can take petersburg, cut the supply line to the army in northern virginia, and finally defeat lee. the union plan works like clock work. sheridan heads off on his raid. it will end disastrously at the battle of torrian station, but it serves its purpose for the time. and on the morning of the 13th of june, lee and his men look across and discover that the union earth works are empty. grant once again has managed to pull his army away without lee figuring out what had happened. the union army swings south, down to the james river. grant intends to cross. but lee does not understand what grant means to do. lee thinks that what grant might be preparing to do is to swing back toward richmond north of the james river. so lee stays here at cold harbor, sends some of his soldiers to the south, but doesn't do a major shift, because, again, he's uncertain as to what grant will do. well, as you civil war historians know, by june 15th, union forces are attacking at petersburg. lee is now alerted to what's going on. confederates managed to reach the town in time. there's a vigorous defense, and the war will basically devolve into a siege with many big battles, but still a siege that will last for the next ten months. i'm often asked, well, who is it that won this battle at cold harbor? and that 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 upper hand in the wilderness. spotsl vainia courthouse and here at cold harbor, because each place he was able to deflect grant. but if you look at it as a unified campaign, i'd have to say grant was the winner. grant's goal was to neutralize lee's army in virginia, and he did just that. lee would be locked into the entrenchment at petersburg and richmond and be neutralized as an effective force in the war. lee's goal had been to hold his line at the rap dan river and after these series of battles, he was driven back into richmond. so he too realized he had failed in his goal. casualties were horrendous. 33,000 confederates during this campaign, were captured, killed, or wounded. something like 55,000 union soldiers killed, captured, or wounded. 88,000 americans all-told in something like 42, 43 days of fighting and maneuver. if you are to ask, well, who lost the most, obviously the union forces lost more men, but they were the ones generally who were on the offensive. they were launching the attacks. if you were to ask, which army lost the highest percentage of men, then the conclusion would be reversed. lee started the campaign with about 65,000. he lost slightly more than 50% of the men that he had started with. grant, of course starting with 120,000, lost a little bit less than 50% of the men that he had started with, so in that sense, grant wins the numbers game, depends again on how you count it. well, i've enjoyed chatting with you today. i've sure i've said 50 things that will cause a lot of debate and some of you may have questions as well. i believe i've been asked to talk to you for a little while, sort of like king cannut who was supposed to hold back the tides, i'm supposed to keep you happy enough until the sun goes down and the lighting of the candles to be carried on the battlefield. i'd be glad to take a question or two, or whatever you'd like to do, david? what's that? move to the next? okay, well, i guess i've done my job. so thank you very much, i appreciate it. [ applause ] >> next, on the civil war, historians and officials from the national park service commemorate the conclusion of the overland campaign, which took place in virginia, 150 years ago in may and june of 1864. in keynote remarks, james robertson describes ulysses desire to detroit the confederacy which culminated at cold harbor. he said robert e. lee earned his greatest and final victory of the war, but it wasn't enough to stop grant from besieging lee and his men at petersburg. the richmond battle park organized this hour-long event. >> well, good evening. my name is rick raines and i'm the pastor here at the fair mount christian church, and we are really sad that you're here tonight. [ laughter ] we know you are much anticipating being over at the battlefield, but we're glad you're with us tonight. i've been asked to begin the evening with a word of invocation. please bow with me. father in heaven, we come to this place tonight, not to celebrate war, but to celebrate sacrifice, loyalty, bravery, and the things that have happened in our history to make us the great nation we are today. may we learn from the lessons of history. may we not repeat the lessons that divide us, but may we repeat those lessons that make us, indeed, strong. tonight, dear lord, i thank you for the national park service and their very hard work in bringing this event to our community, to our state, and to our nation. and lord, i am most grateful that you've allowed us to be part of this. bless what we do in this place this evening and we humbly asking, dear father, that you bless your nation, in jesus name, amen. >> amen. >> on the 4th of may, 1864, the union army of the potomac crossed the rap dan river and passed into the dense wood loondland the locals called the wilderness. near the bridges, brass bands played the national national airs, along with other soldier favorites that stirred the men's' souls with optimism and hope. none could know but the final campaign of the war had begun. by the epped of may, the armies had crossed many rivers. the bloody battles of the wilderness, spotsel vainia courthouse and the north anna river had pushed human daring and suffering to the extreme. but the soldiers valiantly fought on. soon after the fight along the north anna river, u.s. assistant secretary of war charles dana hoped to transfer the lingering soldiers' optimism to the war weary northern home front. to boost morale back home and garner political support to continue the war effort, dana proudly proclaimed, the rebels have lost all confidence, and are already morally defeated. this army has learned to believe that it is sure of victory. even our officers have ceased to regard lee as an invincible military genius. on the part of the rebels, this change is evinced, not only by their not attacking, even when circumstances seem to invite it, but by the unanimous statement of prisoners taken from them. rely upon it, the end it near as well. similarly, in late may, the washington republican and the philadelphia bulletin also reported, lee has commenced a hasty retreat. pursued with real vigor by grant. grant is evidently, embarrassingly. unless lee stops to fight today, we shall hear next of a grand conflict for the city of richmond before or in the works of that capital. advices say jeff davis and his cabinet left richmond some days ago. there is little doubt that richmond, by this time, is pretty well cleaned out of its inhabitants, and that it's nothing less than a fortress. >> by june 3rd, 1864, the union army arrived within eight miles of richmond. the weary soldiers on the front lines, who had endured a month of incessant hard marching, unimaginable blood letting and death, dug in around cold harbor. grant's unrelenting hammering of lee's veteran army continued on this day, 150 years ago. a frontal assault was ordered, it was unmatched in cheer brutality. following the june 3rd assaults at cold harbor, private david coop of the 36th wisconsin wrote to his daughter from the trenches. no words that i can write can give you an idea of it. how would you feel to see your father lying in a ditch behind a bank of earth all day with rebel bullets flying over his head, so that his life was in danger if he should raise on his feet. without a chance to get anything to eat, then running across an open field toward a rebel battery, with rebel bullets and canister flying like hail and men falling, killed and wounded all about him. and finally ordered to fall on our faces so that the storm could pass over us. and then be oblige to lie in that position until being covered by the darkness of night so we could get away. and march through the night without a chance to get supper. so weak he could scarcely walk. to see him lie down in the dirt, and if stopping for a few minutes, so exhausted as to fall asleep. my dear daughter, your father my be lying dead on the field of battle and you may not know it. and so it was for the soldiers north and south. >> thank you for joining us this evening. my name is david ruth. i'm the superintendent of richmond national battlefield park. i'd like to take just a moment to introduce to you all tonight, our participants in this even's program. dr. james i. robertson, paul levengood, david adams, a close personal friend and steward of a large portion of the cold harbor battlefield. our readers, ashley and michael, and i want to send a special thanks to our chorus from the lee davis high school. thank you all very much for being with us in this program tonight. [ applause ] >> for the last week and a half, many of you have followed in the foot steps of union and confederate armies across the north anna and the pom onky rivers, to potmy creek, bethesda church and near here at the cold harbor across roads. tonight, we will pause to ponder the significance of these stories and what they meant to the veterans of both armies and generations of americans who came after. as we do that, we need to acknowledge the hard work of so many who joined with us in remembering and commemorating this unforgettable part of our shared history. from its own commemorative events at north anna to supporting our events here, hanover county has been a real strong partner with us, helped us with buses and helped us with many of the logistics and we thank the board of supervisors and the county for their assistance. we couldn't have done this without the assistance of fairmont church. this evening is a perfect example of this partnership. their parking lot provided perfect places for our shuttles to have the tours emanate from. so without fairmont church, this certainly could not have happened. our commemoration of the battle of top on themy creek wouldn't have been possible without the work of our newest partner, the rural plains foundation a friends group is working hard to expand a professional of the rural plains unit. kathryn patterson is here this evening, if you can just raise your hand. there she is, over to my left. thank you, kathryn, for being with us tonight. provided support that helped us conduct and publicize these commemorative programs. we're pleased with the virginiaal historical society working with us to set the stage for 1864 commemorations. seems like a month ago now, but thank you, paul, for your strong partnership with the national park service. and i also must say that i can stand up here tonight and provide some great words that some of my staff has helped me write, but none of this could have happened without the staff of richmond national battlefield park. and i lost some nights worrying about the logistics, but they lost a lot of nights putting together the programs over the past week. i'd like if you could just stand real quick, if you don't mind -- no matter what division you're in -- [ applause ] and volunteers, please. [ applause ] >> these folks, many of them, were at the church parking lot this morning at 3:30 a.m. and met the tours and followed in the foot steps of the 18th and second corps, and as depleted as they are, they're here tonight to support this final program. so as the superintendent of this park, i couldn't be more impressed by this staff and proud. so thank you all so very much. [ applause ] and finally, parts of this battlefield would not be available to tell their stories were it not for the work of the civil war trust and the richmond battlefields association. their preservation work will ensure that these places will remain available to teach and inspire our children, grandchildren, and generations to come. indeed, these places, this land, and the history it contains, are the reasons that we are here. 150 years ago, hanover county, virginia, became one of the bloodiest leaps on the continent, for more than two weeks, tens of thousands of americans fought one another here, struggled to survive here, and died here. farms were transformed into battlefields. few communities suffered like hanover, and the war gave it an enduring identity. when the armies departed, families like the garthrights, the baez, the watts, and the adams, the mcgees and the burnets, were left to deal with the human wreckage left behind, they also faced the immense struggle of regaining their livelihoods that the war nearly destroyed. in the previous programs, we told the civilian story left by written accounts from the participants. tonight is different. our first speaker david adams is a life-long resident of cold harbor and is proud to represent the fifth generation of the adams family to live on the battlefield. he's here to talk about what it's like to be so closely connected to the land, a most famous place. through the hospitality of the adams' family, david and his mother, mary beth who is with us tonight, the park was able to take folks along the footpath of the second corps attack on june 3rd. we thank you for the hospitality you've always shown us, particularly this morning when we were there bright and early. thank you all. david? [ applause ] >> before david gets started, i did want to mention that it's very appropriate that he's sitting next to dr. robertson. he's a tech graduate himself, holds a master's degree in government from the university of richmond and uses those credentials to teach young people since 1979, where he taught at richmond community high school. much of the current staff of the battlefield, i already mentioned, had the good fortune of knowing both david, mary beth, his mother, and david's father edwin, who very good naturedly and with great patience welcomed many inquisitive park service historians to his farm over the years, graciously allowing our groups, eager to see this historic group, the right to step on this historic land. in the park service, we talk about stewardship, we try to take care of our sites, all national treasures. the adams family has treated their portion of the battlefield with respect and gentleness. they are great stewards and we are extremely grateful for that. again, thank you, david, for being with us this evening. [ applause ] >> good evening. i wish to thank dave ruth, superintendent of the richmond national battlefield park, for extending the invitation to speak on this significant occasion in the life of our country. it is indeed an enormous honor to have the opportunity to share this time with dr. robertson, and mr. levengood. dave, i thank you. in 1864, joseph adams owned a farm about a mile south of new cold harbor. he was 48 years old. had a very young family for his age. made a living raising wheat, corn, and vegetables. i am his great, great grandson. i grew up and was raised and worked on the same farm. today, i continue to live on it. it is a place filled with the beauty of wheat rolling in waves with the wind. emerald-green corn fields, if adequate rain has fallen and for years, cattle grazing across pastures. but this exact same place also bore enormous violence. i am so very honored to represent a connection with the civilian population of that long ago time. 150 years. this is very meaningful to me. we all know how the war divided the country. it divided families. it divided cold harbor. most cold harbor residents certainly supported secession in the confederacy. they saw the war as an invasion by high-handed government. but others saw it differently. they were southern unionists. such southerners likely felt that dissolving the union would end in tragedy. these differences were present in the cold harbor community. it was a civil war through and through. by grandfather was born on the farm and worked it all his life. he shared an account given to him by his father of horsemen returning to cold harbor years after the battle, war veterans. the image that was most dominant in the account was that some of the returning men were emotional. and so we wonder, what had they seen at cold harbor. what had they experienced at cold harbor. what did they remember about cold harbor? why were some weeping? over time, war relics would be unearthed by the adams' plow. through my grandfather's youth, like his father, and grandfather, plowing was done walking behind a mule. by my father's boyhood, a tractor-drawn plow would also inevitably latch on to war material. sometimes a rainfall would have the same effect. revealing lead bullets, shell and cannonball fragments. occasionally a bayonet, occasionally a rifle, and occasionally, portions of human bone. rust and decay marked how long they had left in the spot they fell that june day. for years, picking a lead bullet off the ground was pretty common place. we never gave its background a second thought. holding a war relic never really conveys anything close to what happened here. how easy to ignore that a lead bullet dropped a century and a half ago may have passed through a man. did it take his life? if it did so, how long did it take him to die? and what of my grandfather's father's farm on june 3rd, 1864? we know that enormous damage occurred on his place from the battle of gains mill, only two junes before. his house had been a union field hospital. in june 1864, the two armies had returned again. having survived and witnessed the carnage of war once, what dread must have filled his mind and heart. hell on earth was coming again to cold harbor. as a boy, who always loved history, living on a farm that had been a battlefield, always invoked a romantic image of war. it was always an image confined to heroism and valor and duty, and cold harbor was about those things. this youthful image of mine, however, included men falling neatly in lines, dead to the ground, and wounds that could be easily patched up. it would be much later before i would comprehend as my father and grandfather did, that our farm also produced immense suffering, untold agony and cruelty. but it also produced a genuine devotion to what those americans of 150 years ago thought was right. thank you for your time, and i appreciate it very much. [ applause ] >> one of the pleasures of being superintendent of this battlefield park is the opportunity to collaborate with other historical institutions, to work in tandem towards shared goals to strengthen the story of the old dominion and how it is told. one of those colleagues is dr. paul levengood. he's president and ceo of the virginia historical society. a position he's held for six years. paul is a native of pennsylvania, like myself, with degrees from davidson college and from rice university where he earned his doctorate in history. his many accomplishments, serving as editor of the virginia magazine of history and biography. work on the editorial advisory board of the encyclopedia virginia and publication of a book entitled virginia, catalyst of commerce for four centuries, published in 2007. that was the official commemorative project of the virginia chamber of commerce. ball is married, has three children is continues to steer the virginia historical society into the 21st century with a steady and imaginative hand. one of our staff has remarked to me that he has been to every state historical society in the south except for florida, not sure why, and that none can approach the virginia historical society for quality, efficiency, and usefulness. so paul, we appreciate all that you do. we're assembled here between the lines this evening, if we were in fact at cold harbor. as a group, at this place, that witnessed countless hundreds of untold personal tragedies, no doubt some of us, if we were actually on the battlefield tonight, would be sitting or standing on the very spot where a corpse may have lay 150 years ago tonight. for the survivors, it was too soon to extract broad meaning or context from their ordeal. paul is here tonight to reflect on that topic, how cold harbor came to be remembered. [ applause ] >> thank you very much, dave. and good evening, everyone. now, in stand-up comedy, the role i am playing right now is what you would call the middle. in other words, i'm serving as a bridge from the opener, who gets the crowd going, and in this case, gets the crowd moved, to the headliner, and that's the one that everyone came to see. so i think you'll agree, we had a wonderful opener in mr. adams. that was very moving. and my role now is to efficiently get you to our friend, the incomparable bud robertson, who is obviously the main attraction this evening. so as i middle here, i hope i can keep your attention for a few moments. and i promise that unlike a comedy show, there will be no ventriloquism or jokes about airline food. when superintendent dave ruth called and asked me to say a few words about this event, which marks a century and a half since the battle of cold harbor, i asked, why me? after all, i'm a 20th century historian by training. my war took place 70 years ago, not 150. however, dave said something kind about my presence adding to the event and i certainly appreciated that. but between us, he's my sometime doubles tennis partner, and it's in his best interest to keep>=9 ego stroked. but i do appreciate his confidence in bringing me here. now i'll admit that when i was thinking about this evening, it caused me a few sleepless nights, so i'm glad you had sleepless nights and i did too. afterall, what can i add that bud, or gordon ray, or a host of other experts has not already said about the battle itself? this isn't my era, obviously. my ability to add something to our understanding is limited. but once i realized that i really wasn't expected to become an expert on this battle, in a month's time, i gained some measure of peace. so instead, i decided to embrace my non-expert role and take what is a more impressionistic look at the meaning and memory, or lack thereof, of the vicious and in many ways, fruitless battle of cold harbor. so i'll begin by asking you a question rhetorically. what is it that sticks in our collective memory about the battle of cold harbor? well, for many, if not most of us, if we're pressed to come up with only one thing that characterizes this engagement, it might simply be this. death. this is not gettysburg or shiloh, or even the seven days. here we don't think of gallant charges, tactical successes, or feats of individual bravery. we think of death. we think of the two waves of u.s. troops who launched themselves, uselessly against deeply entrenched confederates and were mown down in staggering numbers. we think of the four days in which the wounded moaned and screamed for help in mow man's land as they died, parched, in pain, afraid. and we think of that photograph. do you know the photograph i mean? in the photograph, a litter sits on the ground. addressing the camera, with a steely gaze. in the background, four more men are stooped at their labors. these five are the living actors in this scene. but they are not the actors who draw our attention, who make this john rakey photograph one of the most haunting and macabre of the civil war. no, what draws our attention is not the living. it is the dead. how can we not look in this photograph, into the hollow, staring eye sockets of the five skulls that confront us? we're riveted to them as the very representation of death. only by tearing our eyes away from the skulls can we begin to make out the rest of the scene. the horrifying, disembodied mass of bone, clothing, and equipment, composed of parts of who knows how many human bodies. in almost a codea of death, we last notice of what looks like the remains of a leg dangling, jarringly from the litter. boot still attached. the photograph sears into the brain. at least it did to mine. i can't remember when i first saw the picture, and i certainly did not know where cold harb was at the time. i'm 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 it 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 rap dan to the james that saw the u.s. suffer 50,000 casualties, in the confederacy, another 30,000-plus, the bloodiest six weeks of the war. i learned of the thousands who fell in the early morning on june 3rd. i know there are differing schools of thought about what that number was. i learned that grant would harbor terrible regrets about his decisions at cold harbor to the very end of his days. and a learned that even in a war in which the military and the public had become accustomed to horribly long casualty lists, cold harbor stood out for his bloodyness. as i sought to find an angle for these remarks, by searching my mind on the battle of cold harbor, a book came to mind. it's called "the war of the world," a provocative work by neil ferguson. his premise is that the 20th century, with its two global conflicts and a series of more than a dozen others, that each caused more than a million deaths, was the most violent and deadly in human history. in quite convincing fashion, ferguson lays out evidence that helps explain why this was so. now ferguson's book makes no mention of the american civil war at all. in fact, it does not pay much attention to events in the 19th century united states, period. i suppose that i may simply be trying to connect a time period in the 19th century to one that i know better in the 20th century. but the more i thought about it, the more it struck me that the carnage here helped set the stage for the almost ceaseless fighting that would cost tens of millions of lives in the 20th century. not just in the terrible numbers of casualties. the very nature of fighting here also seemed to portend the way we would fight in the modern era. here at cold harbor, as the culmination of the meat grinder that was the overland campaign, humanity was afforded a glimpse of the future. a glimpse, and a warning. a warning of what war could be. brutal, industrial, blood-letting, that measured progress not in miles gained, but in inches. and not in winning a given spot of land, but in inflicting more damage on your opponent than you yourself absorbed. in a word, attrition. i think you can make a real case that something fundamental changed -- [ inaudible ] -- in some ways, modern war and how humans view the process of killing one another emerged out of those trees in the early morning hours of june 3rd, 1864. now, this past weekend, i attended, along with bud and maybe several others of you, the latest in the virginia ses qui centennial excellent set of annual conferences. this year's focus was on the civil war in a global context. it was very interesting to hear about the international perceptions of the fighting that convulsed this nation. in one session, the presenter observing that with few exceptions, europe viewed the events of the u.s. civil war as an abor haitian and learned few lessons from it. as it turns out, that ignorance proved very costly. i'm struck the fighting at cold harbor took place almost exactly 50 years before the outbreak of world war i in europe. with advances in weaponry, the front assault on entrenched positions in world war i became far more lethal, lethal on an almost unimaginable scale. it's always tempting to take a thesis and ride it to exaggerated and unsupportable extremes. it would be foolish to suggest that if the british and french militaries, or the german for that matter, had taken the terrible example of cold harbor to heart, that human kind would have been spared the horror of the saum or the marn. however, i can't help but wonder, whether that tactical thinking would have changed if they had consulted one of the view survivors of the second connecticut heavy artillery. or confederate brigadier general evander law who famously described what he saw as not war, it was murder. would they had repeated the mistakes we saw here among the pines of cold harbor? would the course of the first world war and perhaps by extension, the course of the 20th century been different? would that generation of potential european leaders who perished in the muddy trenches of france and belgium have been able to check the continent's slide into totalitarianism and genocide? i'm trained to resist speculation. we know that what if games are imprecise and dangerous. but i have to say, in this case, i don't really care. if there was a chance that the example of cold harbor, the memory of cold harbor, might have prevented far more awful events, half a century, or even a century later, it seems worth a moment of reflection and a touch of regret, don't you think? thank you very much. [ applause ] >> today, the name cold harbor inevitably conjures up images of entrenchments. we immediately think of field fortifications, of mile after mile of heaped-up earth snaking across the hanover county countryside. life in the trenches was a miserable existence, with its mud, filth, broiling heat and ever-present danger. but the soldiers of both armies appreciated those barriers of dirt. to better protect their own lives in a deadly environment. and as one georgia soldier explained, fighting on the defensive from behind those fortifications had its advantages. this campaign is the first in which our troops have had the privilege of fighting behind protection of any kind, it is fun for them. they lounge about with the accoutrements on and their gun close at hand, laughing and talking until someone passes it up or down the line, look out, boys, here they come! every man springs to his place and waits until the enemy gets close up, when the rear rank fires by volley. then the front rank. after which each one fires soon as he can reload. some load for others to shoot. each working rapidly, but calmly until the enemy are repulsed. >> some survivors, the union attacks at cold harbor wrote letters home, often mixing patriotism with anger, sorrow, and hope. that odd compound, perhaps reflects what the cumulative effect of constant campaigning and heavy losses could do to the mind, and the heart of a soldier. joseph barlo of the 23rd massachusetts, in a june 6 al t letter to his wife is a classic example. the 23rd has lost a large number of men and officers. i am writing to heart-rending cries, but it cannot be helped. though many has fallen and more must before we can take richmond, we are now within ten miles of the rebel sodom. i can only thank god they have been spared yet. been spared yet. ñ i may it soon be over. the weather has been awfully hot and the dust enough to kill any man, let alone the fighting. but now it has begun to rain, thank god. oh, if those men at home, had only one spark of feeling for the poor soldiers, they would rush to arms and help them to >> it's now my great honor to introduce our keynote speaker. more than 40 years ago, i began my career as a seasonal historian at the chancellorsville battlefield. one afternoon in 1973, a group stopped by the visitors center and the leader hopped out of a bus and began to tell the untimely death of stonewall jackson and brought nearly everybody in the group to tears. i asked the fellow standing next to me, who is this guy? i was told with great reverence, that this is the famous civil war historian bud robertson from virginia tech. well, i knew the rest of the story, because as they say, because i had read and reread his book the stonewall brigade before i arrived that summer. i also had the good fortune of attending virginia tech and over the years, dr. robertson has been an incredible inspiration to me and many others interested in civil war history. the books he has written cover an entire shelf, but the time he's spent mentoring young historians, both in academic and public history is immeasurable. i'll share a quick story. he's also an excellent and serious editor. he would generously mark up manuscripts, transforming them from white to red pencils. his graduate students found buying christmas presents for him was easy. a box of red pencils and he always put them to good use. for 44 years, dr. robertson was the distinguished professor of history at virginia tech. and i must ask, how many in this church congregation today attended his classes of civil war history over the years. that's wonderful. i was with the good fortune to attend many of his lectures. i was always amazed in that mcbride auditorium, for those virginia tech alumni seated here, that hundreds would fill that auditorium to overflowing, with students from every department, athletes, scientists, architects, mathematicians, all spell-bound in the way dr. robertson made history come alive. in my opinion, there were more teachers like him in the public school system, we would not question why students don't understand or care about american history. [ applause ] >> today, dr. robertson serves as a key member of the virginia commemorate virginia's participation in the civil war. under his leader3rs.l and guidance, the commission has been successful beyond all imagination. i'm honored to present to you, dr. james i. robertson jr. [ applause ] >> thank you. thank you very much. i would say david was one of my better students and i do remember that. i think the worst student i ever had was a football player who drifted into that course that i taught. and he did not take the mid term exam. and on the final, he failed it flatly. so i gave him an f on the course. he came to see me and he said, dr. robertson, i don't believe i deserve an f in this course. and i said i don't either, but that's as low as the system goes. [ laughter ] i wanted to thank david and the park service for the humbling invitation to give the keynote on this important anniversary. one of the first axioms you learn in graduate school is simple. any nation that forgets its past has no future. and i'm grateful to you for coming out this evening to remember a point in american history that cannot and must not ever be forgotten, june 3rd, 1864. the civil war became more sophisticated, more advanced, and hence bloodier, as the war years passed. by 1864, seasoned soldiers using rifles and well built earth works, supported by suitable and well-placed artillery, simply could not be dislodged. by any sort of final attack. the fact became indelible, early in june in pine thickets and open ground only eight miles from richmond. -- the 148th pennsylvania would later declare the assault at cold harbor was an attempt by sheer and furious fighting, to force the advantage, which march and maneuver had missed. it failed at a cost of life matched by no other 60 minutes in the four years of that war. it was in the civil war's third year that general ulysses grant assumed command of all union military forces. he personally was friendly and approachable. but he always seemed to have what one observer called a peculiar aloofness. he liked to be alone and comfortable with his thoughts, and his cigars. on may 4th, grant unleashed that campaign that would destroy the southern confederacy. union military forces would strike whenever they could, with all the strength they had. federals would keep attacking until confederate resistance collapsed. it was a simple and elementary ñ plan, but it had never been tried before by a union commander. grant made his headquarters with the army of the potomac. his attention would be totally on robert e. lee's forces. other generals had undertaken the same strategy and had met defeat. grant regarded a battle loss as merely a momentary setback. if bested, he intended to reassemble and attack again. and again. and put another way, in may h 1864, the union army stopped playing chess and switched over to checkers. both armies blaired copiously that month. grant took a pounding on a two day fight in the wilderness. the union general ignored the feet. so began a deadly game of fight, flank, and fight and flank and fight again. mile by mile, grant kept pushing. 50 miles and starting days after the start, the two armies were approaching the checkered army level an unproedictable string. behind it was richmond himself less than a week's march away gravitated to a place called cold harbor. there was not a stream within miles. it was nothing more than an intersection between country roads. by june it was obvious that the escalating skirmishes were reaching a point where full-scale battle was imminent. grant's resolve was as solid as ever. ho however his opponent was not in good health having taken a toll on robert e. lee. he had suffered a broken hand, a sprained wrist, rheumatism and the previous year, a massive heart attack of which there was no treatment cure or medication. as he inspected his lines in the opening of june lee was not a trapped traveler. he didn't have the strength to ride a horse. ho nevertheless lee's soldiers had become champion diggers. in other days they had one to two days as was the case at harbor. they created not one line of defense but two or three. they took advantage of ubish swell or gully. his lines zigzagged all enough high enough to make an ideal killing front in top. the uni simply put grant left the strategic details and i leave them to chief grant. preparations for so they for the union made a thoroughly uncoordinated advance. in addition the federal front bowed out slightly so that advancing unions would expose f flanks to heavy rare. lee was place was 7 mile nrj aby june troops more endreched at at in hi, campaign. billy banks nie all of these things. on thursday night amid june the 2nd. one of grant's officer brigade. the officer moved closer. receiptor an soldier he wrote the best but their dead bodies might be recognized and their fate made to the tamlies ba. general alexander noted the strength of both armies is being put against each other more so than ever before or ever hereafter. on this day everything was go right for lee. lee had little to do with the conduct of his traps. they approved to be accomplish killers as they were engineered. with uncoordinated union budle started to remanufacture. this was no acting. simultaneous attacks were supposed to be at three points with columns of troops six to eight deep yet concentrated and intense confed raet fire broke the salting rhymes to pieces. one division broke out line to avoid a swamp that was on nobody's am. hundred of fill it the cross fire. an observer stated that the columns of attacking federals were charaded much as a sharpener gliens a pencil. on both sides woor told that the angel of death is hovering above or head. before the start, the bottle assumed the characteristics of a the result was always the same. his ransing comadds moved fore as if they were marching in the face of a hailstorm like rows offing. for the 15th alabama, was aturkey shoot th. alabama colonel wrote bluntly i could see dust popping out of a man's clothing. in two minutes, not a federal stand soldier. at 6:00 a.m., before the sun cleared the tree ntps. figting continued here and there because the two armies were so close to each other. they could not go. o the exact figures can never be known but grant suffered about 7 tur ,000 casualties. at least half of the killed and unions fighting, equal to and came in the short period. cold harbor was an oence idefea. one observer declared never before and never again in the civil war was so many wounded soldiers left so long to suffer in plain sight of their comrades, the enemy and the buzzards. lee's army was too thin in number. thirdly, there was no general capable of executing it. meanwhi meanwhile glen puffed on significant cars and was they about the future lee gave pursuit. by mid june, at cold harbor, opening clearings and scars of battle lay silent. cold harbor now belonged to history. the battle was lee's greatest triumph and his worst defeat. he admitted it in the last nine months of his life when he was frantically writing his memoirs. nothing was gained for the compensation of the heavy loss susta sustained. in all of the civil war, no attack has been broken up as quickly or easily as the confederates. it was also robert e. lee's final major victory. cold harbor was the complex to the campaign. never before had armies fought like they did beginning if may. for a solid month they had not been out of contact. evident share long the lines there have been actions. in four weeks, average 2,000 a day. even brigged as had melted away. a month's fighting produced neverly 60,000 union casualties grant ensiekted 32 losses . grant had lesser man power in the north. lee could not replenish his other thinning lengths. at cold harbor lee won only time. even victory was becoming too expensive for the army of northern virginia. min ument has should cover this ground elsewhere is absent. preserving is difficult because the degree to make money in the present the exceed gravity we have in the past. national scemetery, some 670 stones can, they graduate mentor often told private madox in the last assaults at cold harbor. his regiment was shot to pieces. his this puman was going across the field. he saw private madux lying on his back dying. he bent over and in ant is paegs of the young volunteer passing along some kind of words being convey his family something back home. instead he asked is it a hours? is it a hours. yes, my son. my day is ours, we won victory. then whiefate madux says then i am willing it die the. bye. >> each offered the greatest treasure he had life, and thousands of them gave that supreme offering and the words in clearings at cold harbor. we do not have to be an intellectual or even educated to under totality of what they 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 to gaps in the battle lines and camps let impacts on the living left behind. so too did the ideas and believes for which thousands died during that bloody spring perhaps enlight of the loss of so many lives and with the destruction of six weeks of heavy battle, those beliefs about nation, government, and home game even more enshrined in the hearts and minds left to right. with that we come to reflect upon and learn from today. >> writing soon war, sally putman came to believe that in its own unique way it its a landmark in the campaign in virginia. the battle of cold harbor removed the generalization of general lee's army and ended the attempt to take richmond from the north side. the barefooted ragged il fed army which had been under fire for more than a month had achieved a sus session of victories unparalleled in the history of modern warfare. the most striking feature in the commander of the federal army see seems to be quiet determination and indominatable perseverance and energy. under similar disappointment another would have had his courage to shaken that he would have promised to undergo something. his losses in men were unparalleled in the whole history of the struggle but his perseverance was undisturbed. >> that quiet determination of grant so evident to a nau noncombatant as defeat was decisive at cold harbor, the rank and file regained eed rene energy of tenacity and purpose. adams wrote that the army had literally marched in blood and agony to the james. all of this fighting has been unsuccessful fighting, hard, brutal, barren pounding yet we have a great fighter in grant. he takes hold of his work having confident in himself and not the least bit afraid of his adversary. one can see that grant believes in incessant fighting and marching as producing necessary results not only on his own rl army but the enemy. >> the battlefields are quiet and even alluring today. it is the notion that the men who fought here believed in something truly worth suffering and dying for. that draws us to this place. for each of us has we leave from here this evening we depart with the sacred responsibility to remember those who fell here and to ponder each for ourselves how we can properly honor those sack river ices and the legacy of what happened here. to them we owe a great debt. two years ago we concluded each of our sevenqru days battle commemorations with a solution to the soldiers. we will do so tonight. it is moving and deeply appropriate at this place and time. it is for them. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, that ends our formal program tonight. i want to thank you all for being with us. it didn't end the commemoration of the 150thharbor. i believe the church has been so kind to display the 16 pages of upcoming events. thank you again from making the switch from cold harbor to fa fairmont. we're so grateful for all that they've done for us this last week. again, thank you so much. [ applause ] our special american history programming in prime time continues tuesday night at 8:00 eastern when we look at the battle of fort stephens. confederate forces programmed washingtons defenses before turning back. a little after 9 we take a tour in monokasy and fort stephens that threatened nation's capitol. at 10:25 eastern we will hear from historians and national park officials on the development of washington civil war forts. the role they've played in the role and how they've been displayed for the last 150 years. >> here is a great read to add to your summer reading list. csp cspan's latest book sunday at 8 a collection of interviews with some of the most influential people. >> i always knew there was a risk in the bow heemian lifestyle. i decided to take it. whether it's an illusion or not. i don't think it is. it helped my concentration. it stopped me being bored. it stopped other people being boring to some extent. it would want the evening to go on longer to enhance the conversation. if i was asked would i do it again, the answer is probably yes. i would have quit earlier possibly hoping to get away with the whole thing. easy for me to say, of course. not very nice for my children to hear;n' it sounds irresponsiblet the truth is if i said no, i'd never trust the stuff if i knew because i did know. everyone did. >> eastern europe contained the seeds of their instruction. many of the seeds began at the very beginning. the attempt to control all institutions and political life and social life and economy. when you try to control everything you create opposition and dissidence everywhere you have just made him into a political dissident. if you want to subsidize housizing and we want to talk about it and the populace grees it's something we should put it on the bat llot and make it cle how much it's costing. when the deliver the subsidy through a private company and shareholders and executives who can extract a lot of the subsidy for themselves. that is not a good way our special history programming focusing on the 150th anniversary of the civil war continues over the next several hours with a look at the overland campaign. a series of virginia battles that took place in may and june of 1864 between the forces of ulysses s. grant and robert e. lee. we'll begin with an overview of the campaign, including comments by scholar james robertson. in an hour, author gordon ray talks about the significance of the battle of cold harbor. and then a panel of historians and representatives of the national park service co commemorate the conclusion of the overland campaign. 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. it's just under an hour. >> as the armies of grant and lee marched in may of 1864natio. it's 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 the greatest issues upon which men ever went into battle. we fight for the principles of free government, and for the existence of a nation whose institutions are the hope of the downtrodden people of every land. our success in this campaign must ensure the integrity of the united states by the final overthrow of the rebel down. success will give a new life to our country, and a new faith to the stability of free government to the world. it will also determine the next presidency as certainly as if the votes were counted. but if we fail in this campaign, that failure will be the greatest disaster in modern history. upon general grant there now concentrates the deepest interest with which the world ever watched the actions of a single soldier. he is the foremost man in the greatest contest of the age. >> when the nation and the world wanted to know how the civil war was going, they looked to virginia. that spring, robert e. lee and his army showed clearly as the confederacies greatest hope. ulysses s. grant had come east to manage the armies in virginia, but ulysses s. grant had never met robert e. lee in battle. at charlottesville -- a charlottesville newspaper editor wrote in april, the conflict has, in a sense, narrowed down to virginia. and to this campaign. uncertainty reigned in new york financial markets. gold inched upward towards $200 an ounce. the looming union presidential election gave confederates hope. from the richmond examiner, april 6th, 1864. there is a pleasing prospective collapse and ruin both financial and political for the yankee nation in this very year. it is due and overdue. but we must not forget to bring an account to a complete and final liquidation. we have to do our part, and our part is one crushing and crowning victory. and so, the armies came. >> welcome to all of you. we're very glad you're here. my name is john hennessy, i'm the chief historian at fredricksburg and spotsle vina national military park and we welcome you to the opening of the sesquicentennial of the 1864 overland campaign. before i really get started i'd like to introduce our guests here. some we see further introduction as we go. our great and honored guest is dr. james robertson, formerly of virginia tech, one of virginia's great historians. mike caldwell the regional director of the northeast reege of national park service is here this morning. superintendent lucy lawliss at fredricksburg and spotsylvania national military park and ashley whitehead luskey, from richmond national battlefield. and frank owe riley one of the historians here at fredricksburg. and our musician today is ray skon. if ever a single place reflects what this war came to be, this place is it. by the time the armies came to grapple over this piece of spotsylvania farmland in may of 1864 the stakes were so large the previous investment so big that neither side would let go. this war was no longer a conflict about secession, or even union. it was also about freedom, the extent and nature of the emerging government and the future of a united states striving for an identity and strength on the world stage. ulysses s. grant came to virginia in 1864 with a relentless determination matched only by the common soldiers and commanders. the men who had the most invested and the most to lose by the effort. robert e. lee by 1864 bore the weight of all confederate aspirations with an army no less determined than grant's but uncreasingly unable to fill the social, cultural and economic hopes of a nation. today we begin telling this story. we hope you will join us again and again over the coming days and weeks. john asley is a student from prospect heights middle school in orange, virginia. he's one of nearly 400 seventh graders from orange county public schools participating in the journey through hallowed grounds of the student, by the student, for the student, service learning project this year. the award winning project of the student, by the student, for the student, which john will tell you about, is in its sixth year and has been partnering with nps areas throughout the 150th observance from gettysburg to harper's ferry, antietam and in 2014 with fredricksburg and spotsylvania national military park. john ashley will also begin by leading us in the pledge of allegiance today, joined by jesse o'cain the director of educational programs for the journey through hallowed ground. john? >> >> can i ask that we all stand, and remove our hats for the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> delapization and decay marked the course of everything at old laurel hill. both people and place are gradually falling into ruins. an air of suffocating loneliness reigns, as the shades of everything come on. the wind has particular howling sound, as if ghosts and witches were mourning over the sad remains. this is a quote from catherine coos' diary which supports us -- which supplies us with a woman's and unionist account of the civil war in 164. she is my topic for the journey through hallowed grounds of the student, by the student, and for the student project. and this project students script, film, and edit mini movies, or broadcasts about the civil war and this region. this project has not only taught me the historical facts of the civil war, but the also often untold events that must be dug out of primary sources. these are things that are not simply found in a textbook because they cannot be put into words. but are definitely stories to be shared. broadcast from this year's project will focus on john w. patterson, a colonel that lost his life on the first day of fighting, may 5th, and sent his family into ruins. burke, an african-american, who joined the fight against slavery. the bloody intersection of orange pike road and brock road. the use of pontoon bridges in crossing the rapidan river and the constitutionality of secession. these experiences and stories, which take history out of the textbooks, and turn them into something that is alive, would not be found by me, or any students, without the of the student, by the student and for the student project. so for that reason, i would like to thank the journey for hallowed ground group, the fredricksburg and spotsylvania national military park, for expanding my knowledge and the knowledge of all those viewers of these broadcasts. i am sure they will thank you, too. [ applause ] >> how many of you are descendants of participants in this battle? pretty broad number. we hope you'll announce yourselves as you go on our programs. one of the things we've learned over time is that other members of the audience like to rub elbows with dna that has historical relevance. so, we hope you will announce yourself as we go. we are pleased today to have -- join us today the regional director of the northeast regent of the national park service mike caldwell. in most of the world the term regional director is not a pause, doesn't make your blood stir. but think about his job for a moment. in the national park service, mike caldwell is responsible for some of the most famous cultural and natural treasures on the face of the earth. from the bridge at concord to independence hall to thomas edison's laboratories, to skyline drive on shenandoah and the hallowed fields of gettysburg and of course fredricksburg and spotsylvania, as well. he's served nearly 25 years in the national park service, a career built largely on historical parks like valley forge, fort stan wicks, mon casey and new bedford waling. regional directors do a lot of things, of course, including managing a spirited and committed workforce. but by far the most important role is an advocate for the parks in communities with farthern partners and within the government. mike caldwell is a native of alexandria now residing near philadelphia. we are glad to have him as our regional director but more than that we are glad to have him here with us today. mike? >> thank you, john. first i think we should give another round of applause for john ashley. that was phenomenal. [ applause ] i'm here representing the secretary of the interior sally jewell, director john jarvis of the national park service, and on behalf of the entire department of the interior and the national park service, i welcome you to these events as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the overland campaign. we begin this morning with what certainly is the most expansive commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the civil war. continuing all the way to the battle of the crater at the end of july for civil war enthusiasts, which i see many in the audience, i saw many of you on the way down, 95 this morning as well. in many of the rest areas. for many of the civil war enthusiasts, the national park service will have many commemorative events in the coming months, and the couple years ahead. they will honor the stories of the soldiers to be sure, but also the places, and the larger stories that reveal the full reach and human impact of the civil war and the 1864 overland campaign. and this effort is not ours alone in the national park service. it takes many partners to make things like this happen. communities, along the road from richmond and petersburg, communities and partners have risen up to help us celebrate the civil war sesquicentennial. the friends of the wilderness battlefield, the city of richmond, and the american civil war center at tredegar, petersburg, fredricksburg, the central virginia battlefields trust and all these and many more have stepped up to help americans connect with their shared history. i'd like to give a round of applause to all the partners that have helped make this happen. [ applause ] no place in america suffered the repeated affliction of war like spotsylvania county did. four battles, a continuous presence of armies for most of two years. it was a transformative event that imposed suffering on most residents, and brought freedom for the more than 6,000 slaves who lived here. 150 years ago abraham lincoln in the midst of the civil war actually right about the time that the siege of petersburg began, he signed a bill giving yosemite to the state of california. really starting what we now know is the national park system. and here we are today, in part of that national park system. today spotsylvania is part of the same system as yosemite, as yellowstone, as many of the areas that we fondly have either visited, or we share in their preservation. and in the midst of the civil war president lincoln had the foresight to start to preserve these places, these special places that we still save today. as part of the national park system, places like gettysburg and spotsylvania will forever be an important part of our shared national identity. thousands of visitors from around the world visit these sites, and other civil war sites year after year so that we will never, ever forget what happened here. and why are we constantly drawn to remember? josh wow chamberlain who many of you know is a college professor, a soldier, a colonel and then a general after the war became a great advocate for the preservation of special places like we are on today. he explained, perhaps, better than anyone else his own connection to the great fields of the civil war. he said, in great deeds something abides. on great fields something stays. so think about that. something stays. understanding this is no academic exercise. the required no great study. it requires only your presence, like that of today. it requires a place to remember. it requires your mind's eye and the -- when the words of those who were here, like we heard when we kicked off the ceremony today. as you come to these places to celebrate this commemoration, or even if you are just out here on your phone, you know what joshua chamberlain was referring to. you understand what he was referring to. in the northeast region as john was highlighting we go from maine to virginia we care for many natural and cultural resources including many key historic resources that make up our collective history as a nation. they tell our nation it is an area where we were born and it is where our country came of age in the northeast. the nature of our business is that we cannot imagine these places alone. thank you for keeping these national treasures vivid, and viable, in the changing world that we live in. that so many of you are here this morning, and that so many thousands of you will be in the coming days and weeks that follow in the footsteps of history, and that you visit places like this speaks well to your commitment to the national park system. on behalf of secretary jewell and director jarvis, i offer profound thanks to all of you for caring enough to join us today, as we commence the nation's remembrance of the 1864 overland campaign. and i'd like to spend out a special thank you to lucy lawliss and her staff, as well as the many national park service volunteers here, who are here every day of the year so that we will never forget. thank you. [ applause ] >> from home towns like rich field, connecticut, and madison, mississippi, they came. soldiers, and those they left behind home sensed that the spring campaign of 1864 in virginia would be unlike any that had preceded it. from the newark, new jersey sentinel of freedom may 3rd, 1864. the impending tempest. the quiet which prevails in our armies is justly felt to be the hush which foreruns the tempest. the war will soon be poured out with unprecedented violence. the magnitude of the events which are now being shaped has produced a great feeling of deep solemnity in all thoughtful minds and even the giddy and thoughtless are rendered comparatively sober and sedate. none are so stolid of intellect or dull in feeling as to be unaffected by the tremendous issues which are now at stake, and the terrific tragedy that is about to be enacted. >> years after the war, a soldier from georgia bid his fellow soldiers to remember the beginning of the overland campaign. don't you remember the long row? do you remember how brigade after brigade filed into the road? do you remember the march from orange courthouse to the wilderness? when, while passing over some elevated point, you could look three or four miles in front, and see the long line of confederates with their guns glittering in the sunlight. and the same to be seen by looking behind you. do you remember how that inspiring scene made us think we could whip the world. >> we are a remembering people. in this tumultuous world of trauma and turmoil we insist not on forgetting, but remembering. it may seem odd to some of us that we do this. but again, and again, and again, over weeks and decades, and centuries, we remember. we are a remembering people. on 9/11, we remember. on patriots day, we remember. pearl harbor day, we remember. memorial day, we remember. we remember those who perished, certainly. we pray for those injured, and those left behind. their lives and families changed forever. but we also recall those who by their acts demonstrate the fundamental goodness of people. those who aid the injured, those who rush to protect our people and our nation. those who, caught in the midst of horror, show courage enough to act not solely in their own interests, but in the interests of others. we are a remembering people, because in some way, in many ways, we know that remembering, though sometimes painful, heals us. as a people we should remember far more often, and forget far less. today, this week, this spring, we come together on these virginia battlefields to remember. we do this for many of the same reasons we pause every 9/11, though our personal connection to these civil war stories is separated by a generation. we pay respect, we convey honor, we seek understanding. but we do more than that. this spring on the 150th anniversary of the 1864 overland campaign, our national park service asks us to remember not just as individuals, but as a nation. to reflect on not just the acts of participants, acts both noble and harsh, but to reflect together on our -- on our nation's winding complicated road forward to this day. let us recognize the civil war was not just an accumulation of milestones, dates, places, but a moving, massive national transformation. we learn, we understand, and i hope we come to value our nation as a result of the shared experience. we do these not merely as spectators, for though we may not realize it, we come here today, and the weeks ahead, possessed of a responsibility. there is a connective thread between those who lived here, fought here, suffered, and died and went on from here, and us, our ancestors did with the hope, even expectation that we take their struggle forward. we are a remembering people. in setting aside these hallowed fields, congress and the national park service ask us to remember, an essential and ongoing part of our national story. over the next days and weeks, our rangers will walk many miles, and fields with you, stand at places famous and some forgotten. we will share the words and stories of those who were here, soldiers and citizens alike. stories sometimes painful, stories often complicated. stories transcendent, all demonstrating the best of our nation. our rangers will evoke, and perhaps even provoke. we will do this all, i hope, mindful that our acts of remembrance help us render our forbears' hope and expectations fulfilled. it is a debt repaid, and we repay mindful that our acts of remembering help build a more perfect union. thank you for remembering with us. thank you for coming. >> before these were battlefields, these were home places. farms, communities, like thousands of others across america. war transformed them. armies churning across the landscape ruined much, and affected everything. slaves ran to freedom. civilians remaining behind suffered affronts, loss, and destruction that added bitterness to an already bitter war. from sally todd may 15th, 1864, whose house was caught in the fighting near todd's tavern about six miles north of here. mother was awfully frightened. but i did not think we would be killed. i was afraid the house would take fire, but thank god our lives were spared. the yankees were the meanest devils on earth. they killed all of our hogs, even the little pigs, and the cow, as it was too poor to eat. but they said they were such cows, killed every hen and took all of our food. broke every lock on the place, our corn, oat and wheat field are nothing more than the main road. pulled all the pailings from around the yard and garden and played destruction generally. but if we can only whip them, and gain our independence, i am willing to give up all. yes, everything. >> in the spring of 1864, the first united states colored troops arrived at the front in virginia. more than 3,000 men. some of them former slaves in orange, culpeper, spotsylvania and caroline counties, though faced with the prospect of reenslavement or death should they be captured, and though they entered an army hardly predisposed to embrace them, they and their white officers still came. on may 15th, 1864, about four miles north of here, the 23rd u.s. c.t.s, including several soldiers from spotsylvania county, engaged in its first combat with lee's army. much more was to come. including success in the initial attacks on petersburg, in june 1864. after that experience, one of the army's white soldiers wrote, a few more fights like that, and they will have established their manhood, if not their brotherhood, to the satisfaction of even the most prejudiced. and so they would. >> what happened on these fields reverberated across america to towns that we hardly heard of or hardly remember today or maybe have never even visited. to living rooms, and home places, and communities across the nation. and that is the double wound of war. not only the physical wounds on the field, but the pain that follows every death and every wound among the family and community from which it came. part of our commemoration of the 1864 overland campaign is reverberations where on may 24th we will be sending staff to communities across the nation and join in those communities to talk about how what happened here reverberated there. on the back of your programs that hopefully you'll be able to get on your way out of the event here today, you'll see a description of it. you can join us online. it will be live streamed. you can join us if you're in fredricksburg at the fredricksburg national cemetery. but we will connect these events to the communities to which they were so important. 150 years ago. for historians of my generation, doctor james i. robertson, bud, has been a giant. he has distinguished from many other members of academia with a tremendous commitment to the public's engagement in history. he writes, so you can read and understand it. he speaks in a way that made his classes the most popular history classes at virginia tech, and maybe in the whole world during his tenure. at that university. all of that was born of his passion and understanding of history. if you worked in a park that tells part of jackson's story, one of my little worries this morning is that our keynote speaker would get here on time and be here and then i remembered that he wrote a biography of jackson, and he was actually here before i was, as you can assume your surprise. but if you work in a park that tells any part of the story of the army in northern virginia, it's a refrain heard often when we talk about questions or matters of history. what does robertson say? we don't always use doctor when we're in the back room. but what does robertson say? and i would suggest to you that there's not a greater compliment that can be paid to a historian than that. and so it will be for many decades to come. this anniversary business is not new to dr. james i. robertson. at just 31 years old president kennedy appointed him as executive director of the nation's beleaguered commission for the centennial of the civil war. which he quickly righted. more recently he's been a key member of virginia's commission for the civil war us is skwi centennial bringing smart, scholarly guidance to what is widely considered to be the most successful commission in the nation by far. and between the centennial and sesquicentennial, he spoke proudly through one of the greatest careers of teaching and writing that any of us will ever see. he was the alumni distinguished professor in history at virginia tech for 44 years. he has written 18 books including the greatest of all biographies of stonewall jackson. today, as ourcis keynote speake he will speak to us about the opening of the 1864 oafland campaign. we are very honored to have with us today dr. james i. robertson. >> thank you john, very much. by the invitation to be the keynote speaker on this awesome occasion in history and commemoration. i also would like to extend greetings from the virginia civil war sesquicentennial commission square by asking of the house william hale. for you virginians this is a moment to take renewed pride in the heritage of your state. if you're not from virginia, we adopt you now. stay long, spend much, and enjoy yourselves here in the old dominion. 1864 was the critical year of the civil war. 36 months of bloody fighting had brought a steady erosion of territory in the western half of the confederacy. however in the east, where the war would be won or lost, the principle armies had fell to a stalemate. virginia was the birthplace of a nation whose government had been crafted largely by statesmen from the old dominion. now virginia was scarred and overrun by thousands of soldiers fighting to the death. door domination. as winter melted into spring in 1864 the simple question was, which one giveous first northern morale or southern resources? the union army of the potomac was on the north side of the rapidan river in what was the largest encampment of the civil war. a sense area marked by tree stumps, filth, dead horses and buzzards circling overhead. on the south bank was robert lee's army of northern virginia. it was in worse physical condition. but still defiant and ever dangerous. each side waiting for the inevitable resumption of battle. but 1864 would be different because of the entrance on the scene of one manu hiss grant. forced from the army in 1863 because of excessive drinking grant spent eight years in one failed venture after another. in 1861 his father secured him a colonel's commission and according to legend the father didn't fare well with these words, son you've got a good job now, don't mess it up. yet certainly this commission was certainly not based on good looks. to one observer grant was, quote, an ordinary scrubby looking man with a slightly seedy look. neither a conversationallist nor a mixer, he was a man who always seemed to be alone. 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 north's 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 playing chess, and to start playing checkers. now several union armies were to take the offensive simultaneously under grant's new plan. the main army. the army of the potomac would move directly against lee. a second force would head southward up the shenandoah valley. a third would cross the mountains into southwest virginia, and cut the vital virginia and tennessee railroad. a fourth army would advance up the james river toward richmond. meanwhile, general william sherman would drive southward, from chattanooga toward atlanta. grant himself chose to travel with general george meade's army of the potomac and he did so for a number of reasons. his presence would shield, for example, the north's chief weapon from congressional interference. congress was always interested in what the army of the potomac was doing. like most congresses it had no actions of its own, it was just always interfering. when sherman heard this, sherman who had a low opinion of congress and newspapers, sherman wrote to grant, i hope you will make it a death penalty for any congressman -- or for diplomatic reasons, grant did not do that. another reason why grant went with that army was its commander. george mead was seven years older than grant. he was a dedicated soldier but overly cautious. his army had done nothing for the last ten months. meade had a violent temper which he could not control. and when unleashed, said one officer, it sounded to one like cutting an iron bar with a hand saw. grant also knew that he had been appointed to initiate and arm a hopefully successful campaign. thanks to the advent of the telegraph grant could oversee all military theaters as easily in the field, as he could from a desk in washington. as to reactions from grant from inside the army of the potomac they were varied. captain oliver wendell holmes jr. stated there was quote a little jealousy, a little dislike, a little envy, a little warmth of confidence, all however are willing to give him a full chance. for if he succeeds, the war is over. now grant's 1864 strategy followed the same pattern he had always followed. he would device and try something, if it failed, he would try something else. but his determination never wavered. he would hammer unrelentingly at the enemy, applying pressure until opposition collapsed. in the spring, preparations, i think it is interesting to note that there were no parades, no views as mccountry lend and hoofer had always enjoyed. grant, instead, preferred to lie casually down the lines, looking intently into the faces of the soldiers who were going to be fighting for him. and giving the impression that it was far more important for him to see the men, than for them to see him. as for those veteran soldiers, all they wanted was a competent, aggressive leader. grant kept his distance and kept his silence. in april a newspaperman asked the general how long it would take him to get to richmond. grant spat at the man, a long time and then replayed well i will agree to be there in four days that is if general lee becomes a party to the agreement. and then grant added the trip undoubtedly will be prolonged. across the rapidan, lee waited. us unabashed aggressiveness and willingness to take risks to maximize the striking power of his small and ill equipped army. yet after two years of campaigning, we tend to overlook a vital factor about lee. his health was terminal. manpower was dwindling to critical levels, there was nothing he could do about it. he had problems of his own that included spaz modic diarrhea, rheumatism, mental fatigue, a year earlier he had suffered unquestionably a major heart attack for which he received no medical aid. the field of cardiology lay in the future. yet to his men, he was as pure a patriot as george washington. as april became may a young soldier in virginia made a prophesy in a letter home. i hope we will be able to give them a good thrashing for on this fight depends greatly our future safety. on wednesday, may 4th, the big federal push southward began. the lead elements of some 100,000 soldiers crossed the rapidan on two bridges and plunged immediately into a wooded darkness known as the wilderness. 12 miles long, six miles wide, it was a thick mass of second growth timber, dense underbrush, few clearings, little streams and never saw daylight and created unexpected ravines and marshes. visibility in the wilderness was measured in feet. it was the last place in virginia to pick for a major battle. now grants hope was to march rapidly through the jungle and get into open country to confront meade yet one of robert lee's distinguishing characteristics was an unwillingness to fight where his opponent wanted to fight. early in the afternoon of may 4th, the blue columns halted in the woods to allow the long wagon trains to catch up with the infantry. lee's army only half the size of grant's could not compete in a stand-up fight. a superior union artillery was nullified because of the thick tangle of wilderness. union soldiers had to add advance along rows no wider than 20 feet and hemmed in on both sides by a big woods. this offered lee a momentary advantage. and he took it. grant's army had been marching only two hours when the confederates attack along two parallel lanes perpendicular to the union advance. mass confusion followed. as yanks scrambled into that impenetrable underbrush. now the park service rangers here who are some of god's given gifts to this country give excellent tours and eliminate my going into detail. sufficient face it to say, the larger the battle grew, the more invisible it became to everyone. thick woods strapped the gun smoke. unbroken thickets offered no field of fire. man came under heavy fire before they saw the enemy. when determined battle lines from the noise in a certain direction. several battles, in fact were raging on a single piece of ground. soon flashing gun power set woods afire. and untold numbers of wounded men north and south were cremated because they could not get away. burning trees only thickened the gun smoke and brought with them a nauseous atmosphere. night came and the tempo of violence slowed but never stopped. firing went up and down the lines before returning the full fury and daylight on may 6th. federals came close to breaking lee's position that second day but the arrival of general james longstreet's fresh corps brought a southern attack. both sides were disorganized. longstreet, in fact, was shot by his own men and more hours of death passed before grant's men fell back to the road down which they had been traveling in the beginning. tactically speaking grant had experienced as bad a defeat as hooker had received on the same ground a year earlier. the union army had suffered 17,600 casualties in two days. confederate losses were less than half that number. now this is where i digress a bit from pure military historians. when casualties are mentioned, and every civil war student thinks of aggregate numbers and moves on to a more interesting aspect on the battle, totally overlooked in this approach is the human element in combat. let me take one example. in the two days of the wilderness the vermont breg aid all legends from vermont suffered 191 killed, and 947 wounded. over a third of its strength. look again at that number of injured. 947. two days after the battle surgeon william sloan of the 2nd vermont told a friend i am very tired. i have amputated 100 limbs today. now, if the surgeon was not exaggerating, and no reason exists to believe that he was, then he was cutting off an arm or a leg every ten minutes during a 17-hour period. a modern day orthopedist would not even consider working at 10% of that speed. and further, one can only speculate on how many of those 100 patients fell victim to sepsis and other failed diseases. well the heavy losses and stunning defeat of the wilderness, of course, once again it was time for the union army to retreat, attend to its wounds, and come back at some future time and do it again. but he didn't see it that way at all. for him two days of vicious fighting were but a momentary setback. nothing had occurred to alter his original intent. he had every aim to fulfill the promise he had made to lincoln. quote, whatever happens, there will be no turning back. the defeat of lee's army was still the major objective despite woods full of gun smoke, dead men and dying men, and the woods of the wilderness. hence on the night of may 7th the union army resumed its march heading south. around when the column turned toward richman, a yank noted how our spirits rose that night we were happy. this this was unquestionably one of the grand moments of the american civil war. the wilderness was not going to be another manassas or chancellorsville, with the union army tucking its tail between its legs and going back to washington in search of a new commander. this time there was to be no turning back. no collapse of morale. no finger pointing no clamor for a new army commander. the union army was absolving its losses and utilizing its strength as a determined general led it southward. for the next 11 months, save for a brief time in june the two armies were never out of contact. it was a pounding, unrelenting campaign. the one type of war with which robert lee could not cope. he could interfere with grant's plans, but he was in no position to impose plans of his own. fighting of some degree occurred every day from may to the following april. tens of thousands of soldiers were killed or crippled in the process. union resources and persistence would shatter confederate resistance and spirit until it all came to a merciful end at appomattox. but it is not an exaggeration to say that the wilderness was the first sign of the sunset of the confederacy. a few miles north of here on a little clearing at the site of where the 1863 battle occurred, lost amid all the commercialism is a monument. that monument is to the 23rd new jersey. the bronze plaque on the front of the stone obelisk contains the expected phrase, to the memory of our heroic comrades who gave their lives for their country's union on the battlefield. okay. but walk around to the side of that stone marker. there's another identical plaque there. and on it are the words to the brave alabama boys, our opponents on the field of battle, whose memory we honor. think about that. for a moment. england never constructed a memorial to french soldiers after the battle of waterloo. the generals have never dedicated a marker to polish suffering at warsaw. but we are americans. we are americans. we see things. and we do things. a little different than other people. because we are brothers all. members of a country like the world has never seen before. and so it is right and fitting that we gather together this morning here on ground made holy by the blood of patriots. we remember, because we cannot forget. what happened at the wilderness was a stepping stone in the evolution of a word one rarely hears anymore, and that word is union. it was for union that each side fought 150 years ago. it is for union that our dedication must always be. without union, we have no nation. only with it can we collectively hope for the future. although i spent over a half century in university classrooms, i know that history is not everyone's favorite subject. indeed, one occasionally, my goodness, encounters the misguided who want to change the past in order to make it conform to a pleasant day agenda. it's called political correctness. it's 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 we're 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 hundred yards from where you sit today. for nearly 20 hours. he recorded he fired away 120 rounds of ammunition himself, three cartridge boxes full, slogging through trenches filled with water, wounded and dead men. friday morning, may 13th, about an hour before day, we evacuated the works. i don't suppose there's any man that can express the relief we felt after getting out of such a place. he remembered fighting for those 22 hours without a morsel of food or a drop of water. you can form some idea of what our feelings would have been, putting all these prizations together. had there been no danger impending, but add to all of this the thought that the next minute may be your last, which is another thing altogether. there's not a man in this brigade who will ever forget it. >> for days, weeks, it continued. from the wilderness to spotsylvania, to apot my creek, cold harbor, a union surgeon exclaimed at the end of may 1864, oh, why will not the confederacy burst up. the experience left soldiers bewildered. from a letter of a member of the first united states sharp shooters, george a. martin, may 15th, 1864. people say it's monday. i never knew it was sunday yesterday, until about sunset. the days have got so mixed up, that i can't keep the run. some days have two nights. and some no night at all. the sun rises in the southwest. i am so mixed up at that. the toil and stress begot exhaustion and inexpressible sadness. chaplain francis perkins of the 10th massachusetts, may 15th, 1864. you have been expecting doubtless some accounts of the movements occurring during this campaign. but never did i feel so utterly adverse to writing. never did it seem so almost impossible to connect and express any thought as now. all my energies of thought and emotion are used up by the actual passing events. and to recall the past is positively painful. our brave fellows, they have melted away, like smoke. [ bagpipes playing ] ♪ ♪ ♪ >> all that had been wagered in this war treasure lives. there was no turning back. for the armies there were no turning points, just crossroads. literal and symbolic. in the wilderness, at the spots imvain yeah courthouse. grant chose the road south toward richmond, toward petersburg. it was a tide rather than a moment. lee could not stop it. still, the confederates remained fiercely determined. the rebellion dies very hard one ar tillerman told his hometown newspaper. newspapers across the south noted grant's army at cold harbor stood almost precisely where mcclellan stood in 1862, but had suffered hor rrendous casualties in getting to the same place. they maintain great hope lee would triumph. certain that lee and his men would somehow inflict a fatal blow to the north's willingness to fight. in the union army that june, soldiers saw the spires of richmond just eight miles away. union soldiers, too, gained hope from that. but recognized, too, how hard those last eight miles would be. a pennsylvania soldier wrote of the moment, in the prospects, there's a magic influence in the expression as it passes from lip to lip. eight miles from richmond, boys. only eight miles from richmond. what treasure, what a restored peaceful happy in the united country and the a free government can pay for the precious blood that must be shed in the inexpressible sufferings that must be endured before this short distance can be accomplished. that pennsylvanian could not likely have imagined just how painful the answer to that question would be. we hope that you will join us, the staff here at fredericksburg and pospotsylvania and petersbe. one that reverberated across america, touching families and communities across the land. it is a sad but difficult story to be sure, full of bitterness and pain, loss and sacrifice. but the hardship is also a measure of the commitment and the determination of those who are here. and we hope as you walk these fields and woods, home places, and crossroads, in the coming days and weeks, that you will constantly ask yourself this question. why? why did these men consent to such hardship? why did they do what they did? the answers to these questions are on these fields. and in the words of those who were here. we hope you will join us in our collective quest for answers, for their questions that are essential to the health of our nation. we thank you for coming. [ applause ] next, on the civil war, author dpord an rhea discusses the significance of the battle of cold har bar, which took place in virginia 150 years ago in may and june of 1864. rhea describes the strategies of grant and robert e. lee. as well as the challenges they faced during the battle. this hour-long event took place at the cold harbor battlefield in mechanicsville, virginia. >> well, thank you very much, bob. i appreciate it. and as i told the folks i talked with this morning, it's an honor for me to be here. there's something special about the battle field here at cold harbor. i came about my interest in the american civil war, i'm sure very much like most of you did. i got it from my father. my dad was born in 1901 in a little town on the tennessee/alabama board. it was just 35 years after the end of the civil war. most of those old men sitting around the grocery store were veterans. he grew up listening to their tall tales and talking to them about their battles. i was born in 1945. and when i grew up, when all of my friends were hearing fairy tales and stories from their parents, my dad was reading me books with names like lee's lieutenants, stuff like that. so we visited all the battlefields. we visited obviously gettysburg, chancellorsville. we didn't make any trips to cold harbor, though, because there really wasn't all that much here. we didn't go to the north anna battlefield because it didn't even exist. the overland campaign, which is the campaign that brings grant and lee to where we are now, really wasn't the focus of that much american military history. all eyes seemed to be on the earlier battles in the war. what i'd like to do is take a couple of minutes to orient you to help you understand why it is the armies ended up down here at cold harbor, and then i'll take a little bit more detailed view of that battle itself. you can understand what happened here and why it's so special. so those of you who heard me talk this morning, if you can put up with me for four or five minutes while i repeat a little bit of background to get everybody on the same page, then i'll move on to some more detailed information. but i'd like to think back to the spring of 1864, the war had been going on for some three years. massive casualties and losses. tremendous disaffection in the north with the war. it looked like it would go on forever. abraham lincoln, of course, is up for reelection. it's important to have battlefield victories for the north and it's important to win battles in virginia. virginia is still the preserve of robert e. lee and the storied army of northern virginia. so lincoln brings east his best general, that's going to be ulysses s. grant, the general who won all the battles in the west. and he gives grant a -- basically a two-part requirement. first, to bring organization, to bring continuity 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 puts together a program, unlike any that the war has yet seen. he realized that up to this point, battles would last a couple of days, and then the armies would pull apart for months. grant would not let that happen anymore. the union armies were to fight them until they were destroyed. he also realized that the old goal of capturing territory didn't make sense anymore. henceforth, the goal would be the confederate armies, the goal would be to destroy them, and only by doing that could the rebellion be brought to a close. finally, grant realized that the armies in the eastern and western theaters had to move together, so the confederates couldn't shift forces from one theater to the other. in the spring of 1864 is the opening campaigns in the east, grant riding with the army of the potomac, and in the west under the direction of grant's close friend and subordinate general sherman, and these will be battles that will run day after day after day with the goal of bringing the confederate armies to their knees. in the eastern theater, in our parlance here today would be virginia. grant comes up with a program to destroy lee's army of northern virginia. and his plan is this. he will take the union army of the potomac, the main federal force, move it directly against lee. he will outnumber lee's forces about two to one. 120,000 federal troops to about 65,000 confederate troops. at the same time, he will have an army move down the shenandoah valley southward, cutting off lee's supplies from that quarter, and he'll have another army move up the james river, attacking richmond and then moving into lee's rear. so there will be a three-pronged attack against the army of northern virginia, basically replicating that amassing of armies that grant sees for the entire nation. lee finds himself in a tough situation. the army of northern virginia is quartered just south of the rapadan river here in virginia. the massive army of the potomac is just to the north of him, just on the other side of the river. lee is the kind of general that likes to take the initiative, but he can't. he's massively outnumbered. he's also aware of that army in the shenandoah valley and the army forming below richmond and realizes he may have to shif

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