To a pleasant day agenda. Its called political correctness. Its nonsense. You cannot alter the past. You can only learn from it. And believe me, history is the best teacher any of you will ever have. So we have to look back to see where were going, and there is no other guide. So today we look back at the wilderness. We look back with all with reverence and installation. What those men in the north and south gave we all share. We must treasure those sacrifices always as being among our richest possessions. May god continue to bless this land we all call our home. Thank you. [ applause ] [ applause ] the incredible violence of 1864 reflected the immense stakes, and the men in both armies recognized that connection. Before 1864, soldiers might have been under fire for eight hours during an entire year. During the overland campaign, they were sometimes under fire for eight hours or more in a single day. On may 12th, 1864, walter battle of the fourth North Carolina fought just a few hundre
Another. Lee basically takes a waiting game. What is grant going to do. Grant is going to move one way or the other. Lee is uncertain. So he for fits the initiative to his opponent. This is unlike the lee that we usually see. But in this instance he has no choice. He sends his cavalry out past each ends of his lines sort of to act as a trip wire to let him know where the federals are coming from and then waits. The army was commanded by general George Gordon lee, the hero of gettysburg, mead at this point was in a hot seat. He failed to destroy lees army at gettysburg. He was being investigated by congress. We all know how bad that can be. And so mead was in a bad situation. Grant visited him and was impressed by mead, because what mead told grant was that he would step down willingly and let grant bring some of his own people from the west to run the army of the potomac. Grant decided to keep mead on. He needed somebody with meads knowledge of that army in order to run it in detail. A
Nevertheless, while other Union Commanders were failing, grant had climbed steadily up the military ladder with resounding victories, stretching from fort henry in 1862, through vicksburg to Missionary Ridge in 1863. He was clearly the norths man of the hour. When lincoln ordered an east early in 1864 to take command of all federal forces. The somewhere near 500,000 combat ready soldiers grant would have authority over the largest post any american officer had ever led. The new Lieutenant General wasted little time in making his strategic intentions known. In the past, grant asserted, union armies had quote, acted independently and without concept like a bulky team of mules, no two pulling to the. And this allowed confederates to shift men from one sector to the other to meet the most pressing danger. Union generals seemed content to maneuver. But that was not the road to victory, grant announced. The north had far superior numbers, and materiel. It was time to switch games. To stop pl
Years after the war, that is filled with literary inventions. I suspect that is one of his many literary inventions. Its true that soldiers of the army of the potomac had done that before in earlier battles. This would be in november of 1863. But theres no evidence that it actually happened here at cold harbor. But everybody knew it was going to be a fierce and terrible day. 4 30 a. M. , the signal gun goes off, and this huge union monolith heaves forward. Or parts of it do. Thats the sad thing about the battle of cold harbor. Down on the lower end of the battlefield, general hancocks second corps punches forward. Across from them at one spot, they make a breakthrough in a salient in the federal line where general breckenridge is positioned. But lee has a lot of reserves. One myth is that lee did not have reserves, that his line was thin. Thats not true. Some parts of the confederate line this entire divisions behind them and that was the position on the lower end of the battlefield wh
Stymied. Lee is any a powerful position and grant cant break through. What does he do . Maneuvers. He pulled the army of the potomac ought of the wilderness and goes to the spotseslvania courthouse and then lee has to come out from the wilderness and fight him on opened ground. This is a tactical maneuver aimed at pulling lee from his strong entrenchmentes. The army of the potomac shifts south, a drama take point in the war because up to this point, whatever Union Generals had been trounced in the battle as bad as lee had defeated grant and in the wilderness they always retreated but grant moved south to the court house and lee gets awe finger of his army in front of grant and blocks him and theres brutal fighting in places with names like the mule shoe and the bloody age that will goes on for over a week, will be 10 days and then finally grant realizes he cant break through there so grant maneuvers again. He pulls the union army out from spots vain yeah courthouse and send the finger