D he gives grant basically a twopart requirement, first to Bring Organization to the union war effort. And secondly to defeat the army of Northern Virginia. And grant goes about making it possible to carry out that charge with a vengeance. First he put together a Program Unlike any the war has yet seen. He realized up to this point battles would last a couple of days and armies would pull apart for months. Grant would not let that happen anymore. They would fight them until they were destroyed. He also realized the old goal of capturing territory didnt make sense anymore. Hence the goal would be to destroy them and only by doing that could the rebellion be brought to a close. And finally he realized they had to move together so the confederates couldnt shift from one theater to the other. We are going to see opening campaigns in the east grant riding with the army and in the west under the direction of grants close friend and subordinate general sherman and these will be bat thals will run day after day after day with the goal of bringing the confederate ar mist to their knees. In the Eastern Theater that would be virginia, grant comes up with a program to destroy lees army of northern virg. His plan is he will take the main federal force, move it directly against lee. He will out number lees forces by two to one, 120,000 federal troops to 65,000 federal troops. At the same time he will have an army moving down southward cutting off lees supplies and have another army move up the james rivera tacking richmond. So there will be a three prong add tack against the army of Northern Virginia rep pli indicating that massive army grant sees for the entire nation. Lee finds himself in a tough situation. The arnie of north virginia is just south of the river here in virginia. The massive army is just north of him on the other side of the river. Lee likes to take the initiative but he cant. Hes massively out numbered and away of the army forming below richmond and realizes he may have to shift reinforcements to one or the other and so lee under takes a waiting game. What is grant going to do . Grant is going to move one way or the other and lee is uncertain. He forfeits the initiative to his opponent. In this instance he had no choice. He sends the calvary out past each end of his line to let him know where the federals are coming from and waits. Grant visits the army and has to decide what to do. As you civil war historians know that army was commanded by the immediate. He was in a hot seat. He had filed destroy lees army at get isburg. He was being investigated by congress. We know how bad that can be. O immediate was in a bad situation. Grant have ited him and was told he would step down and let him bring his own people from the west to run the army. He decided to keep mead on. E needed somebody with his knowledge. Dwrant decides to travel with the army and look over meads shoulder and make sure they were fighting the way he wanted them to and not interfere with his operations. Grant will keep that promise for one day as the army moves into the wilderness. I talk about the relationship of the commanders of these armies. Id like to talk tabblet subordinate commanders. They are going to play a big part. Grant and mead will have a bat relationship. Initially mead will be hopeful it will work out. These are two different kinds of generals. Grant likes to do the unexpected, likes to take risks. They are socially very different people and they come from different social strata. They write home and tell their wives that the relationship is deteriorating and after a few days of fighting mead writes home and tells his wife he would resign from his position if he could but honor required him to stay on. There was a breakdown in the union command relationship. Robert e. Lee has no such problems. He will be the head of the army of virginia and everybody knew it. Who were the subordinate commanders each had under them . The union army had four Infantry Corp and one calvary core. The second will be commanded by scott has been cook. Im sure you are familiar with him. He will not perform well against grant because hes been badly injured. He was shot. Had a twound his thigh and he will spend a lot of campaigns against lee here in an ambulance. The union fifth core will be under a general by the name of warren. General war sven an unusual character. A young man, had been an engineer. He didnt have a lot of experience commanding troops. Hes an odd duck. As a matter of fact, some of his subordinates commented on how he loved to resite limericks and hed be onlyth only one to laugh at them. Thats general warren. General warren also thought a lot of himself and as youll see as this campaign unfolds often thought his plans were better than those of his spoirs. The union sixth core is in the hands of john said wick. He will be shot down by a sharp shooter. By the time the armies get here the union sixth core is headed by a gentleman by the name of wright. Ambrose wright is a general that most of you have probably not heard about and he comes to the sixth core without much background. The union army will also have within it general Ambrose Burnside who will be commanding the ninth army core. He is the general who headed the army of the po tom i can during the battle of gettisburg. Grant is bringing him back. But because of his former position grant decides he cant serve underneath mead and will report directly to grant who will coordinate him with general mead. You can see the command confusion that is going to take place. And some of that will be evident here at cold harbor. Most of the calvary commanders you would be familiar with are now gone. John bue ford has died. Kill patrick has been exiled to the west. What grant decides to do is bring one of his generals from the west eastward and put him in charge of the calvary of the army. In effect general granlt will be selecting the calvary commander who will be reporting to general mead. An awkward command relationship and wont work because each of those are strong willed man. Contemporary writers tell us as a cam poin opens cher den was legged. 5 tall, bow head. Pointed Abraham Lincoln said cher den didnt have enough neck to hang him by and was the only man he knew who could scratch his ankles without bending over. This is the new captain for the army. Well see a lot of him here at cold harbor. A fascinating figure but a lot of problems for general mead. What about robert e. Lee and his force . The people well meet here at cold harbor. Lee had three infantry cores and one calvary core. It begins under james long street. He will be badly wounded after the second day of fighting grant and hes replaced by henderson. A man who liked to smoke pipes. Well see a lot of him here at cold harbor. The second core is under richard youll. He will become ill and by the time the armies get here he will be replaced by early. A former prosecutor, strong willed guy. I have a fondness for prosecutors having been a prosecutor myself so well see how early performs here. He confederate third core by powell hill. Quite ill. Hes commanding jacksons old first core as well as his former light division. Hill will do very poorly. There is one thing about a. P. Hill that most people havent focused on i think makes an interesting story. Being a storyteller id like to write a book about it some day. He had the unusual talent of ting women who later married Union Generals. Its hard to figure out how he was able to figure this out ahead of time. Most of you are familiar with the fact he went out with marci who mar rid george mcclelllan. Went out with a woman amy chase and she married warren. Warren and hill first came up against each other at a battle in the fall of 1863 and this was a few months after warren had married emily chase. When i was digging through some of warrens archives i came across a caller of a letter warren sent across the line to hill. He sent a note across that said general a. P. Hill, i have defeated your army core and i have mar rid your old sweetheart. This will give you an idea of the state of affairs here. This something getting pretty personal. At brings the armies here to cold harbor . Grants plan is to swing down river from lee. Lee is just below this river. Decpwrant going to swing down river, cross and then come back at lee basically turning his frank on may 3, during that night into the Early Morning of may 4. He crosses down river from lee in Central Virginia and comes at him from below. Stops in an area called the wilderness. The union forces stop there to get supplies and also because they dont think lee can catch them in the wilderness. Lee realizes he has to hold that line at the river. This is miles north of richmond. He feels he has to hold that line or he will be driven back to the confederate capitol. Land find himself in entrenchments and would be unable to maneuver. His goal is to maintain flexibility and maneuverability. What lee does is attack grant in the wilderness. He divide his army into three parts. Launches a three prong attack. It goes on for two days. 18,000 Union Soldiers are killed, wounded and captured. 30,000 americans in all. The wilderness catches on fire. Some of the most brutal scenes of war take place. Lee is in a powerful position in the wilderness and grant cannot break through. What does grant do . He decides he will pull the army out of the wilderness, swing south about ten miles this. Will put him between lees army and richmond. As grant figures it lee will have to come out from the wilderness and fight him on open ground this. Is a tactical maneuver aimed at pulling lee out. The army shifts south. A dramatic point in the war because up to this point general had been defeated retreated but grant moves south. There is brutal fighting in places in places such as the mule shoe and bloody angle. It goes on for almost 10days and frant realizes he cant break through there. So grant maneuvers again. He pulls out and sends a finger of it out an a looping march hoping to entice lee to come out so he can pounce on him. That doesnt work. There is a race to the north of the river about 25 miles north of richmond and the Confederate Forces take up position. Decpwrant able to get a finger of his army across. Lee throws his army in a wedge formation with the tip touching the north bank. He realizes by doing this each wing thoffswedge on high ground. A very defenseable position. The union army comes across and its split. Part of the union forces on this side, part on that side. Lee relses at that point he could strike either half of this divided army with his force and have parody of numbers but he is nable to do so because lee falls ill with bad diarrhea. Hes there at the river lying in his tent saying we must strike them a blow. We must not let them pass. We must strike them a blow but he cannot strike that blow. Grapt realizes the trap that he has fallen into. Throws up earth works and we see the two armies cheek by jowl. Like two schoolboy approximates facing each other across earth works. The confederates in a wedge shape formation and the union army in a wedge shape formation larger facing inward. They stay for two days and grant comes up with another idea. Maneuver of course. What he wants to do now is pull out from the north ana river and do it before lee understands what is happening and swing down the river system to the east. This will take him along the north ana and where it joins with other riffers and aim for the crossings around nelson bridge that. Will put him about 17 miles from richmond, down friver lee and he can make a sharp dash to the confederate capitol. Slice off the supply lines and get the victory that hes been attempting to get. This move goes off like clock work. The night of may 26, grant pulls his army under cover of darkness, bands playing across the north ana river on to the north side and heads off to the crossings. Lee has no idea what is going on until the next morning and discovers the federals are gone. The union force makes its march, crosses at has beenover town and part at nelson bridge and finds itself on the south side ready to march toward richmond. A dramatic thing happens now with the calvary. Lee is now getting reports as to where grant is showing up but he needs to send out a force to find out where the federals are. Jeb stuart, the confederate calvary commander has been killed. He headed south during these stewart after wn him and had been wounded on may 1e6789 lee puts in charge at least temporarily of his calvary core a South Carolina general wade hampton who will distinguish himself mightly but troop ied in leading a this size. Grant and mead decide to send a force to find out where the confederates are. On the morning of may 28 with the union army pouring across the river, cher dan starts a force out in the direction of lee. Lee has pulled out and sends his calvary force toward where he thinks the federals might be. And the two of them encounter each other of course near salem church. This is a place that the shop area, nosk recent times has been renamed after bob crick who introduced me here and its now called studly. There is a massive calvary fight that occupies most of may 28 and its a dramatic and different kind of calvary fight. The confederates basically get off of their horses, throw up field works and fight dismounted. A series attacks are launched by general cher dan. He is unable to break through. The army is gathering near him but he wants to win this battle alone. This fight goes on all day until toward the end of the day general armstrong is able to break the impass, overruns portions of hamptons line and confederates fall back. As night fall comes across has beenover county its clear that the federal have driven hamptons calvary back. When won this battle . Phil clearly had occupied the field. But if you gauge who won or lost by whose goals were achieved clearly hampton had won. Hampton screened the army. He had no idea where his main force was. At the same time hampton discovered where grants army was because in scooping up Union Prisoners he picked up Union Infantry and was able to learn grants location. This it was first meeting engagement in the bat thals lead up to our fight here at cold harbor. Lee decides to take up a strong defensive line during that same day and early the next day. If awe take a look at the river and you look at richmond, the is a fensive line below marshy high bank small stream that runs just below the river. And lee decides to take up a line along that creek. During the last part of may 28, all night and into the next day, the Confederate Army moves into place. What happens on may 29 . Grant has now pulled his calvary back to the rear so they can guard the union supply depot at a place called White House Landing. What the Union Generals decide to do is send out the whole union arnoy look for lee. So sixth core moves down the main road, gets down near the creek and then swings sort of up river. The unions second core come on down and set up position near the modern day shell on the house which was there shellton house which was there at the time. Others form in the rear starting to shift further downstream on the creek. He 29th is a day of recording. Thoughts are in the mind of both the union and confederate commanders with respect to reinforcements. Grant has learned that his two supporting armies, have just been defeated. Im told by my virginia friends that the force up in the valley s defeated by a handful of v. M. I. Cadets. That may bay slight exaggeration but they were defeated and butler was defeated by general bum guard and another force of confederates. All of this happening may 15 and mma 16. Grant realizes his supporting armies are got knot going to get their jobs done and he can draw reinforcements from them. He asked general butler to send him balancedy smith 18th corp. Somewhere around the 28th of may balancedy smith starts toward cold harbor area. Hes going to be coming by boat. Its quite an operation. Balancedy smith is going to take his corp from an area called city point near petersburg, come down the james river, swing around, come up the i dont recollect and finally land by boat up at White House Landing. Thats going to take a few days and baldy smiths men wont arrive until the 30th of may. General Brecken Ridge who had defeated see gull is now freed up and is pouring down here in this direction reaches the army and takes up position on the creek. E petitions richmond for reinforcements from that area. Now that general butler is out of the picture that should free up troops from there and a decision is made to send him general hokes division. During the 29th these various reinforcements will be moving into this area. May 30 is a big day as we move toward cold harbor. If you take a look at the map, here is the river, below it is the creek and then there are two roads just below the creek. One was scald shadey grove road. And down below that is another road called old church road. What lee decides to do on may 30 is to launch an offensive. He realizes that part of the union army, this union fifth corpse has now crossed the creek sand on his side of the creek. This is lees chance to catch an undetached part of the army and wipe it out. Warren is sitting down there by himself. So lee gives this job to the new head of his second corp, early. With s to come bain andersons corp. Anderson is going to attack down the shadey grove road and will drop down to that old church road and attack in the same direction and swing north into the underbelly of warrens shoulders this. Is going to be a twoprong add tack. Things start off well. Early and his man go charging down the old church road, manage to drive the federals back who are in that area, mainly pennsylvania yans from the pennsylvania reserves. Drive them back to a church and then charge north into the underbelly of warrens main force. Where is anderson . Anderson has not stepped off. He sent one division out under picket. Picket decided warren is too strongly entrenched and backed up and stopped. Without support this attack the fute till. Its a slaughter. Illis is virtually masacred by warrens men by Union Artillery replacements and it been a massive defeat. General warren of course is delighted. Lee is upset. A fight breaks out between early and anderson explaining how this defeat had been the fault of the other. What does all that add up to . What it adds up to is this grant and mead realize this army of Northern Virginia lost its punch. The men lee defeated is stone waul jacksons old boys. It had been unable to launch an effective attack against an inferior force. The army of the north virginia was a defeated entity. Eyes now shifted south of the shadey grove road to a place called Old Cold Harbor, some three quarters oh f a mile east of here. That say place where several roads came together. Roads from White House Landing the union supply depofmente roads that ran to richmond and roads that ran down this way from the armies. Lee knew the 18th corp was headed this way. He was getting reports from scouts along the james river. He knew that federals were coming this way. He wanted to find out what was going on toward White House Landing. He send a force out that way. They are driven back at a place at the creek. That increase lees belief that the federals are definitely headed this way and smith is probably planning some kind of attack. Lee realizes if the federals can take this intersection, they then will be below the lower frank of his army. They could attack him in the frank or go ahead and take richmond. This little obscure intersection becomes a critical piece of the puzzle here at cold harbor. May 13, 150 years ago today cold harbor starts to become the focus of these armies. The South Carolina calvarymen who helped make this excursion through cold harbor asked for reinforcements. They are sent reare inforcements. Lee urges that hoke and his men from richmond hurry up and as the morning passes men start to appear. The federal calvary commanders realize the importance of taking Old Cold Harbor intersection. General cusser talks it through with his commander and they launch an attack against Old Cold Harbor. Lee is ultimately routed along with a group of North Carolina boys who came into hoax division and they are driven back to an area near where we are right now. Ow by the end of the 31st of may, 150 years ago today, Old Cold Harbor is in union hands being held by union calvary. Grant and lee each realize the importance of this. Old cold harbor is becoming the focus. Lee decides to shuttle more troops here. Hokes men are pulling up. Lee has anderson start marching down this way to march down to cold harbor as fast as possible to support the men down here. And as far as the federal commanders are concerned, smith is to hurry to cold harbor and wright is to take his sixth core, pull it out from the high line, swing it behind the union forces and rush to cold harbor as well. And 1ost exactly 24 hours 50 years ago to this moment if we were here at this spot where we are right now we would have union calvary. We would have hokes men, North Carolina yans forming where we are. Martins North Carolina below that and goodens men. We would be at the confederate line. During the darkness there would be the tramp of sholediers on either side pouring here into Old Cold Harbor. Sunrise on june 1. The head of andersons first corp starts to march down into this area. It reaches the Allison House. And anderson decide hes going to launch a twopronged reconnaissance toward Old Cold Harbor. He want to have hoke move down this cold harbor road and he himself will follow a path from the Allison House over toward. Ld cold harbor andersons is going to be a disaster because of some changes made in the confederate command structure. A couple of days earlier lawrence kit who was one of the South Carolina fire eaters had come to richmond. He had brought with him a new regimen. It was called the 20th South Carolina and it was huge. Ed the about 800 people in it. It was called by the other sowledier ares the 20th South Carolina corp because it was so big. Confederates werent used to eeing reg mens of this size. Ith had no experience fighting this style and was in charge of the brigade that had been formally headed by kershaw. And that brigade was the one that was given command to reckon order toward 08d cold harbor. It was a staster. Kith marched toward. Hes riding his horse. Soldiers said he looked like a knight of old. Kusters men are there. Their eyes light up as they see what is coming at them. They open fire and it a masacre. Kit is badly injured. He will die shortly. His forces are routed and anderson falls back and takes up a position to the north. Between both hoke and clingman is a stream. Its marked on all the park service maps now as bloody run. It wasnt called that back then but it would certainly third baseman name. It divides hokes men from andersons men with who were forming a line to their north. Anderson is supposed to be coordinating the efforts here. He has a confederate brigade plug that gap for a bit. But as federal as six core start to pull into place, he pulls the South Carolina yans out of place d tacks them on so this is undefended. It is a weak spot. They fill the area down below us and the fields to our front. As a matter of fact across from suss going to be elements from general use tisss brigade. And general emory upton. One of the best brigade commanders. Upton master minded a spectacular assault at the courthouse and his men would be looking across at us. North of them are smiths men who will then fill in north of this big stream i was just talking about. Now uptons force is interesting. In recent weeks soldiers had been brought down from the defenses of washington and baltimore. These men were called heavy ar till rios because they manned the heavy artillery around washington and baltimore. They had very little combat experience. The only confederates most of them had seen would be prisoners. It was the second connecticut heavy artillery commanded by colonel kellogg. He was interested in having his men prove themselves and volunteered to lead in the front line. Upton will form his brigade in four lines. The first three will be the heavy artillery and the last will be the remains of his other reg minutes that had been so engaged in the wilderness. 6 00 the charge comes out and the force comes streaming forward. Uptons men poured into these fields. They take heavy losses. Unton himself crouches behind trees and was firing muskets and feting handed new muskets. Its unusual to see a general up this close to the fighting. Many of his men are shot down. Some of them managed to make it to the confederate works. A group of six Corp Soldiers under rickets Division Start working their way down this wood stream. They are under good cover and discover its undefended. They find themselves on the franks of both hoke and andersons men on the other side. Now the confederate line is broken. Massive fighting takes place here back and forth. Huge deeds of valor. But by night fall the union forces managed a few break throughs. Many are pressed against the opposite side of the same earth works the confederates are defending. Night fall and forces pull back in some places. What does it add up to . Something like 2200 cazzties in that assault at the end of the day. In Union Headquarters this was viewed as a massive victory. Its clear the fight is out of lees army. If there had only been more daylight or more troops here, the Confederate Army could have been brought to its knees thrand would have been a break through. Thats the thinking at headquarters. That night both lee and the Union Commanders start pouring more troops into this area. Abonn donning the line of the creek. On the union side general has been cook is ordered to march his second corp down and tack on to the lower end of the line getting ready for a massive assault to take place on june 2, the next day. On this side lee orders his men to shift south. Brecken individual to shift below hoke. And a. P. Hill third core are to shift down behind them and tack on to the lower end of the confederate line. These lines are expanding. The entire battle is shifting down here to cold harbor. Grant wanted to make his big attack here. He had several reasons for wanting to do it. He realized of course first that steal mate was not going to sell very well. He was wetted to the idea of a mobile campaign. The last thing he wanted to do was be stuck in earth works as cold harbor. Confederation is anchored on the creek and river, really no way to frank lees position. The arnie of north virginia as grant saw it had been reinforced somewhat but there were more reinforcements that could come. Now was time to make an attack before lee could reinforce his lines. Richmond was only seven or eight miles to the rear. If he could break through the confederate works, he could take richmond. There is no better situation than to have the enemy with the river to his back. This looked like a perfect time to launch an assault. Politically it was a good time as well. The nominating convention in baltimore was going to queen within the next week or so. What better present for president lincoln than the final demice of the army of north virginia. The soldiers with the army had fought on these fields during the seven Days Campaign and they knew this was no place to be with the fevers and disease and suffering of summer. Grant decides now is the time to make an attack. Now is the time to break through the army of Northern Virginia, lets do it the next day. It didnt happen the next day. As often happens in these things, plans went awry. General has been cooks men marched slower than expected. There were problems with guys and roads and directions that didnt pab out the way they thought they would. Has been cooks men werent in position until near the end of the day. So grant decide he would launch this big attack the next day, june 3 at first light. That was all that robert e. Lee needed to prepare. By now the Confederate Forces were in place. They were able to dig in and they built here at cold harbor some of the most effective earth works they built during the entire war. They had time to not only sight their line along high ground, they dug the entrenchments and threw dirt up in front of them, put head logs in place. Cleared fields of fire. They had learned how to do overlapping fields of fire. How to throw obstacles to slow an attacking force. Some of lees engineers we want in front of the line and were able to drive stakes in grounds to mark off yardage so the artillery would know how to set the fuses on their shells making this line into an inpenetrable. Grant was still determined to make the attack. On his judgment this was the time, this was the place. There was no other place. If he didnt attack now, there would be a steal mate. He sent out ordered to general mead and general mead sent out orders to his core commander. Unfortunately relations between mead and grant had deteriorated at this point badly. Mead viewed grant as having very little military talent. Viewed him as a man who threw men against earth works for very little purpose. This was not his style of warfare. Unhappy with ming mead. They rode separately and set headquarters up at separate places. This was like a dysfunctional family. And it is the soldiers who will pay for this dysfunction. Mead does little to prepare for the assault. There are no orders sent out that effectively coordinate the various army corps that set out how the attack is to take place. There are many stories that have come down about cold harbor. One of the stories is the union troops that had been attacking these troops over the last several weeks knew they would probably get killed and men would write their names on paper and pin it to their jackets so their bodies could be identified. I out the that really happened here. I checked through the sources and the letters from the men and none of them mention that. The only place that story is mentioned is by porter who was one of grants aids and he wrote it in a memoir he produced many years after the war that is filled with literary inventions and i suspect that is one of his many literary inventions. It is true soldiers had done that before in earlier battle. This would be in november of 1863 but there is no evidence that actually happened here. Everybody knew it was going to be a fears and terrible day. 4 30 a. M. , the signal gun goes off and this huge union monlith heaves toward or parts of it do. Thats the sad thing about the battle of cold harbor. On the lower end of the battlefield general has been cooks corp punches forward. At one spot they make a break through. But lee has a lot of reserves. One myth about cold harbor was lee didnt have any reserves, his line was thin. Thats not true. Some parts of the line had entire division behind them and that was the situation on the lower end of the battlefield where has been cook made his attack. They drive an cooks men out and the union second corp is in untenable position, wounded men, men who are not wounded but continue get to their lines, digging with canteens, hiding behind bodies. All the horrors are taking place south of where we are right now. In this area which is where the union sixth core was to make its tack, very little happened. One of the confederate generals where we are right now later wrote he had no idea an attack was being made. The reason is wrights men had attacked this same position on june 16789 they knew who they were facing and knew the confederates had two more days to get ready for them. The accounts of the soldiers who fought on this part of the battlefield reflect that as well as casualties in the union sixth core. Smiths men to our north attacked thefment poured forward and smith came up with what he thought was a great idea. He would send his men forward in columns down the next reconvene over. Its called the middle reconvene and they figured that way he would have enough mass to punch through the confederate line. Good idea but wouldnt work this time because the confederate first core had plenty of time to strengthen its earth works. They realized these reconvenes were ways the federals might try to break through so the confederate engineers positioned artillery along those reconvenes and had dug entrenchments there so basically this union column would be feeding into what military men call reentry angle. Sort of like a pencil going in and getting ground to pieces. That is what happened to smiths men. Men were slaughtered. Within a short time the 18th core was sometime mid. Men crawling behind the bodies of dead men. The fields were killing fields. One of the confederate generals in that part of the field wrote those famous words its not war, its murder. Up in that part of the field it looked just like that. The union fifth and ninth dore who are up to the north did very little until a few hours had passed and launched another disjointed assault and later in the afternoon will try again. This massive attack at cold harbor is a disjointed set of attacks by Desperate Army union cores. No defined objective except to break through somewhere. A very bad idea and very poorly executed. Ive been over these battlefields and done walks on these battlefields with men who were in battle. I had the honor to do a staff ride with general franks. And we talked a lot about cold harbor as well. I asked what do you think of grants decision to attack at cold harbor and the way it was executed. And the answer ive gotten is they respect general grants decision this was the time to make the attack. Thats the kind of hard decision a commander has to make. The politics of it and the situation of the armies, the expectation of more confederate reinforcements made this a reasonable time to make that kind of assault and they dont fault grant for deciding to do what he did here. What they fault is total breakdown in command. Obviously mead as Army Commander was responsible for making sure the coordination was there, the field informs order and he didnt do that. Grant also had an obligation to make sure that was done by his subor the nad, general mead. I think there is plenty of fault to go around. Grant wrote this attack at cold harbor was an attack that he wished had never been made. I find it interesting that he wrote that in the passive voice. He didnt say i wish i had never made it. He said i wish it had been an attack that hadnt been made. I wonder if thats a sideswipe on his part at general mead. By noon grant called off the attack and that was the end of the famous attack at cold harbor. In later years, historian versus written about the battle and talked about the casualties that took place here. You hear inflated stories about june 3 produced 7,000 Union Casualties in ten minutes or 15,000 in five minutes. Youll see everything all over the lot. When i was working on my book, i spent a lot of time investigating what were the real casualties that took place here. They were terrible but what were they really. When you go through the kassty reports from the units actually engaged, the casualties are about half of what is generally claimed, somewhere in the range of 3500 during that morning set of assaults over a period of several hours. So the brutal attack at cold harbor that goes down as one of the worst assaults really ranks somewhere around sixth or 70 worst as far as casualties. Bad it was but it was not the absolute catastrophe its often painted up to be. The losses in this assault were in many ways no worse and in some cases less than assaults that had been launched in the wilderness and the courthouse. Over the next day or two, the armies jockeyed for position. The fields youre looking across now were scenes of absolute horror. Wounded men lying across the fields. Unwounded men laying there unable to get food or water. Sharp shooters on either side killing anything or anybody that moved. There are stories of men going out trying to bring water to the injured, trying to pull comrades back. They would be shot at. It was a horror show. It was hot and it was one of those one of the worst scenes you can imagine in the american civil war. There were scenes of bravery and several accounts of men who managed to work their way out into the field and drag their friends back. Some of the injured colonels were dragged back as well. Two, three days, on june 5 after the big assault had taken place. General has been cook went to general mead and asked if there could be a flag of truce so that wounded men could be brought back in from his portion of the line. His local commanders had been asking for that. This was relayed to grant. Grant made the request of lee and then for the next two days up until june 7 lee and grant bicker back and forth about exactly how this truce is going to be done, whether it can be local or generalized. It takes a long time for messages to go back and forth. Not until june 7 at the end of the day is a truce declared. Soldiers come into these fields and bring back the bodies because there are very few wounded left alive. Its hard to tell how many remained. By best accounts there were five or six and the rest are now bodies. We would also be treated if we were here that day to soldiers trading tobacco and coffee. Soldiers moved up talking with confederates, shaking hands with them. Its as though this entire madness stopped for a few hours. Darkness comes on, the truce is called off, shots are fired and thats the end of the truce at cold harbor and now men who just a few minutes before were talking with each other are trying to kill each other again. The armies stay here until june 13. So they will be here for another week. During that time very few wounded men are brought in. During that time there is some movement, some assault. Id tell you what happened during those days but i havent finished my next book which covers those battles so i dont want to give away the details. Grant realizes as he had in the wilderness he cant break through here so he does what he has always done so he decides to maneuver. And he comes up with a good idea. Hes going to have calvary make a raid up to the north, cut off some of the rail lines, maybe even move up into the valley, take places like lynchburg and cut off the james river canal. Hes then going to take the army and pull it out of cold harbor, swing it south, cross the james and then that army in combination with butlers army and the 18th core can take petersburg and cut the supply line and finally defeat lee. The union plan works like clock work. The raid ends fairly disasterously but serves its purpose for the time. On the morning of the 13th of june lee and his men look across and realize the earth works are empty. Fwrant has been able to pull his men without lee figuring out what happened they swing south. Grant intoneds cross but lee does not understand what grant means to do. Lee thinks he might swing back toward Richmond North of the james river so lee stays here. Sends some soldiers to the south but doesnt do a major shift because hes uncertain what grant will do. As you civil war historians know, by june 15 they are attacking at petersburg. Lee is alerted to what is going on. Confederates manage to reach the town in time. There is a vigorous defense and the war will deinvolve into a siege with many big battles but a siege that will last for the next ten months. Im often asked who won this battle at cold harbor and won this big campaign between grant and lee and i have to say if you look at this in terms of individual battles, lee had the upperhand in the wilderness, courthouse, north ana and here at cold harbor because each place he was able to deflect grant. But if you look at this as a unified campaign, id have to say grant was the winner of the campaign. Grants goal was to neutralize lees army in north virginia and after 45 days of fighting he did just that. E would be neutralized lees goal had been to hold his line. After these series of battles he had been driven back into richmond. He had failed in his goal. Casualties were horrendous. 33,000 confederates during this campaign were Something Like 55,000 Union Soldiers killed and captured and wounded. Fighting. If you are to ask who lost the most . The union forces lost more men but they were the ones who are on the offensive. If you asked which army lost the highest percentage of men . The conclusion would be worse. Campaign with about 65000 and he lost slightly more than 50 . Grant started with 120,000 lost a little less than 50 . Wins theense, grant numbers game which depends on how you count it. I have enjoyed it chatting with you today. I know i said things that will spark debate. Some of you may have questions as well. Ive been asked to talk to a little while. I am like the king that was was to hold back the tide. I am so the cube you happy until the sun goes down enough for these folks to light candles and let you walk around the battlefield. I will be glad to take the question or two or whatever you would like to do, david. Whats that . Move into the next. I have done my job. Thank you. I appreciate it. [applause] the civil war air is here every saturday at the p. M. And 10 p. M. Eastern time. To watch more of the silver war programming any time, visit our website. You are watching American History tv all weekend, every weekend on cspan 3. Author john ross talks about his book enduring co urage. In 1890, Eddie Rickenbacker was a wellknown racecar driver before he earned a medal of honor as an ace in world war i. He was ceo of Eastern Air Lines after the war. Owned Indianapolis Motor Speedway for almost 15 years and was a motor car manufacturer. He barely survived two plane crashes. The National Archives in kansas city a hosted this event on the life of Eddie Rickenbacker. Tonight it is my pleasure to introduce john ross, the author of the epic story of the conquest of americas first frontier. Forer of the prize contributions to American History, he served as executive editor of the American Heritage and on the board of editors at smithsonian magazine. Publishedes have been in readers digest, parade, the new york times, newsweek, and washington post. He is appeared on more than 50 radio and television programs. Is worked he has worked with many Pulitzer Prize winning writers. Is my pleasure to introduce john ross. [applause] thank you. Kimberly. Thank you all for coming tonight. It is a real treat for me. I spent a lot of time with this past book at the National Archives, not here but in college park doing work. A realal treat it is treat to be asked to come here and talk to about this research on this remarkable figure. Ore ae i start bef friend dragged you here tonight, be honest, who has heard of Eddie Rickenbacker . Raise your hand. Two generations ago, everybody wouldve known this guys name. Not only his name but they wouldve told you stories about him. Ass facial recognition, he w more familiar than the president. He was a hero. So researching your book, i spend a lot of time sitting down behind a machine. Occasionally, some of my Research Trips takes interesting turns. 20yearoldng my