Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Civil War 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign 20240713

Him as an upandcoming young historian in 2004, when he was on our History Panel when we study the 1864 Valley Campaign early that year. He returned to us in 2007, when we studied the second manassas campaign, and again in 2009, when we studied the 1862 Valley Campaign. In 2012, he was with us for a look at the 1863 battle of chancellorsville, and in 2013, when we studied the prelude to gettysburg, the armies moved north. Scott has written numerous articles and books. The forgotten fury, the battle in 1996,nt, published shenandoah summer, the 1864 Valley Campaign, published by the university of North Carolina press in 2009, second manassas, long street attack, published by the potomac press in 2011, and also that year, the battle of piedmont and hunters raid on staten, published by the history press, and in 2013, the last battle of winchester. And sheraton, jubal early, the 1864 shenandoah Valley Campaign, published by bd. In addition to his articles and books, he served for 10 years on the board for the Battle Association and served twice as the president of the soul ar civil war roundtable. Scott has worked with the Shenandoah Valley foundation on updating, and frankly, correcting the battlefield interpretation of the third winchester battlefield. For now, over 600 battles, acres of battlefield have been saved thanks to the good work of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefield Foundation and the civil war trust. An accomplishment that has virtually saved an entire battlefield from certain destruction. Scott has recently completed the editing of the journal of union kernel, a Division Commander and general george crookes eighth corps, which was in service under the army of the sherman donna, shenandoah. He was third leader in the battle of winchester. Scott tells me he is now completing a volume on the battle of jonesboro and shermans capture of atlanta. We look forward to the publication. He is not only an accomplished battlefield guide, but also knows his way around the revolutionary war sites from new york to georgia. We are truly lucky to have him with us on sunday. Let us welcome scott as he tells us about a shenandoah summer from the perspective of the united states. Scott patchin. [applause] scott good evening and thank you for having me back here. It is always a pleasure to be speaking to the Heritage Association here in middleburg. On the morning of july 14, 1864, as the first rays of the sun came through in the eastern horizon, the tired men of the army of the Valley District splashed into the cool waters of the Potomac River and crossed over at whites ferry. The army would spend the next 36 hours resting near big spring north of leesburg, virginia. It had been a Hard Campaign with a lot of hard marching on extremely hot days during the march to washington, d. C. , and the return back to the old dominion. One north carolinians later wrote, if the old gentleman did marches very hard, and if we did say some emphatic things about him at the time when the hot sun was overcoming this, we beg his pardon because he is the only man who has ever given sap get the dome of the yankee capital. Jubal early indeed was a unique personality. I have a couple of anecdotal stories. We will hear a lot about him throughout the weekend. We heard some already. A couple of stories will sum up the type of guy he was. One time during the shenandoah Valley Campaign in 1864 when a group of the Senior Officers were all sitting around and a a lot of these Staff Officers came from prominent virginia families. They refer to their families as f. F. V. The first families of virginia. While early is from kentucky, he was asking these families what f. F. V. s . All these what happened to the second families of virginia . One chimed into jubal early, they moved to kentucky. [laughter] late 1864, early 80s exceed five, jubal early, not known for being a churchgoer, attended a service with a staff officer. Outside of the church was a large graveyard, and as part of the sermon that day, the pastor asked a rhetorical question to the congregation and says, what would you do if the lord came down right now and he raised every man in that graveyard up from the dead . He leans over and he thinks he is whispering into the ear of the staff officer, but he is speaking so everyone else in the church can here and he says, i would constrict every damn one of them into the army. All jubal was certainly a character. One thing i want to say about him, when he was highly motivated to serve robert e lee, and when that commission he was on, he was at his best. Early was 1864, jubal at the pinnacle of his career as a commander in the army of northern virginia. Now, this man pictured on the screen now is Major General Horatio Wright, commander of the six core, placed in command of the troops who had come to washington to save it from his capture. When he slips away from washington on the night of july writes says it takes 21 hours before he can take his troops there almost a full day, so early will have an easy time with the exception of rearguard action. Horatio wright will not only have the sixth floor, but he will have the vanguard of the 19th army corps, which was supposed to go from louisiana to petersburg but was diverted up to washington because of the crisis induced by jubal earlys invasion. Time,t that point in Horatio Wright is going to pursue him out to the Potomac River. He is going to arrive on the maryland side of the potomac on the morning of july 16. Find jubale, he will early has already begun to retreat from leesburg. He islizes that potentially in a dangerous situation. Marquette alluded to hunters failed Lynchburg Campaign and what had happened was after they were forced to retreat in the mountains of West Virginia, he will show up in western maryland about the 13th and 14th, and he will be in position coming up around Harpers Ferry and martinsburg, which is above it but off the map, so there will be a large union force of about 14,000 union men approaching early from the west at the same time that Horatio Wright will have a force that will ultimately get up to 15,000 men moving on early, pursuing him out of washington, d. C. Most people do not realize how close of a thing it is at jubal early will escape. On the 16th of july, Major General george crook, this man pictured here, is placed in command of the troops from West Virginias army. That is hunters force, moving in from the west. Hes going to have 8000 men stationed around hillsboro, virginia. His job is to intercept the retreat of the army. He is going to send calvary south, about 500 men, south from hillsborough. He is going to hit the center of jubal earlys retreating column. They will capture and burn about 50 wagons and teamsters before a general comes up drives out the union raiders. I just wanted to show you how close a run it was that you were early escaped. One of the things that is often lost to history is the reason that early is able to escape and doesnt have the entire army blocking his path, the rivers in West Virginia were at low water. When they were treated in that direction, they thought they were going to be able to take riverboats and get on the railroad and the back in time to confront the threat. However, Mother Nature helped the confederacy at that time and cost them several days. It is because of that that jubal early will slip by. At this point, Horatio Wright would have been content to stay on the east bank and head back to washington. His orders were to ensure that the confederate were in full retreat. And to make a Good Campaign of it. Wright just heard get back as quickly as you can to petersburg. But Horatio Wright was a dutiful soldier. When he learned that crook was out with 8000 men going against early with 16,000 men, he would probably crosses force over on the they would unite on the 17th 16th. , and together, the forces would begin advancing toward the stickers cap. On the 17th, crook would send of calvary under the command general alfred, and they would t isover that the for blocked by john gordons division of infantry. And the federals are going nowhere. So they are going to wait until the next day and report back to Horatio Wright who was the overall commander. Wright is going to formulate a plan. George crook is going to take the lead. His orders are to cross the river and attack the enemy if practicable. And then the sixth corps and the rest of the army would follow suit. George crook the next morning writes back to his Department Commander, general hunter, at Harpers Ferry, and tells him i am going to attack enemy. There are no if practicals in george crooks communication. I hasten to say that if it werent for crooks presence, i dont think there would have been much in the way of any military action that would have come out of the pursuit of jubal early. On the 18th, the cavalry is isiving and the calvary already in position, and him and general Horatio Wright will study the layout of the confederate position from high they willluff and conclude, well, the confederates have a strong force in position here at the Shenandoah River crossing, but i think what we should do is march our troops under cover of the bluffs northward about two miles, cross ford, at at island dead center of the map, and once our troops are on the west bank of the Shenandoah River, they south andto head back take john b. Gordons division and its northern flank, drive it away, clear the crossing of the Shenandoah River and the rest of Horatio Wrights army will cross the river and pursue early and attack him as the opportunity persists. Such was the plan. Such was the plan. As we know, plans on the battlefield seldom last once the reality of the situation hits. George crook would place this flanking force of about 5000 men total under the command of a medical doctor from West Virginia. He started the war as a surgeon in the first West Virginia infantry. When it reorganized for the duration of the war later in 1861, he was selected to be the colonel of the regiment. Under hunters command, he would leave his brigade in an attack that broke through the confederate lines at piedmont in a battle that led the way to opening up lynchburg. Is quite an experienced combat officer. July 18, 1864, is his first opportunity as a Division Commander in crooks army. He will make the most of it. And he will find himself with one of the most challenging days of his military life. When he gets down to the river, he is going to get to the River Crossing at 3 30. Hes going to get his troops across. Right away he realizes that he , is getting reports in from skirmishers and scouts that theres large federal Confederate Forces coming into position all around him. He halts any further advance and begins positioning his troops on the bluff immediately in front of the Shenandoah River. He sends a courier back to Horatio Wright and george crook saying this plan is not going as expected i dont have a clear to snickers ferry. I am blocked in by a division approaching from the west and there are dust clouds off to the north which seem to indicate that a large confederate force is moving toward my northern flank. This courier quickly takes the information back to george crook at his headquarters overlooking snickers ferry. And crook is alarmed. He turns to Horatio Wright and asks him for permission to withdraw the division back to the east bank of the river. Horatio wright says no, im going to reinforce him with rick gates division. That division had just come to the gap and its going to be more than an hour to 1. 5 hours before he is going to arrive on the scene of the battle. Before that can happen, all fury is going to be unleashed on the division. His right flank is going to be attacked by a division of 3500 men strong. It will be smashed. Unfortunately, manning that they were 1000 dismounted cavalry men. They were composed of hodgepodge units and individual men from every regiment in the cavalry corps. They had been sent up to washington, d. C. , as a unit and armed as infantrymen and they broke at the first fire and retreat back across the river in confusion. His entire force is going to be knocked into a position along the riverbank. Theyre going to fall back after taking heavy losses. Theyre going to be in a sunken e path forwas a tot boats. At the top of that road was a stonewall so they had a readymade earthwork. Behind them on the east bank are going to be several batteries of Union Artillery that are going to preclude largescale troop movements by reinforcements and an attempt to move forward. Rhodess men will attempt to charge down and drive him into the river. But they will hold out until darkness. He will leapfrog his troops across the river in darkness, leaving the regiment on the island, and sending another one back across until finally his entire army is safely on the other bank. Now im going to come back and talk about general James Ricketts and george crook. Etts arrives on the scene he is going to find , everything in confusion. The men are coming back across the river in confusion. He has to make a tough military decision. From a military perspective, what was there to gain by taking his 3000 men attempting to cross the river in the face of not only the retreating fugitive but the gunfire of roads men on the west bank . Nothing. Nothing could be saved except that he would get caught up in the confusion. He makes the hard decision. Crook is furious. Crook wanted to pull him back initially and he was told by wright that ricketts would go and help him. He appeals to wright to overrule understoodut wright the situation. The men caught never for gave ricketts for not coming to their aid. It would be something that crook held a bitterness toward the six ps until the day he died. The day after this battle which men theh sides 400 , fight along the riverbank was all that was a clear tactical victory, those men held out until darkness and put an end to the fighting. They had a moral victory that they always relished as they grew older and went to their reunions. The next day, the action is going to shift nine miles to the south as the crow flies. Wright is going to send his calvary to break through the confederate lines where route 50 goes through ashbys gap and crosses the Shenandoah River. Ufia would meet with no Better Success to the south. He would be met by those brigades in that action. At this point, the campaign if its starting to end. Early is feeling pressure from ashby on the southern flank. From the north, hunter is starting to send troops down threatening the flank and rear. He has a brigade under future president rutherford b. Hayes that on the 19th will move south. Brigades moving south towards rutherfords farm on the 19th. Jubal early is feeling the pressure on both his flanks and the rear of his army when he is stationed at berryville. He realizes that to stay there with this gathering large union army approaching nearly 30,000 men strong is a risky business. He decides right then and there that on the night of the 19th of july, he is going to begin a retreat 20 miles to fishers hill slightly off the map in the lefthand corner. Jubal early is going to send one division. The commander will go to winchester. He is an aggressive young tar heel and he has only been a Division Commander for a couple of months. He had a rather costly incident that cost him hundreds of men killed and wounded. Early, knowing of his impetuosity, gives him strict orders to take position in the northern defenses of winchester. Do not go out looking for a fight. Your job is to cover the withdrawal of the wounded men and supplies from the warehouses in the town of winchester. He gets a from the cavalry that there is a small force of federals coming down the pipe toward winchester. Letsvalry convinces him go wife these guys out. He has another 4000 or 4500 cavalry and artillery under his command. The other who is moving southward only has 2000 men. The odds are in his favor. Be that as it may, he goes out against orders, and as he is deploying his troops to attack, he hits the left flank of the line and that is pretty much all she wrote. His men will be ratcheted from the battlefield. They will lose nearly 400 men killed, wounded, and captured. This was the only success that the union had in their pursuit of jubal early. Early rides north toward winchester when he hears of the disaster. One of the commands under him was jubal earlys old brigade and they were mad as when its. Hornets. And they say dont blame us, the other is to blame. A number of the soldiers choked afterwards. They talked about this battle. One virginia cavalryman who was part of the confederate force wrote in his memoirs, he said , the name that stuck amongst the soldier was the battle of ramseurs butt. It is at this point on the 20th that Major General Horatio Wright makes the decision. It is at this point that he realizes that early is in full excuse washington me, in full retreat back to richmond. He was not in full retreat. Horatio wright begins an overnight march back to washington, d. C. Many of the veterans thought it was funny that the advance had taken so long and it was so slow while they were pursuing early out to the valley they wondered , what was happening in washington that they were heading back so quickly. Rumors are floating amongst the men in the ranks that hill was driving over lands toward psexandria and the six cor had to get back to save washington from hill. There was no threat to washington. He was anxious to get back to serve. Ricketts is going to take command of a consolidated force. All the troops that hunter had been sending southward toward winchester plus all of the West Virginia troops that participated at the battles of snickers and ashbys gap would consolidate. It all comes to maybe 13,000 men 12,000, strong. Jubal early and his force, hes going to have a lot of his cavalry remounted and its going to grow significantly in strength. He will have an army of about 16,000 men at fishers hill on july 27. July 22 is an interesting time because in the official records of the war, both of these men have interesting correspondences that are going to set the stage for the rest of this campaign. George crook, great friend of sheridan at this point in the war, he writes back to his Department Commander hunter at Harpers Ferry and tells him that jubal early, this force is too strong. I dont have the manpower nor the combat experience for the little army of West Virginia to go toetotoe with the army of the Valley District in the open field. Im going to hang out at winchester for a couple of days and hopefully early is going to send his troops back to richmond. He has a very accurate assessment of the situation in the valley and crook also has a prudent plan of action of how he can accomplish his mission. His mission is to pursue the enemy. But to stay between the enemy and the Potomac River because the last thing grant once is a replay of earlys maryland raid. He is going to try to carry out those orders to the best of his ability. Jubal early, he gets communications from robert e. Lee on july 22. Robert e. Lee is full into the midst of the siege of petersburg in richmond against the army of the potomac and the james under general grant. We tells him, if you stay out in the Shenandoah Valley you can , stay as long as you want. All you have to do is make sure the troops under Horatio Wright, about 15,000 men, make sure they dont show up back in petersburg. The very next day, early is going to send his cavalry out in force and they are going to drive the Union Cavalry almost all the way back to winchester. Theyre going to capture several officers. From these officers, they are going to learn that Horatio Wright headed back to washington a couple days ago. Jubal early wastes no time and he gives the orders for his army to go on the offensive against george crook the following day. His army will be stationed, the vanguard of his army will be stationed around the village of kearns down three miles south of winchester. The senior officer of the Infantry Division is colonel James Mulligan from chicago, illinois. He was very popular and wellknown during the civil war. One of his fellow Division Commanders noted that he was perhaps more popular out of the army than within the army. Mulligan longed for a battlefield command. He started off the war in 1861 as the commander of a garrison at lexington, missouri, and it gets surrounded by a large confederate force that outnumbered him four to one. He is going to hold out for about a week or so and earn a lot of praise at a time when bull run was going on and there was a lot of negativity. He showed some gusto. Anyway he will be surrounded and , forced to capitulate. While he is going to be paroled and in this extended time of six months, he is not allowed to take part in active military operations. What he does is travel across the northern states. Giving talks to rouse the irishamerican population to join the union cause. He is very successful with this. The war during the 1860 president ial elections, he became prominent in the Democratic Political machine of chicago. He was a Stephen Douglas democrat. When that election was going on, back in the day there were no tv interviews or airplanes going city to city. The candidates would have spokesmaen. It was important for you to have men in various communities telling those people about your stand and rallying them to vote for you. Mulligan came onto the scene as a prominent and fiery speaker on behalf of Stephen Douglas. He has some popularity and fame throughout the north even though military wise, he really doesnt have much experience to bring to the table. His hopes in 1862, he thought he was going to get his chance to join the irish brigade from the army of the potomac. This is in the days just after the battle of antietam. Mulligans 23rd illinois which he called the irish brigade of chicago is put on the trains. Theyve been guarding the railroad in West Virginia. He gets dropped off short of joining the army of the potomac. The army of the potomac would march away leaving mulligan for the next two years in the mountains of West Virginia, which brings us to the Shenandoah Valley in 1864. Mulligan served under prior to two others being under crooks command. He said im tired of serving under generals who have Little English and little sense. He found crook to be a breath of fresh air initially. He called him a quiet and very unobtrusive gentleman. However, a couple of days later, mulligan is the senior colonel in crooks army. Therefore, he should be entitled to the largest Infantry Division because he is the senior colonel. Crook had two other officers that were experienced and familiar with the army and mulligan was brandnew. He had been guarding the railroad. He did not have that combat experience. And nobody knew the guy. So, he gives him the smallest division. Mulligan the day that happens, he writes in his journal he says i am taking further measure of general crook. His name says it all. Mulligan is an unhappy camper. Going into the battle of kearns town. His men on the morning of july 24, 1864 are going to be posted on pritchards island. Hes going to have about 1800 men. With him will also be about 2000 calvary under another command. The cavalry are out of couple of miles south of kearns town toward newtown were there have been driven from the day before. Theyre up on the top of the hill and its a sunday morning and mulligan being a devout catholic had lamented that there chaplin had resigned so he and his men were doing their best they could with their prayer books. The men started clowning around a little bit. Mulligan was a nonsmoker and nondrinker. Somewhere, he got a cigar and was described as with the flair of a broadway smile he was pretending to smoke and make his men laugh and joke around with him. Its a closeknit headquarters. It includes his nephew as well as his brotherinlaw. Theres a lot of family connections throughout his staff in the irish brigade regiment as a whole. Suddenly, they hear the sounds of the gunfire. Its no longer picket fire in the distance but a rolling fire as the confederate cavalry is once again driving the men back toward kearns town. Mulligan is going to advance his troops self down toward a place known as martins wood. There he will back up the cavalry and they will be forced to halt their advance in the woods. At this point, mulligan is going to send young lieutenant nugent back to winchester to confer with general crook. General crook is there and he doesnt have any idea whats going on. Nugent tells him theres a Massive Force of confederates moving towards us. Its just like happening yesterday evening. Crook says i havent heard as many as half a dozen shots from the frontline. Band he challenges the veracity of mulligans report. Gets his irish up and he shoots back at him and says general, if you were a little closer to the front, you might have heard as many as a dozen. At this point, crook gets angry and he says young man, i will do , with you tomorrow. Right now, you tell colonel mulligan to instantly and persistently advance and drive the bushwhackers out of the woods. Shortly after nugent leaves, crook thinks better of the situation. He realizes i better come up with a plan. Theres probably something going on. It didnt turn out too well for our cavalry yesterday. He decides that he needs to send reinforcements to the south. Crook, i remember when i was a kid, i saw a cartoon where there was a guppy and a fish and the fish eats the guppy and then a sig whale comes along and eat the fish. George crook is like the fish. He is seeing the confederate troops in the center under gordon and they are in a wooded lot. At the time, thats all he could see. Jubal early is doing a great job of using terrain to mask his troops from crooks vision. Crook gets tunnel vision and he is focused on gordons division directly in front of mulligan. He comes up with a plan. He developed this plan from winchester before hed been on the battlefield and had a chance to see it firsthand. One of the ideas is if you look to the right of the map, you will see the cavalry about 1300 strong that will get sent down the front road. In george crooks mind, only confederates there are gordon with a few cavalry covering either flank. So, there should be nothing in his way to prevent him once he gets out of the creek to cross over to newtown and come up behind gordon. At the same time, he is going to reinforce mulligan with the belgrade mesh brigade of future president rutherford b. Hayes. So Burns Division is going to be sent out to the west to take position on sandy ridge, the scene of the first battle against Stonewall Jackson in 1862. The whole plan was, mulligan was going to go headtohead against gordon, distract him and hold his attention while hayes comes in from the east and soburn slams into him from the west. Anybody that manages to escape that attack would be scooped up by the cavalry which by then would be moving northward on the valley pike toward gordons rear. As you know that is not the , situation. But that is the plan that crook is attempting to enact on the afternoon of july 24 at kernstown. When rutherford b. Hayes starts going into position on mulligans right flank excuse me, mulligans left flank. He has never met mulligan before. He sees an officer writing toward him him in a green shirt with no coat but he knew of mulligans reputation and he said that has to become a that has to be colonel mulligan. He calls out and mulligan shouts back you must be colonel hayes. They start conferring and both men have gotten reports off both of their respective flanks. Hayes has information to the east john breckenridges command under the command of gabriel warden is going to be moving forward. Mulligans troops have reported seeing the other Division Moving to the west on sandy ridge. Its about this time that a staff officer from george crook arrives. The staff officer had one job. That is to make sure mulligan s move forward as they had been ordered to do. Hayes looks at mulligan and says , at this stage in the game, either way we are going up. That is exactly what is going to happen. They are going to move out in this attempted attack. Gordons men are going to come up and hit the left flank of rutherford b. Hayes. Its going to be 3000 confederates firing into the flank of the brigade under colonel rutherford b. Hayes. As fate would have it, the regiment on the left flank was the 36th ohio. Back in 1861 and 1862 when crook was still a colonel, that was his original command. He drilled it into a finely honed combat unit. It was known as crooks regulars because it was drilled with regular Army Training that he had learned as a regular army officer. These men were veterans of South Mountain, antietam, chickamauga , and chattanooga. They reported that the hottest spot they ever stood on the battlefield was at kernstown when 3000 virginians stood atop that ridge and every single one of them was taking aim at the left flank and the battle flag of the 36th ohio. Over 130 men would be killed and wounded out of that regiment. Nearly a 50 loss ratio. As you can imagine, his men are going to quickly retreat in confusion and fall back. The entire line is going to come undone. Fortunately, as soon as that volley rings off, the proverbial light goes off in george crooks head and we get back to the reliable capable officer that we know george crook could be. Right away, hes going to strip the division from the line and send it to the southern outskirts of winchester, where if you look up there you will see duvall in position and they are going to form a rear guard to protect the retreat. The other think that is a testament to rutherford b. Hayes and his men, they are going to fall back and up to get out of the fire and they are going to quickly reform and join in the rearguard action. A lot of the cavalry will initially take a role that will help hundreds of federal troops to escape. The division is going to start closing in cutting off mulligans men. Dufier is going to launch several cavalry charges into the right flank and rear into gordons division. That is going to allow them to retreat. For all practical purposes, the battle is over. The only troops left fighting are a small contingent of men under mulligan. S up to hisde brigade, the last men on the battlefield, and tells them to stand firm brave , virginians. As he is doing so, he waves his hat in the air and he stands up in the stirrup and he is shot. The first one hits him in the leg. The next one hits him square in the torso. He knows he is mortally wounded. The color sergeant takes the colors enhance them to young lieutenant nugent and rushes over to mulligan and helps him down from the horse. The men refused to leave. Urging them to leave. As he is doing this, a bullet strikes his young brotherinlaw in the head killing him instantly. The flag falls on the ground. It seems to be forgotten for a few moments. But not by colonel mulligan. Mulligan calls out to his men, lay me down and save the flag. They refuse, they argue, they do not want to leave their commander. Confederates are closing in all around them. Finally, mulligan issues his last command. They lay him up against the tree andrespect to save the flag head out and retreat over the hill toward winchester. The second battle of kernstown is over. This battle is called by the confederates the most easily one won victory of the war. The casualty disparity play that out. Jubal early loses no more than 200 men killed and wounded. Crook will lose 1200 men killed , wounded, and captured. Why do you have that large of a casualty disparity . Because jubal early had a willing accomplice. George crook was so honed in on attacking gordons division and was paying no regard to the information coming in from his subordinates. Largely because i dont think, i know he did not he held averell in low esteem and the others in low esteem. And it sounds like he didnt care too much for mulligan. Because he didnt like these guys, he didnt trust the information that they were giving him. It turns out that had he listened to them, he would have been able to avoid this embarrassing defeat. As mark mentioned earlier, the summer of 1864 is important for president lincoln because it is an election year. If you think that just the defeat at kernstown was bad enough, the ensuing replay of the next invasion of the north by jubal early is going to make things even worse. George crook is going to get his army back together. It will fall back to the gap, it will cross the Potomac River, and it will fall back into the gap of the South Mountain pass. What are they trying to do . They are trying to prevent early from coming through the mountains and raiding washington or baltimore as he had done a few weeks earlier. 19th are goinghe to be ordered to head out. Jubal early has fulfilled his mission of making sure that Horatio Wright doesnt go to petersburg. He is doing exactly what general robert e. Lee wants them to do. David hunter, as mark had mentioned earlier, the week before the battle of kernstown, he is going to burn the homes of several prominent secessionists. As a result, jubal early is fed up. He has seen the path of destruction hunter has left in the Shenandoah Valley during his march to lynchburg in june, and he is going to send a general with the confederate cavalry with two brigades, 3000 men north to chambersburg. They will arrive at chambersburg on july 30, 1864. He has orders to exact retribution, but he will give the people of chambersburg an opportunity to pay for the damage hunter had done first. 100,000 in gold or 500,000 in greenbacks will save chambersburg from being burned to the ground. Chambersburg has felt the hand of war a couple times earlier during the gettysburg and antietam campaigns, and they had to drill down. Any time it was reported that the confederates were approaching, all of the reserves in the banks in chambersburg were put on the train and headed north to harrisburg for good keeping. When mccausland arrives, the people of chambersburg dont know what to do so they dont respond. They know they dont have the money. Mccausland realizes something is up and he burns the town to the ground. Hundreds of homes and businesses are going to be destroyed. Families are destitute. People talk about watching cows being consumed by the flames. It was a hideous scene. And then to see the mothers and children, their fathers were away at the army and no one was there to take care of them afterwards. This is what Abraham Lincoln is trying to get reelected on. If things were not bad enough on july 30, 1864, thats the same date of the catastrophe of the mine in petersburg that cost the lives of thousands of Union Soldiers killed, wounded, or captured. Things are heading south for Abraham Lincoln and this action is going to bring on the memo that mark had mentioned earlier, the blind memorandum about having to win the war between the election and the swearingin of the new president in the spring of 1864. To come back here and do a little bit of reassessment. After chambersburg, ulysses s. Grant, let me back up. At the same time the battle of kernstown is raging in the middle of the day on july 24, ulysses s. Grant sends a communicate to the War Department and says we need to get back on reorganizing the valley in the defenses of washington. We kind of let that lie and now is a good time to get reorganized. Little did he know, he was actually a little late. But in the aftermath of that, he is going to end up sending more divisions of cavalry, 6000 more union troops plus their commander, Major General sheridan, to take care of all of the forces in the valley. He will have nearly 40,000 combat troops to go after early and his men. What that means is, when jubal early left cold harbor in the middle of june with 10,000 men from the second army corps, he has now forced ulysses s. Grant to detach three men from the army of potomac for every one that robert e. Lee sent away from petersburg to save lynchburg from capture. 30,000 federals and sheridan end up in the Shenandoah Valley. That is the mission and the assignment the jubal early had been out here for, and he succeeded at it wildly. For the federal troops, the rankandfile of the federal troops, they knew that their campaign had been a failure. One soldier of the 12th West Virginia spoke of the battle at kernstown on sunday, which was sometimes called the battle of winchester, he said no words can portray the scenes that occurred on that day at winchester. Nor had i the time or inclination would i want to make them public. A soldier of the sixth army wrote home and said, this campaign has been a disgraceful failure. These men knew it. Another soldier wrote of the retreat at kernstown that bull run was nothing in comparison. Jubal early at this point was the king of the valley. It would remain to be seen how long he could keep up his command of maneuver and quick lightning marches and avoid being trapped by Larger Forces when sheridan took command. Thank you. [applause] if there are any questions, raise your hand and we will bring the microphone. I think we are good. Thank you. [applause] tonight at 8 00 eastern, American History tv on cspan3 looks back at the Senate Impeachment trial of president bill clinton in january and february of 1999. We are here today because the president suffered a terrible of marital infidelity. Not a breach of the public trust. Not a crime against society. Things talked about in the federalist paper 65. I recommend you read it before you vote. It was a breach of his marriage vows. It was a breach of his family trust. It is a sex scandal. Explore our nations past. Watch the clinton impeachment trial tonight at 8 00 eastern on American History tv on cspan3. Monday night on the communicators. Intellectual property theft is an enormous issue for the technology industry. China makes it difficult for us to compete in ways we do not make it difficult for them. Crossborder data flows are very restricted. China imposes restrictions on the ability of companies to do business without a local partner. The Chinese Government maintains the ability to take information that will. All of these fundamental issues need to be addressed. The president and ceo of the Information Technology industry 8 00il monday night at eastern on the communicators on cspan2. Each week, american artifacts visits museums, archives, and historic places. In 2014, 5 former secretaries of state and secretary john kerry took