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
I cant remember when i first saw the picture, and i certainly did not know where cold harbor was at the time. Im sure i thought it was a port town somewhere in virginia. I may not remember in which book i first saw the photograph, but i know that immediately and lastingly linked the words cold harbor and death in my mind. In subsequent years, i came to read more about the events of the spring of 1864 that culminated at cold harbor, that deadly slog from the rapid ann to the james that saw the u. S. Suffer 50,000 casualties, in the confederacy, another 30,000plus, the bloodiest six weeks of the war. I learned of the thousands who fell in the Early Morning on june 3rd. And i do know that there are differing schools of thought about what that number was. I learned that ulysses s. Grant would harbor terrible regrets about his decisions at cold harbor to the very end of his days. And i learned that even in a war in which the military and the public had become accustomed to horribly long cas
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
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