That way. We all know that within the Civil War Community there are rock stars. Historians, women we have all heard of. We have read their books. Everyone knows who they are. We talk about them in hushed tones. It has been my and privilege to be friends with one of those rock stars. Eric wittenberg is known by every civil war student across the country. He is not only known for his expertise in the Union Calvary but his opinion on many challenging topics where he challenges people to reconsider what they know. He is never one who takes a position because it is popular. He takes it because it is well considered, well researched, and well thought out. So he is sometimes not so afraid to challenge conventional thinking. It is that sense of going for the truth that has always made me admire his work. Starting out when i first got into the civil war, and thought this guy was fantastic. He has 17 books you can read. As our friendship has grown, someone who has challenge you to rethink what you think you know, it is my privilege to bring here from columbus, ohio the fantastic eric wittenberg. [applause] wow, that is quite an introduction. Thank you. [inaudible] thats true. It is a pleasure to be here. This is a challenge for me. Im a litigator. I am used to walking and talking. To stand still for nearly an hour is going to be a challenge. Our topic today is the second raid conducted by Phil Sheridan that climaxed in the today slugging match known as battle of trevilian station fought in 1864. This is one of the few calvary battles one can use the word decisive. Decisive means it had an impact on the war. As much as i love the battle of Brandy Station and have devoted my life to studying it and understanding it, in the end the battle of Brandy Station delayed the outside of the Gettysburg Campaign by one day. It was not decisive. Trevilian station had an outcome on the war. We will address that. Lets do some stage setting for you. Im going to introduce the important personnel. Im going to begin with bringing Ulysses Grant east and promoting him to lieutenant general. He has a lot of challenges with the army of the potomac. He has to decide whether he is going to leave george meade in command. This is an army that has a lot of casualties in the 1863. Several were either badly wounded or killed outright. You have the likes of william french, the only aggressive he made in his life was on a bottle of whiskey. [laughter] commanding the third core. John newton, a solid soldier but not as spectacular. Not a guy who is wellsuited to core command. Hancock, badly wounded. Governor warren. We have to restructure the army. The first and third corps were merge. Then you have john newton being transferred to the western theater. Hancock comes back to duty. The entire structure of the command has been moved around. We have a bigger problem. While 1863 was a decisive year and the development of the Union Calvary, the problem is that everything fell apart at the end of the year. It begins with the death of john buford on december 18, 1863. You have the debacle of the kilpatrick raid. He was relieved of command in the Third Division and sent to sherman. What does that tell you . Ultimately, offered pleasanton had one real supporter in the army. George gordon meade. Pleasanton stabbed him in the back. His testimony on the context of the war, when he testified that after the tickets charged and he rode over to meet and said i will give you half an hour to prove yourself a great general. I bet you in my house, that never happened. He was allergic to the truth. George meade revokes his basic authority, keeping pleasanton in command. Pleasanton is in missouri where he spends the war chasing after stirling prize. We have a calvary that needs commanders replaced. The first situation is who is going to command the core . It could have been the senior dimension commander. It is not going to be greg. It is going to be this fellow, philip henry sheridan, raised in somerset, ohio. The west point class of 1853. Nearly tossed out of west point for being insubordinate and threatening to run the cadet sergeant through with his bayonet. He was suspended for a year. He spends his regular army career doing unspectacular duty and an unspectacular fashion, and is not wellknown when the war breaks out. He ends up as a staff officer for hallock. He is demanding a brigade, where he doesnt do too badly. Before that he ends up being appointed colonel of the second michigan calvary. A man who has never commanded a calvary in his life. His stand is going to last 60 days. 1862. He will end up in command of two regiments. He has been promoted to brigadier general. This is Phil Sheridans pedigree when he is appointed commander. Henry hallock says, who do you want to command . He suggests sheridan. Grants response is just a fellow i had in mind. Sheridan is a drinker. He is 52. He could scratch his angles without bending over. [laughter] he had a large bullet shaped head. He has a guy who was known for having a titanic irish temper. This will come into play. We have to replace the First Division commander. This fellow ends up in command of the First Division. Torbert of delaware, commissioned in the confederate army. He thinks better of that, resigns his commission, remains loyal to the union, spends up until the winter of 1864 his time commanding infantry. He has this much calvary command experience. Not a single day. This is the division commander. It should have gone to this man, bufords protege. He will spend 43 years in the regular Army Commanding calvary. He is very much john bufords protege and will command the calvary core as is last commander. He gets skipped over. This creates another problem. We have george custer. He is the commander of the brigade in the Third Division. The Third Division needs a commander with kirpatrick being fired. Another officer is brought in by the name of james h wilson. Wilson is known as grants pet. They hated each others guts. Wilson was promoted over custer. Custer says he is junior to me i wont serve under him. I hate his guts anyway. The end of having to pick up custers brigade, bring the brigade to william gamble, and switch into the third brigade because it is commanded by George Chapman in order to keep the seniority and the rank issues straight. Harry wilson, the new commander, has never command anything bigger than a squad of cadets at west point. He is in the command of the Third Division. We have a First Division commander with zero days experience, a solid capable soldier, and finally we have James Harrison wilson who has never commanded anything bigger than a squad of cadets. The third cavalry division. Does this sound like a recipe for disaster . You bet. Tom devon, a very experienced cavalrymen. He was known as bufords hard hitter. Buford once said i cannot teach him, he knows more than i do. Grade, west point class of 1855. One of my favorites, he spent the rest of his life in my hometown. There was a monument to him at sign of my doctors offices as a kid. I always was a big admirer of david gregg. He was appointed to commanded division in the spring of 1864, 1863. Hill will resign his commission in 1865. Henry davies, a new york city lawyer, no military training before the war. , commands one of gregs brigades. John irving gregg, 65, they called him long john. He had no formal training. He became a very good commander during the civil war. Capture just prior to the surrender at appomattox. Not exactly a sterling attribute. Alexander cummings, west point trained. He begins the war as lieutenant. During the civil war, he does some of the finest artillery work commanding the second United States artillery. He will play a big role in the story. On the confederate side, we have this fellow, wade hampton the third. Reportedly the wealthiest man in the south. He was opposed to secession, but when South Carolina seceded he drew his sword on behalf of his native state out of his own pocket, paid for the equipping of the hampton legion. For companies of cavalry, a battery of artillery. They will remain as it is, the four companies will be actually filled out, which will become the second South Carolina cavalry. Hampton was six foot three. He was very proud of the fact he killed a bear with his bare hands. This was a tough customer who killed 13 yankees in oneonone combat. When jeb stuart was mortally wounded, it is going to create a problem for robert e lee. The big problem lee has, he has a void in command. Stewart was very much the eyes and ears. Leave relied on him heavily. He has a political problem. He is not a west pointer. He is a member of the South Carolina aristocracy. Stewarts choice was his soulmate, his army soulmate. The nephew of the commanding general of the army, and the finest example of nepotism ive ever seen. [applause] fitz lee had good days in the war. He ends at being the final commander of the army. They were kindred souls. They shared a joy. He was very much jeb stuarts successor. Hampton out ring 10. Hamptons commissioner was ahead of fitfully on the promotion list. Therefore he was the senior general. General lee decides that rather than appoint a new commander, he is one to create these as independent commands reporting directly to him. Do you see a problem . Who is going to be in charge in the field . Hampton by virtue of security is that guy. He is very much his protege, succeeded hampton. Butler has a leg taken off by a shell at the battle of Brandy Station. He has returned to duty in 1864 with a brigade of very green mounted infantry. With the death of stuart, he will end up in command of hampton position. Tom rosser, commander of the laurel brigade. We will talk about him more later. Gib wright is interesting fellow. He was ultimately acquitted of murder prior to the war. He liked his whiskey. He was a hard fighter. He commands a veteran brigade. Then there is fitz lee. Prone to being obese. By the time of the spanishamerican war he ways 320 pounds and wise as wide as he was tall. When he came back to the service of the United States army, it wasnt possible to get him on a horse. He ended up not serving in the field. The favorite nephew of the commanding general of the army of northern virginia. One of them happen to be 1864 at the bottle of todds tavern. Fitz lee will conduct a delaying tactic that will hold off the Union Infantry advance long enough to allow digg andersons troops to get ahead of the army of the potomac. One of the four good days that he had. Lawrence wickham, one of the first families of virginia. Williams wickham resigns his commission in the fall of 1864 to take a seat in the confederate congress. His regiment broke at Brandy Station which allowed Union Troopers to surround and wound frank hampton, the younger brother of wade hampton. That will create command friction, as you might imagine. Roger preston, attached to hamptons division. Finally, we have major james breathed. To set the stage for you, after some inauspicious beginnings for sheridan, lets just say that by time that the expedition begins on the seventh of june, he has won one engagement. The battle of yellow tavern. Other than that he has had his butt kicked regularly. He is not cold harbor. He comes up with a brilliant idea. This is a brilliant idea based on something he tried out in the early phases of the vicksburg campaign. The strategic cavalry raid. He will launch with the idea of creating so much chaos and havoc it will distract attention away and allow his army to steal a march. This is what grant did with ryerson during the early vicksburg campaign. One of the lessons he has learned is he has allowed sheridan to go off on a raid. I mean to address that. Back to todds tavern. The Union Cavalry is engaged with fitz lee before they drive him off. When George Gordon meade arrives at todds tavern he finds the division commanders, and their troops with their horses on saddled making letters and coffee. Sheridan is nowhere to be found so they do what soldiers do. Meade gets frustrated. He issues orders directly to the commanders. By the same time they arrive sheridan shows up and he gives conflicting orders. It is a mess. Sheridan gets someone to meades tent and ends up engaging in a titanic row with George Gordon meade. Keep in mind, he didnt have the nickname the goggle eyed snapping turtle for no reason. He had a titanic temper. Sheridan had a titanic irish temper. They engage in a screaming match. Sheridan looked at meade and said if you want to give orders to the cavalry go ahead. I wont do it, and stomped out. He has told his boss to go stuff it. Gross insubordination. Meade goes straight to grant to report the insubordination and relieve sheridan of command. He finds grant sitting, and he tells grant what happens. Grant doesnt react. Meade makes a mistake and says sheridan wants to take the cavalry out and find stuart and bring them to battle. Grant says sheridan knows what he is talking about. Let him do it. Sheridan has been grossly insubordinate to his boss and rewarded with an independent command. Completely emasculating George Cornyn made. It creates a deal of friction. Part of the problem is when sheridan goes off heat takes all three divisions of cavalry with him. It nearly blunders into a great mess and ends up being a slugging match at spotsylvania courthouse. It is not a great situation. We have a great deal of conflict and tension between meade and sheridan, such as they cant work together. Grant does learn one lesson. When he orders this raid he is going to keep wilsons division with the army. He is going to send sheridan with two divisions. The object is to march along the north bank of the north anna river, fall upon the Railroad Junction where the central railroads come together, destroyed the Railroad Junction, march down the fridge and you central railroads, where he will destroy the Railroad Junction, and meet up with the army of david hunter advancing up the Shenandoah Valley, bring hunters army back, which will cross and move on petersburg investing petersburg from three sides. Butlers army in the east, the potomac in the center, hunters army from the west. It is a brilliant plan if it works. Sheridan leaves on the morning of june 7, and within minutes the confederates know about it. A servant who was loyal to the confederacy left the union camp, and supported this movement. Robert e lee will send hamptons division to pursue. Hampton and we are supposed to be independent command. There is no one in charge. Hampton sort of is but sort of is in. He doesnt have the authority. Somebody has to have some ability to be in charge. They follow a long sheridan. Sheridans inexperience begins to show for the simple reason, as collin marches across the virginia countryside, 9000 men, he doesnt send out flankers and scouts. He has no idea that hampton is in pursuit with 2 divisions. Scouts are buzzing all around the edges of this union call him. Sheridan assumes they are bushwhackers. He has no idea hampton is pursuing. Hampton has perfect intelligence of the entire disposition. He figures out gordonsville is the objective and uses the inside route, and he gets across sheridans line of march at trevilian station. It is eight miles east of gordonsville. The commanders are going to pitch their camps in the area to the north. Sheridan, no scouts and flankers, has no idea that fits lee is in the town, hampton is at trevilian station. They develop plans for the next day. The plans are sheridan is going to split his command, go to trevilian station, cross the railroad, and head out in the direction of gordonsville. Custer is going to take a flanking position to send out some flankers. Hamptons plan, lees command is going to come up the stage road and pinch sheridan. The plans are nearly mirror images of each other. Hampton has perfect intel and sheridan has none. Early in the morning, 4 30 in the morning, fitz lees division, they engage with the pickets of the seventh michigan cavalry, have a sharp skirmish. Sheridan said his plan in motion and since his guys down the state road. When they get to a crossroads, bibs crossroads, and the commander runs into pickets out there of the fit and six South Carolina of butlers command who opened fire and the commander goes timothy got shot. Another captain takes command of the regimen. Gordon gets captured almost immediately. Sheridan is already down 2 commanders. This is not an auspicious beginning. They begin to fall back. The picket do what they are supposed to do. They fall back. In the meantime, rosser and butler have been talking trying to understand what their role is to be. They are going to ride over and find wade hampton. Hampton is sound asleep on a bench outside of the tavern. The wake him up. They say what is your plan for the day . He looks up and says my plan is to fight. That is what happens. They hear the first shots. They mount their horses, ride out, and they begin to commit forces to the fight. First, butler, then the gilbert rice brigade. At one point there will be a situation, rosenball will be given a medal of honor, hell become the leading historian. He will end up coming back to duty, wounded severely at third winchester. He will lose an arm. He retires as a brigadier general. There will be a point where sheridan is going to engage. The one time that i could find in all the years i research or i could find evidence of sheridan being out on the front lines. There is a situation where hampton is beginning to get pressed. Go back to the map. Hampton is being pressed. You see this position. This is a plateau. Hampton is going to ride off to find the only troops he can find, the Citadel Cadet company, part of the South Carolina cavalry. Hampton will fall in with the rangers. He will draw his broadsword. He will personally lead a charge, crashing into the yankee cavalry. He will kill 2. He will drive them back and allow harts battery to withdraw. Sheridan sees this and asks devon to commit a good unit. The 19th cavalry will advance and make a dismounted attack that will hit hamptons line at the right moment. Hampton has ordered his command to fall back. As it is taking off hampton is ordering his men to fall back. They blame credit for driving him back. The commander of the ninth new yorker was killed in action, buried in a temporary grave, and it is quite a story. His wife had to retrieve his body and bring him home. It is why i chose this photo. I do have time to get into it today. If you want to hear it later asked me. In any event, the reason why hampton is ordered to withdraw, custer at the head of the column has spotted a glittering prize. He spots this and turns and gives the order to draw sabers in charge. They crash into this confederate wagon train. They capture much of it. He then starts to commit other troops. One of the other units committed is the second unit and line. Kidd, with his bugler, leads his unit into the direction of the wagon train. Hampton has heard this chaos and orders troops to fall back. Major kidd get cut off and they end up being captured. Kidd is freed but bugler ends of andersonville. He survives and lives to the age of 85 years old. This was a tough customer. [laughter] custer pitches and blindly. Suddenly fitz lee arrives. Custer finds himself encircled. It is a june day. Custer has made a charge of line lay into the enemy and has found himself surrounded and cut off. Does this sound familiar . [laughter] this is custers first last stand. The difference is that this time custer was reinforced. But not for a while. You realize he is in serious trouble. The officer he has put in charge of the ragan train says whered you to take it . He says take it to the rear. Then he says where is the rear . [laughter] having gotten his command into this terrible mess, custer was at his finest for the rest of the day. He fought bravely. He, and other men, made a dismounted attack in order to allow the gun crews to escape. The gun crew was tended by a fellow by the name of john kennedy. Kennedy and this other soldier, respectively with their hands bike, stood at the gun and defended it. Long enough to allow the rest of the crew to escape. They got a trip to andersonville. One did not survive. Kennedy did survive. In the 1890s he got a welldeserved medal of honor for his stand. Custer is in trouble. He is completely surrounded. He is fought on all sides. In the meantime, for bert is trying to find out what custers disposition is. He tries to find out what his dispositions are. One of the staff officer says to him, quite coincidentally, captain marcus reno. [laughter] another was captain john j coppanger. George yates, a Company Commander under custer was the commander of a company of the seventh michigan calvary, that made it through the first last stand. The parallels are remarkable. They are. Finally, one of the Staff Officers gets through. Torbert finds out this problem. He orders an attack by his force by his brigade. David gregs pitch in and they pitch into custer. Even now they had a rivalry, custer told him how glad he was to see him that day. He has managed to keep the brigade talked into his uniform tunic said it would be safe. It is a big deal. One of the people who was captured was his black cook, eliza. She was known as the queen of sheba. Eliza was captured by the confederates when the wagon train was. So were all of custers personal baggage and his letters from libby. They were published in a richmond newspaper. [laughter] custer had chided her severely for these letters. Eliza was so obnoxious and made such a pain of herself to the confederates they turn their backs and let her sneak away. That is how bad she was when she got captured. Having liberated custers command, this is mcallister. He is seeing the elephant that day. He is killed in action during the attack to free custers command. He is buried in oakdale cemetery. What will end up happening is that rosser and polar will fall back to a permanent ridgeline to the west of trevilian station. As the afternoon is for during the way they decide they are going to make an attack. With rosser on one side and butler on the other they launch an attack. This is one of the few engagements during the entire battle. Rosser is immediately wounded. He is carried off the field. He tells commander delaney that he believes delaney should not fight dismounted. He should fight mounted. This attack is repulsed by the union troops. That ends the fighting at the end of the first day of the battle of trevilian station. Sheridan, for reasons i cannot comprehend, doesnt send out scouts. He just assumes hampton is beaten and withdrawn. The battlefield is his. He has no idea hamptons command is three miles away. None whatsoever. Hampton spends the night preparing a stout defensive position that uses part of the Virginia Central railroad. And, sheridan spends the morning having his troopers tearing up the railroad. At 1 00 on the afternoon he tells forward to take his division and make it out of the road. It is time for them to move out to gordonsville. With custer in the lead, they move out and they see this incredibly stout defensive line hampton has forged. They assume, because butlers men are mounted infantry, this is infantry they are facing. Custer makes an attack and gets repulsed and falls back and refuses to attack again. He is out of the fight for the rest of the day. The focus of the fighting shifts. There are seven union attacks launched from that position. By the end of the day, but the time the seventh attack is teed up the forces are no more than 15 yards apart on either side. In the meantime lees division has made a large march around and has gotten into visitation around the union flank. After the report of the seventh attack womack sends word that he is in position and he orders to attack. Simultaneously, with all of the rest of command attacking from the front, they roll up the flank and send them off to a wild route, ending the battle of trevilian station. Sheridan had a worse allergy to the truth. He claimed this was a union victory. What were his orders . To go to gordonsville. He hadnt come close to gordonsville. He hasnt linked up with hunters army. He hasnt accomplished the objectives he has been sent on. He calls it a victory. It is like richard nixon. Declare victory and go home like vietnam. Sheridan and of not returning to serve with the army for another 21 days. He ends up on this extended march having to pick up most of the supply depot. He has to bring the forces backed to the army. On the 13th day after the second day of the battle, Ulysses Grant, having distracted robert he lead, steals a march across the river undetected. He moves on petersburg and it is only because of a spectacular defense cobbled with a scratch force by pure boers guard are able to prevent grant from taking petersburg on the 16th of june. On the way, sheridan fight another battle. He has left the two brigades of grants brigade behind. He pounces on gregg. Seven brigades versus two. Gregg was lucky to get out of there. I think it played in heavily in his decision to resign his commission in 1865, he knew sheridan will be coming back and he wanted no part of serving under him again. It is not documented. Gregg was too much of a gentleman to say such a thing. But i believe that was the case. We have the trevilian raid. Grants move on petersburg meant that the armies going to end up in siege warfare. Grant new it. Robert d lee knew it. He knew that the numbers did not favor him in such an adventure. He knew from 1862 by sending jackson to the Shenandoah Valley, he could pull troops away from petersburg and hopefully break this hammerlock grant was going to be putting on the army of northern virginia. On the 14th of june, he sends [inaudible] head into the direction of lynchburg. They march through trevilian station three days after the battle. By then the railroad has been repaired. They get to gordonsville. They take the trains to lynchburg. They arrive just in time to repulsed david hunters army, which falls up the ohio river valley and is out of the war for the better part of a month, which frees early to march, and advance on frederick, maryland where they fight the battle on the sixth of july. The defeat lou wallace. They move forward and engage the outer defense of washington, which in turn forces the 19th and six court to beat attached and sent to defend washington. Setting the stage for what phil will talk about this afternoon with the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign. I will suggest to you that by beating Phil Sheridan at trevilian station, this was a decisive battle calvary fight. By defeating history teacher objective, preventing him from linking out, that enabled early to move to the valley and the sideshow that it created bought the confederacy six months of life it may not have had because hampton defeated Phil Sheridan. I want to finish with a touching story. This is robert towles. He had and listed with his brothers. One of the brothers was killed in october of 1863. The other was killed at todds cavern. He was mortally wounded on the first day at trevilian station. His family decided they were going to keep the brothers together in death. The other brothers were disinterred and brought to luisa. They rest under a single monument in the cemetary. It is a moving thing, akin to a civil war version of the saving private ryan story. You can go visit the towles brothers. Another grave, a sergeant of the fourth virginia who was mortally wounded carrying a wounded combat comrade off the field. I have every reason to believe it was robert towles. You can visit mcallisters grave and spend some time and reflect on the single decisive cavalry battle fought in the civil war. Thank you for your time. [applause] now a couple of questions. You missed one major thing there that you didnt tell us, when custer got his personal belongings confiscated, he was left with one thing. We have to know what that is because we need to laugh about that. Bill is referring to the fact that the only thing custer had left was his toothbrush. He will end up in the custody of tom rosser. He will get his revenge on rosser at the battle of toms brook in october 1864. He will capture rossers uniform. He and rosser had been friends. He will send a note across the lines to rosser saying next time you have a uniform made, have it made shorter so it fits me better. [laughter] another question. Im having a hard time imaging in my mind what it means to say custer and his brigade are surrounded by confederate cavalry. Does that mean they are in a circle pointing outwards. Do they start dismounting . Thats a good question. I did neglect to raise a point. Tom rosser would hear the commotion and will order his brigade without orders to make a mount to charge. That is what crashes into custers command. They are being fought on the front by rosser. When Hampton Falls back they go to a middle position and fitz lee fills around. They call it a living triangle. The point remains the same, they are getting shot at from all sides. The end of dismounting because the horses are a liability. They end up fighting in a circular position until they get relieved. [inaudible] did he continue to use standard tactics, when you dismount calvary, one out of every four holes the horses of himself and his buddies. Somebody had to watch the horses. You have to maintain those horses as safely as possible. The answer is yes. They did have to do that. Could you say a word about the armament . The relative armament of the two sides. By that time, 85 of the army of the cavalry had been armed with spencer car beams an effective range of 300 yards. You can load on sunday and fire week. Confederates are going to be armed with a smattering of miscellaneous single shot car beams, such as the sharks. There is a major difference in the technology, and a major difference in the weaponry used. It is that weaponry that is one of the reasons why they wanted torbert. Having been an infantry commander he conducts much of the battle as if he were commanding infantry. Thank you very much. [applause] airs 6 00vil war and 10 00 eastern time. You are watching American History all weekend every. Eekend on cspan 3 American History tvs railamerica brings films that help tell the story of the 20th century. Stevenson takes off time from his campaign. 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