fight the second day but they shoved him to the side after that. and his job was, at this point in the war, the commander of the unions middle atlantic department, which was basically his job was military governor of baltimore. well, reading the same intelligence that the union high command got, didn't do anything about, wallace did something about. now, the other thing that helped him here, the head of the b & l railroad, a man named john garret, had his network and station managers sending tell grahams back saying there's an entire co

confederate troops were loose in the streets of washington, d.c., so number one, i do believe that what lew wallace did at monacacy did save this from happening. wallace was relieved of his command after he lost that battle, but within two weeks, grant had reinstated him and grant writes in his memoirs and just about everyone else who knows about this agrees, had wallace not on his own blocked early for an entire day, early very well, very well could have caused havoc in washington, d.c., so this is the battle that saved washington and changed the course of american history. you know, think about it. lee's fourth objective and probably his most important in his mind was to try to force grant to take troops out from around richmond and petersburg. grant didn't want to do it. he wait the until the last minute and finally did it. the number of troops went down drastically from like 137,000 at the end of june to like almost 70,000 two months later. it did work but it didn't work until april '65. if lee had not forced grant to do this, i really believe that the war could have ended sooner. maybe much so

sort of dry memoirs and lots of them and letters and so on, journals, and orders, here you get lew wallaceky gave way to a brilliant orange sun as we made our way down to the junction and the campfire smoke curled up, which was great. of course, you have to balance what wallace says in his memoir with his telegrams from the battlefield, his after-action report the day after, his after-action report two weeks later, because wallace had a way of making himself sound really good, and, you know s he did a very brave thing here, can't get away from that, and as i say in the book, i believe and i think the judgment of history is that what wallace did here, did save washington, d.c. so this battle took place on july 9th, 1864. right now it's november 2nd of 2007 and it's a beautiful fall day, but one thing to keep in mind about this battle was that it was very, very hot. they didn't have thermometers or no one referred to a thermometer in their memoirs or at the time, but had to be in the mid to upper 90s and very humid. wallace set up headquarters in a very good tactical spot and that was on the