up the monacacy river we have the pike that goes straight to baltimore. then we have the railroad line, which comes straight down here from baltimore and the spur that goes straight from frederick, so you had north, south, east, west railroad hub and two roads that went right to baltimore. so it was not clear. there was panic in the streets in baltimore and in washington when they heard. and, of course, the rumors started flying. early had gained troops. they had about 14,000 troops on july 9th. the rumors were that he had 15,000, 20,000, 35,000 troops. so washington's command structure was fragmented. there were a lot of generals in washington, d.c. in fact, general hallock, henry hallock, who was the army chief of staff, at one point said we have plenty of generals, what we need is privates here. we need people to get to the barricades of washington. so that was the situation in washington. now back down in richmond, grant, when he learned what was happening here, did not want to send troops outside of richmond and petersburg, this was his grand plan to

it says frederick junction, but it's known as the monacacy junction then. the old train station was right behind us over here. and, in fact, these are the tracks that the troops came down from baltimore. anyway, after their vermonters finally couldn't take it anymore, they fled down the tracks, around the bentd, and the old railroad bridge over there, the ones they had to flee for their lives over while they were being shot at by the confederates. what you see in the back behind me, which has been restored by the national park service to the way it looked the day of the battle in 1864, this was the portion of the battle of monacacy, and what you're hearing is interstate 270 in the background, but what was here then was cornfields and wheatfields and they were crisscrossed by farm fences. it was not an ideal place to have a battle, especially if you were attacking, which the southerners were. so behind me, general john mccausland from louisiana, they were part of john brown gordon's brigade, they came right behind me and they got off their horses because i g

up the monacacy river we have the pike that goes straight to baltimore.re was panic in the streets in baltimore and in washington when they heard. and, of course, the rumors started flying. early had gained troops. they had about 14,000 troops on july 9th. the rumors were that he had 15,000, 20,000, 35,000 troops. so washington's command structure was fragmented. there were a lot of generals in washington, d.c. in fact, general hallock, henry hallock, who was the army chief of staff, at one point said we have plenty of generals, what we need is privates here. we need people to get to the barricades of washington. so that was the situation in washington. now back down in richmond, grant, when he learned what was happening here, did not want to send troops outside of richmond and petersburg, this was his grand plan to win the war. you can read the telegrams that went back and forth between washington and outside of richmond. you can read the memoirs of people on his staff. you can read the letters that they wrote. grant would not send troops, and finally he

it says frederick junction, but it's known as the monacacy junction then. the old train station was right behind us over here. and, in fact, these are the tracks that the troops came down from baltimore. anyway, after their vermonters finally couldn't take it anymore, they fled down the tracks, around the bentd, and the old railroad bridge over there, the ones they had to flee for their lives over while they were being shot at by the confederates. what you see in the back behind me, which has been restored by the national park service to the way it looked the day of the battle in 1864, this was the portion of the battle of monacacy, and what you're hearing is interstate 270 in the background, but what was here then was cornfields and wheatfields and they were crisscrossed by farm fences. it was not an ideal place to have a battle, especially if you were attacking, which the southerners were. so behind me, general john mccausland from louisiana, they were part of john brown gordon's brigade, they came right behind me and they got off their horses because i g

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 sooner. maybe a ma