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
Beneath to United States. The civil war did not permanently shatter you are nag nation. Yet it was a supreme test for a country that now stands in blessed unit, you are north and south. You are here together tonight here is evening we look back with learn from the greatest teacher anyone can have, history. Armed with an understanding of the time. Private maddux would like that. Thank you. [ applause ] the Overland Campaign was the largest and the bloodiest campaign of the entire civil war. Both armies lost half of their original fighting forces. The casualties were astounding. Astounding to soldiers, to generals, and to those left back home. Amid the staggering losses sustained at cold harbor and during the Overland Campaign, for every soldier killed, wounded or captures there was a family. Mother, brother, brother, sister, that also felt the loss on the fields of 1864 reverberated through communities across the north and south. The empty chairs at kitchen tables across the country and
Next on the civil war, historians and officials from the National Park service commemorate the beginning of the Overland Campaign which took place in virginia 150 years ago in may and june of 1864. The ceremony includes keynote remarks by civil war scholar james robertson, who explains the strategy employed by Union General ulysses s. Grant against the confederates and how the campaign impacted the war as a whole. This event took place in spotsle vain yeah county, virginia, at fredricksburg and the National Military park. Its just under an hour. As the armies of grant and lee marched in may of 1864natio. Its just under an hour. As the armies of grant and lee marched in may of 1864 the victory or defeat depended on their effortsfrom the New York Herald april 13th, 1864. Upon the campaign that we are about to engage there depends