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Ulysses S. Grant.

This man's nameis U.S. Grant.

A military life had
no charms for me.

Grant,
you know the rules about drink.

Resign or court-martial.

I'm not asking you to speak.

I'm asking you to lead.

There were but two parties now,

traitors and patriots.

I believeif I can
take both forts,

we can advanceas
far as Nashville.

When I wish to consult
you on the subject,

I will notify you.

General Buell's men?

They're three days out.

We'll move on Corinth
when he gets here.

There is little doubt that
Corinth will fall easily.

Fire!

Come on, now, boys, pitch in.

I'm right behind you.

Fire the cannon!

Very few people really know
who Ulysses S. Grant was.

Today there is this sense
that he's forgotten.

He's been called so many
things over the years.

The greatest
general of his time.

A military genius.

A bloody butcher.

A corrupt president.

A belligerent drunk
who got lucky.

He didn't get lucky.

Ulysses S. Grant is
this perfectly average,

humble individual from a poor,
hardscrabble background.

With a lot of hard times
and failures in his life.

But he's got this
dogged determination,

this bulldog mentality.

This guy comes from nothing,

rises to the highest ranks

of the Union army.

Fights bloody, terrible battles.

With indomitable will.

To save the Union.

To heal his country.

To lead the nation towards
justice for everybody.

He's the unheroic hero

of our greatest national epic,
the American Civil War.

It's truly an American story

not only of patriotism
to the nation

but for the values, who we are,

and who we aspire to be.

Dear Julia...

the battle at this place
was the most desperate

that has ever taken
place on the continent,

and I don't look
for another like it.

The battle of Shiloh
is the bloodiest battle

in American history
up to that time.

The nation is shocked

when the casualty
reports come out.

Grant doesn't come out of
Shiloh looking very good.

You know, he was
"Unconditional Surrender" Grant

at Fort Donelson,

became a hero.

And now all of a sudden,
people are asking,

"What happened?"

The casualty list and
the fact that Grant

was surprised on the first day

overshadow the fact
of the victory.

Rumors start reaching Washington

that explain that
surprise as Grant must be

on the bottle once again.

But the president answered

those critical of
Grant by saying,

"I can't spare this man.

He fights."

After the bloodbath of Shiloh...

Grant's superior,

Henry W. Halleck,

removes Grant from
his army command...

with no duties,

no real authority, nothing.

Grant is so frustrated by this.

Halleck is not aggressive,

and then you have
someone like Grant,

who is very go-get-'em.

He's ready to jump in,
grab the initiative.

Grant wants to finish off

what's left of the
Confederate army

that attacked him at Shiloh

but are having time to
reorganize themselves

as they fall back into Corinth.

They're well defended.

I would say quite active.

They're preparing for battle.

Respectfully,
General Halleck, that smoke?

It's plain.
They're burning supplies.

It suggests they're
preparing to retreat, sir.

Hear that?

I knew it.

Trains coming in every day.

They're reinforcing.

Again, sir, I differ.
This is a retreat.

Our railroad men have
ears on the tracks.

They say it's empty
trains coming in

and loaded ones going out.

They're withdrawing.

Let's move on them now...

Enough, Grant.

After Shiloh, I'd have thoughtyou'd
have learned your lesson.

Grant is like, "Speed,
tempo...these are weapons

that can be used for an
adversary that's on the run."

Grant recognizes
there's an opportunity,

but he also knows the
windows of opportunity

are very small,

and if you don't take
advantage of them,

they'll pass you by.

And Grant sees this as
a missed opportunity.

General.

Rebs are gone.

Nothing but a bunch
of scarecrows.

Send a telegraph
to the president.

Corinth is ours.

It's a great Union victory.

The possession of Corinth
was of strategic importance,

but the victory was barren
in every other particular.

Corinth had already
been evacuated.

A well-directed attack would
at least have partially

destroyed the defending army.

Corinth has fallen.
Grant is like,

"Great, this is an
opportunity to strike out.

We should go to Atlanta.
We should go to Vicksburg."

And what happens?
Halleck sits tight.

He disperses the army,

and things slow down
in the western theater.

Keep in mind that in the
early years of the war,

there are really two
distinct theaters.

The west is where Grant is.

And there's the eastern theater,

and this is the fights
of the Union army

against essentially the Army
of Northern Virginia of Lee.

So while Grant has
been demoted out west,

in the east, Robert E. Lee

has taken over the Army
of Northern Virginia.

And the average result
in the eastern theater

is that the Union army loses

to an undermanned
Confederate army.

In the east, Lincoln's
experience with his generals

had been bad, trending to worse.

Abraham Lincoln had seen
Robert E. Lee defeat

an entire bench of
Union commanders.

By this time,
Grant is in a bad situation too.

That second year of the war
is just not very good for him.

In fact, he calls it, of course,

the darkest days of the war.

Dear Julia, I am no longer boss.

What the next move is or
the part I am to take,

I do not know.

What's going on?

I've had enough.

I'm resigning.

Oh, for God's sake.

Look, I want to fight
and win this war,

but if Halleck
has me sit it out,

I might as well
sit it out at home.

You're not resigning.

If I can't fight, well,
then I'm useless.

Sam, you're the most
usefulman we have.

I know it.
You know...By God, Lincoln?

He knows it.

Look at this.

It says I was drunk at Shiloh.

Oh, hell.

Forget the papers.

Listen.

You know the next
move is Vicksburg.

You can take Vicksburg.

Who else can do it?

Halleck?

Vicksburg.

Lincoln was right.

Vicksburg is the key.

Controlling Vicksburg
allowed food and other goods

to move freely across
the Mississippi

and get onto railcars

and feed the
Confederacy in the east.

Without it, the Confederacy
can be cut in two.

But for any army in history,

capturing Vicksburg
would be a daunting task.

The city of Vicksburg
is on the east bank

of the Mississippi River.

And it is nestled among
bluffs that tower 300 feet

above a horseshoe-shaped
bend of the Mississippi.

The line of defense
consisted of nine major forts

connected by a continuous line
of trenches and rifle pits

that stretched for
more than eight miles

and then 172 big guns.

Back east, Abraham
Lincoln was at that moment

about to rid himself of
his general and chief

George McClellan,

and the replacement
that he pitches upon

is Henry Wager Halleck.

He brings Halleck east.

And so finally, the clouds part,

and Halleck gives
Grant the authority

to command as Grant sees fit,

and the interesting thing is,
it takes Grant

all of one day

to start organizing an
offensive against Vicksburg.

I would call Grant's
Vicksburg campaign

his masterpiece.

It's the centerpiece of the war.

But Vicksburg was incredibly
difficult to get at.

When Grant starts this campaign,

Grant is on the western
side of the river.

Vicksburg, of course, is on
the eastern side of the river.

North of Vicksburg was a great,
gigantic swamp.

He needs to put his
troops on open ground,

but the only open ground
is below Vicksburg

on the eastern
side of the river.

Well, how are you going to
get troops below Vicksburg?

You just can't send
transports and gunboats

because they would have to
run the batteries at Vicksburg

to get past the defenses.

Now, throughout the winter,
Grant will orchestrate

a series of bayou campaigns,
as they were called.

Grant makes seven attempts
to get at Vicksburg.

All of these are efforts
to get around the city

without having to
run those batteries,

which is their great fear.

Among the operations is
excavation of a canal.

It enthralls Abraham Lincoln,
who almost on a daily basis

would send Grant a
telegraph asking,

"How's work on the
canal coming along?"

And Grant would send back
these very rosy reports.

But Sherman was far more
candid when he said,

"The canal don't
amount to much."

And by late March,
even Grant would realize

that this canal was a bust.

And at this point in time,

it's the rainy season
in Mississippi.

The whole country was
covered with water.

Troops could scarcely
find dry ground

on which to pitch their tents.

Malarial fevers broke
out among the men.

Vicksburg shows a number
of qualities of Grant.

There's again a degree
of determination.

He tries every which way
to come at Vicksburg,

but on any battlefield
or in any campaign,

results do matter.

Now, at this point in time,

Lincoln changed his generals

almost as frequently as
he changed his shirts.

So Grant realized that
his time and his options

were running out.

General.

Have you heard?

I'm stuck in the mud in
northern Mississippi.

Vicksburg.

We need to get out of this
mud and into the water.

What do you mean?

Use the river to advance.

Move our men south.

Ferry them across here.

But we'll need to get
shipssouth to transport our men.

If we move those ships
past the Vicksburg guns,

they'll blow us
out of the water.

It's too risky.

There's no other way.

It's time to take a risk.

Gentlemen...

I'm gonna run their guns.

This is thought to be suicidal.

Everybody believes this
is a losing proposition.

The gunboats of the
Mississippi squadron,

although they are ironclad,

the roofs of these gunboats

are vulnerable to
a plunging fire.

Sherman cautions him against it.

Sherman says,
"I want this on paper

that I'm against this."

And Grant can live with that.

Grant had something to
prove during the Civil War.

He must have known that
this was his chance to show

what he had inside him.

The plan is, while the boats
will run the batteries,

Grant will march his men down
the western side of the river.

Ironclads provide protection
for his transports.

The transports are
there because they are

gonna move his
troops from one side

of the river to the other

and then run a land campaign

to come in from
the eastern side.

In preparation, all the gunboats

are painted black.

Bales of cotton,
bales of hay are stacked

around the engines
to muffle the sounds,

as well as out on the gun decks,

to absorb incoming rounds
of Confederate ammunition.

Around 11:00 at night,

the gunboats and
transport vessels,

in single-file line,
will slowly drift

with the current.

Sir, they've set fire
to the opposite shore

so they can see us coming.

There they go.

The enemy were evidently
expecting our fleet.

The sight was magnificent...

but terrible.

Now,
on the night of April the 16th,

Admiral David Porter
pays very close attention

as to where the shot and
shell are hitting his vessels.

They are hitting
his smokestacks,

but almost none are getting any
lower to where the vital parts

of your boats are situated.

And he realizes the
Confederates can't fire

against the near bank
of the Mississippi.

And so Porter orders all his
gunboats to hug the shoreline.

So close did they
come that almost all

the Confederate shots are now
flying harmlessly overhead.

They're getting through,
Rawlins.

They're getting through.

We're gonna take
Vicksburg in a few days.

By God, at last.

We'll end this war now.

I think so too, John.

Let's see where we stand
when the sun comes up.

Get a message to Admiral Porter,

see what condition the
boats and the men are in.

Sir.

Due to the success
of the passage

on the night of April the 16th,

Grant would transport
24,000 soldiers

across the mighty river.

I think what we see in Vicksburg

is the maturity of Grant

and the decisions that he makes.

It's an extraordinary campaign
at the operational level.

How do armies move
from point to point?

How do they sustain themselves?

And that's all separate
from battle itself.

Grant's decision to
run those batteries,

the determination, the grit,

this is utterly
part of his makeup.

And the loss of ships running
Vicksburg batteries is one.

All the labors, hardships,

and exposures were
for the accomplishment

of this one object.

I was on dry ground

on the same side of the
river with the enemy.

So he's now run the batteries,

he's crossed over the
Mississippi River,

and Grant is now making
progress in the west.

Meanwhile in the
eastern theater,

it's not going well.

At one point, the Union army

is losing something
like 200 men a day

to desertion in early 1863.

So the army is literally
leaving the field.

And then in May of 1863,

you get Lee's greatest
victory of the war

at Chancellorsville.

This is Robert E.
Lee's high point.

Outnumbered two to one,
this is the whole idea

of one Confederate could
fight three Union soldiers.

Here he proves it.

The Union public is
starting to feel like

this is unwinnable.

And so there is a ticking
clock politically,

and everyone is watching to see

if Grant will be successful.

In May of 1863,

Grant's on that open
ground below Vicksburg.

Now that, mind you,
is only the beginning

of his campaign, though.

'Cause now, once on the ground,

that's when the campaign really

has to move into high gear.

Once on the Vicksburg
side of the river,

most people would
have expected Grant

to march north toward Vicksburg.

And yet he doesn't do
anything like that.

First of all, you don't attack

where the enemy
expects you to attack,

from the south.

Second of all, in command

of the roughly 30,000
troops of Vicksburg

is John C. Pemberton.

And Pemberton's fortifications
are wildly strong.

Rather than take the
direct road to Vicksburg,

Grant opts to move in a
northeasterly direction,

cut Pemberton's line of
supply and communication,

isolate his opponent
in Vicksburg,

and then move in for the kill.

Over the next 17 days,
Grant's army will push deep

into the interior of the
state of Mississippi.

However,
in the state capital of Jackson,

another Confederate force
was beginning to organize

under the command
of Joseph Johnston.

So Grant was really facing two
separate Confederate armies

deep in enemy territory

with a extraordinarily
limited supply line.

There is actually great
risk for that moment.

He turns his back
on Pemberton's army,

nearly the same size of his own.

A commander always
needs to know himself,

know the environment,
know the enemy.

He knows John Pemberton.

He knows he's not aggressive,

and he thinks,

"If I strike quickly,
I can defeat them

"in piecemeal before they join,

"and therefore,
it's an advantage

to have this central position."

And that's exactly what he does.

He accepts risk by leaving
Pemberton in his rear,

and he's gonna go ahead and
turn and attack Jackson.

And on May the 14th,

Grant's armies will
drive Confederate forces

out of Jackson

and destroy Pemberton's line
of supply and communication.

With Johnston's forces
scattered to the winds,

Grant will turn west
toward Vicksburg.

Pemberton all of a sudden

realizes Grant has turned west.

And this is when
Pemberton decides,

"I gotta stop and give battle."

The numbers are largely equal,

somewhere less than
30,000 on each side.

If Ulysses S. Grant
loses a stand-up fight,

his army is in trouble.

They have cast off most
of their logistics.

They are in
Confederate territory.

But if there is a way he can
beat the Confederate army

without having to
storm Vicksburg,

he is more than
willing to do it.

Champion Hill,
where Pemberton had chosen

to receive us,

was well selected.

It is one of the highest points

and commanded all the ground.

Tell General McClernand to
have his men advance quickly.

Osterhaus and Carr
to push the center.

Blair and Smith should
advance quickly on the left.

Grant could feel a battlefield.

He could see it in his mind,

not just in space,
because keep in mind

it's not just who's on the left,
the right,

the center, but in time...

because it's sequencing
the different activities.

And that is really
just short of genius.

I see a break in
Pemberton's line.

Tell McPherson to
flank to the left

and press them hard.

The rebs are running, sir.

Hell, they're runningall
the way to Vicksburg.

Send General Osterhaus
to follow them.

I want to thin them out
before we face them again

at Vicksburg.

An army on the move is
an army to be destroyed.

And therefore,
he's gonna continue

to push Pemberton's army.

And this is gonna drive
the Confederates back

into the defenses of Vicksburg.

Grant took enormous
risk when he went east

rather than immediately
to Vicksburg.

But he very deftly
defeats piecemeal

the different Confederate forces

that are trying to come
to reinforce Vicksburg,

and essentially,
it's a siege from there on out.

As long as we could
hold our position,

the enemy was limited
in supplies of food,

men, and ammunition.

Keep these men digging, Captain.

Let's be done with
this by nightfall.

Yes, sir.

Ulysses S. Grant has now

gone down the Mississippi River.

He's in the midst of
the Vicksburg Campaign.

In 17 days, Grant's army marched

200 miles and won five battles.

And now we are
talking about a siege.

When Grant first settles
into siege operations,

he digs a line opposite
the Confederate ones,

so you can cut off the key
routes of supply to the city.

And then in case a
Confederate force

came from his rear,
he then dug another

series of entrenchments
facing the other way.

And now he's gonna ring
Vicksburg with artillery.

In fact, he's even gonna bring

naval artillery off naval ships

to bombard Vicksburg.

We want to put them under
the maximum pressure

so that they recognize
this sacrifice

is no longer worth it.

And Grant ordered his
soldiers to begin sinking

approaches toward the
Confederate works.

And so you have Union engineers,

and they'd be working
behind the protection

of what was called a sap roller,

normally a bundle
of cane and vine

packed with dirt or cotton,

anything that'll stop a bullet.

And the whole object
is to get all the way

up to the Confederate line.

Sharpshooters! Get down!

Sharpshooters!

Sharpshooters!

Get down! Get down!

See them?

Where are they?

Get down! Everybody get down!

We gotta move!

Cease fire!

Hold your fire!

Hold fire!

They're gone!

Hold fire!

I'll take that.

All right, everyone!

All right, get back to work!

Now!

Get back to work!

When it has been made
clear that the Negro,

as an independent laborer,

can do these things well,

it would be very easy to
put a musket in his hands

and make a soldier of him.

Throughout the Civil War,
African-Americans

start to flee to
Union army encampments

in hopes of finding some
mechanism for freedom.

Essentially,
what these African-Americans do

is, they appeal to the
Union army and say,

"Make use of me
in this conflict."

If the logic of war
is any resources,

whether it be guns, you know,
cannon, fortifications,

if the enemy is using something
to support their war effort,

it can be legitimately
taken away.

So by the end of the
first year of the war,

Lincoln has come
to the conclusion

that emancipation is
a necessary war angle.

In Grant's own personal life,

the fact that he
married into a family

that was dependent on
the system of slavery...

his decision to grant
freedom to a slave...

the fact that during
his time in Missouri,

he's tilling the soil
with enslaved people,

I think illustrates how

Grant's life is actually
an object lesson

in the ways that a
person has to grapple

with their position on equality.

And then Lincoln issues the
Emancipation Proclamation.

This goes into effect as
both civil and military law

on the 1st of January, 1863.

When Lincoln put out the
Emancipation Proclamation,

it was an amazing thing.

One out of every four
enslaved African-Americans

made their way to freedom.

The most important part

of the Emancipation Proclamation

is, that's the moment
where Lincoln first,

you know, calls up black
people to fight in the armies

of the country.

That is significant.

That is actually a huge,
huge deal

and has, you know,
great implications on the North

actually winning the war.

And so beginning in 1863,

you have your first appearance

of black soldiers
in blue uniforms.

Their first engagement, in fact,

occurs during the
Vicksburg campaign.

During the course of
the siege of Vicksburg,

Grant had established
supply enclaves

at places such as
Milliken's Bend.

And most of these
supply enclaves

were defended by recently
recruited black troops

in Union blue.

But at the same time,
Confederates west of Vicksburg

were ordered to do

"something on behalf of
the garrison of Vicksburg."

And so on June the 7th,
a Confederate brigade

would attack the supply
enclave at Milliken's Bend.

And it is at this
moment that two things

become very clear:

that they have not been given

the best training,

nor have they been
given the best weaponry

to protect themselves.

The thing to recognize
about the colored troops

is, expectations were so low.

I mean,
the idea that black people

would fight as soldiers...

I mean, this was like a
man going to the moon.

This was the first important
engagement of the war

in which colored
troops were under fire.

These men were very raw,

having all been enlisted since
the beginning of the siege,

but they were most gallant,
and I doubt not

they will make good troops.

There were 1,500
Confederates pitted against

a little more than
1,000 Union troops.

The Confederates
would drive them back

from their fortifications,

through their encampment,

and all the way to
the Mississippi River.

Black soldiers would lose
70% of their numbers,

but they would successfully
hold on to the supply enclave

at Milliken's Bend.

Lincoln says he can no
longer consider an idea

of going back to things
being the way they were

after black people have
actually died for the country.

You can't restore those
people to slavery again.

And in fact,
by the end of the Civil War,

almost 200,000
African-Americans,

you know,
fight on the Union side.

To His Excellency A. Lincoln:

Sir, by arming the Negro,
we have added a powerful ally.

This, with the
emancipation of the Negro,

is the heaviest blow yet
given the Confederacy.

The primary strategy
of any siege

is isolating the people
you are besieging inside,

causing them to use up both
their military resources

but especially their food

to force them to capitulate.

So the consequence of this is,
Grant's army will grow

to over 70,000
troops over time...

and it's a ratcheting
up of military pressure.

Now, the Confederate
government in Richmond

is rather concerned about
the situation at Vicksburg.

And there has emerged
a group that believes

that less focus needs to
be placed on the east,

where things are going well,

and more focus needs
to be put on the west,

where things are not going well.

Robert E. Lee's response is,

"Even if I send
troops to Vicksburg,

"by the time they got there,

it might be over."

And Lee decides to go north

and try to seek a
decisive engagement

with the federals
north of Pennsylvania.

At the same time,
Grant keeps the pressure up

at Vicksburg to end the siege.

By the end of June,

the Confederate
Army of Vicksburg

was subsisting on a
handful of peas and rice

issued once a day per man.

Even their water
would be rationed

to one cup per man per day.

So now as the
temperature of the summer

continues to get
hotter and hotter,

Grant will dam up

all the creeks that
are going in there.

Confederates are being
shelled by Union gunboats

as well as Union batteries.

But also, throughout the siege,

you have a civilian population
trapped in the city,

estimated at about 2,000.

And the citizens
lived underground

in man-made caves to escape
the constant bombardment

of Union cannon
and heavy mortar.

And about the only time
they came out of these caves

is when the Union artillerymen

ate their morning, noon,
and evening meals.

Grant knows full well

the suffering of the
civilians in Vicksburg.

He doesn't relish any of it,

but I think he does believe

without breaking the will
of the Southern people

that this war is not
gonna come to an end.

These civilians at Vicksburg,

who weeks earlier
were able to get

all the food they needed,
were clearly starving.

And they started eating
anything that moved,

rats included.

And by early July, it was clear

that the Confederates were
near the end of their rope.

On July 3rd,
two persons were seen

coming towards our lines
bearing a white flag.

It was a glorious sight
to soldiers on the line.

On the hot afternoon
of July 3rd,

at the very same time
Pickett's legions

were storming over the
stone wall at Gettysburg,

the Confederate
commander John Pemberton

would ask Grant on what terms

he would receive the
surrender of the city.

General Pemberton.

Your terms, General?

Surprise me.

- I propose...
- No proposals.

Terms won't change.

Unconditional surrender.

Sir.

Listen, we need to offer terms.

No.

Be practical.

What are we gonna
dowith 30,000 prisoners?

Better offer terms,
don't you think?

General.

I'm preparedto accept the parole

but only if my men walk away

with all of
theirpersonal property.

By personal property,
do you mean to include slaves?

Sidearms, horses...

no slaves.

No slaves leave with you.

You have until 10:00 tonight.

Then we attack the city.

Up to this point,
Grant's reputation

is "Unconditional Surrender"
Grant.

And yet here, he paroles
the men that are there,

and it shows what
flexibility of mind he had.

I think he makes the calculus

of, "What if we send
these 30,000 scarecrows

"back to their towns?

"What are they gonna tell them?

We just got whipped."

See the corporal.
He'll sign your parole card.

General Grant.

Retain your sidearms, General.

The enemy had been suffering,

particularly towards the last.

I saw our men taking bread
from their haversacks

and giving it to the
enemy they had so recently

been engaged in starving out.

Grant doesn't have a
hatred of Southern people.

He sees them as Americans
that have gone astray.

He doesn't agree
with their cause,

but he cares for the
people themselves.

That really colors the way he
deals with the Confederates

throughout the Civil War.

Vicksburg surrenders,
and the Mississippi is open.

And as Lincoln says,

"The father of waters flows
again, unvexed, to the sea."

And the great thing is
that the news comes to him

the same weekend as the news
of the victory at Gettysburg.

My dear General,
when you first reached

the vicinity of Vicksburg,
I never had any faith,

except a general hope that
the expedition could succeed.

I now wish to make the
personal acknowledgment

that you were right
and I was wrong.

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln.

Grant and Lincoln first
meet as correspondents.

And their correspondence
is quite wonderful.

They are both men of the west,

and I think they share
a certain philosophy

and perhaps a certain attitude.

And I think it
really set the terms

for their future relationship.

This victory was a culmination
of a very long campaign

full of trial and error,

full of Grant figuring out,
"How do I capture

what seemed an
impregnable fort?"

The Vicksburg campaign
has been studied

by military professionals
ever since July of 1863.

In fact, in the army's
war-fighting manual,

it highlights the
Vicksburg campaign

as the most brilliant campaign

ever waged on American soil.

And so whereas the
Civil War is often

referred to as the
last of the old wars,

first of the modern wars,

Grant can be termed the first
modern American warrior.

With the success at Vicksburg,

there's no question that Grant

is one of the top
generals in the war.

Lincoln said, "He'll be my man

and I'll be his the
rest of the war."

And so Grant is given command
of the entire western theater.

Well, part of that new
command was Chattanooga.

And in Chattanooga,
there was a Union army

that was essentially trapped.

It's at this point
that Lincoln decides

that he must call Grant
in for the situation.

The art of war is simple enough.

Find out where your enemy is,

get at him as soon as you can,

strike him as hard as you can,

and keep moving on.

By the summer of 1863,

the Union army had moved all
the way through Tennessee

and captured Chattanooga.

The Union army then
moved into Georgia,

but the Confederates lashed
back and won a huge victory.

The Union army retreated
back into Chattanooga.

The Confederates followed,
occupying the heights

around the city.

And U.S. Grant is
brought into Chattanooga

to do what he does best...

win.

He's essentially being
brought in as a kind of fixer.

Here's the guy who won
the campaign at Vicksburg,

and he's being asked
to do it again.

The Union Army of the
Cumberland is stuck

down in this valley,

trapped in a siege,
and starving.

The Confederate army has set up

a ring around the city

that gives them a commanding
artillery position.

It's incredibly high stakes.

By holding Chattanooga,
you hold one of the most

important rail
networks in Tennessee.

Grant knew if you can
hold that rail hub,

you can build up
a massive effort

to invade the Deep South.

The loss of Chattanooga
would've set

the Union war
effort back months,

if not years.

His first concern is
to feed his troops

by winning a small engagement
on the Confederate side

of the Tennessee River

to open up his new supply line.

Then, like any boss that
comes into a new company,

Grant wants his people.

And he immediately
calls the four divisions

of William Tecumseh Sherman
to come to Chattanooga.

The intention then is
to seize the initiative

and make an attack
against the Confederates

and drive them away
from Chattanooga.

During the battle
of Chattanooga,

Grant is commanding
multiple armies.

He's got Sherman with the
Army of the Tennessee.

He has George Thomas with
the Army of the Cumberland.

He also has Joseph Hooker,

who's coming in from
the eastern theater.

The idea was that
Hooker would flank

the Confederate
position from the south,

Sherman would bring his army

to the northern flank,

and George Thomas would
assault the center.

Three separate assaults
of one position.

Sir.

From General Shermanon
Missionary Ridge.

At Chattanooga,
his battle plan doesn't work

the way he expected it to,

but he's got the
presence of mind

to process it and make decisions

and adapt to things that
he didn't expect to happen.

Sherman's stuck.

Send in Thomas' men.

Order them to attack the rifle
pits below Missionary Ridge.

Sherman needs our help... now.

George Thomas'
army had been much maligned

for having been
trapped in a siege,

and I think those men
were spoiling for a fight

as a result.

Grant gives the order with
the hope that that will

force the Confederates
to start moving troops

away from Sherman's path.

The order was that once
they seized the rifle pits,

they should stop, reorganize,

and then attack the top
of Missionary Ridge.

But they don't stop.

Without awaiting further orders,

on our troops went
for the crest.

The fire along the
rebel line was terrific.

Cannon and musket
balls filled the air.

The pursuit continued until
the crest was reached.

It was a fantastic
victory for Grant.

This is the battle that really,
I think, makes

the Republic respect Grant
as the possible savior.

News of this goes through
the North as a great triumph.

Grant is now clearly
and unambiguously

the general who looks like

finally the man who
can win this war.

Grant has eliminated two
Confederate armies via siege,

Fort Donelson and Vicksburg.

At Chattanooga, he combined
three disparate armies

into a single effort,

so his technical competencies
were beyond reproach.

At Chattanooga,
he reverses another

very desperate situation
for the Union forces.

That's what ultimately
then leads Lincoln

to bring Grant east.

By March of 1864,

Lincoln has found his man,

and Congress raises
Grant to the rank

of full lieutenant general,

the first general
since Washington

to hold the full rank
of lieutenant general.

He is to be in command
of all the Union armies.

This is novel.

The bill restoring the
grade of lieutenant general

of the army had passed.

I was ordered to Washington
to receive my commission.

Grant and Lincoln never
meet each other face-to-face

until Grant shows
up in Washington

to be promoted to
lieutenant general...

but his ability
to advise Lincoln

and to guide the
whole nation's effort

to win the war...

that was a question mark.

Mr. President.

General Grant.

Mr. President.

General Grant.

Come in.

Come in.

I do not profess to
be a military man,

and I certainly would
never interfere, but...

Here it is.

I've marked our
current placements.

Now...

if we move into Virginia

between the course
of these two rivers,

we can not only use them
to bring in supplies.

We might also
protect our flanks.

I'll consider it, sir.

Of course.

But tell me...

You'll go after Lee?

You'll go after him
until he's finished?

It all depends on you.

The president told me that
all he had ever wanted

was someone who would
take responsibility

and act.

Lincoln had gone through
about every other

senior general in the Union army

at this point in time.

And finally,
Lincoln finds his general,

a general who will
actually fight.

And Grant is truly
one of the great

battle captains of all time.

He is someone who
achieved brilliance,

tactically, operationally,
and strategically.

At the tactical level,
this would be commanding

multiple brigades like Fort
Henry and Fort Donelson

in the early stages of
the war in the west.

Operationally,
this is multiple divisions now.

And, of course,
Vicksburg is an extraordinary

example of that.

And then strategically,

when he comes east,

he for the first
time then develops

a true strategic campaign
for all of the Union forces.

Grant's idea when he
becomes commanding general

is to get all of the Union
forces to act in harmony.

He wants to move on Mobile Bay,

one of the last
Confederate ports.

He wants Sherman to
advance on Atlanta.

He wants Franz Sigel to go
down the Shenandoah Valley,

the breadbasket of the
Confederacy in the east.

Benjamin Butler will
come up the James River

and get at Richmond
from the south,

hopefully dividing some
of Lee's attention.

And then finally,
the Army of the Potomac

will head at Robert
E. Lee in Richmond.

It's those five pieces
acting in concert

that is his original
vision for how this war

should come to a close.

The South had become very good,

with the smaller population,

at moving troops from
one place to another.

What Grant realized was that

if you simultaneously attack
many Confederate positions,

they would not be able
to play this game.

Grant's strategic genius
was the ability to move

five different armies
simultaneously...

but also, Grant recognized,

the destruction of
Robert E. Lee's army,

the symbol of
Confederate nationalism,

was fundamental to
winning the war.

Robert E. Lee's army
had countless times

defeated Union armies
on the battlefield

with brilliant
tactical maneuvers,

so there was a confidence.

There was an esprit de corps

that bound that army together,

and spirits are high and
ready for an engagement.

Robert E. Lee is born the scion

to two of the oldest
elite families

of the state of Virginia.

And in many ways,
Robert E. Lee becomes

the general most connected

with the institution of slavery

and protecting that institution.

Grant had none of that mystique.

There was no illusion of a guy,

you know, who was highborn
in the way that Lee was.

But, you know, when I see
you on the battlefield,

none of that matters.

It's just me and you.

But all of Grant's
success had been

in the western theater.

And everybody would argue...

you're not out in the
western theater anymore.

You're fighting Robert E. Lee.

Of course,
we could flip that coin and say

Robert E. Lee is now
fighting Ulysses S. Grant.

Grant is gonna
personally attach himself

to George Gordon Meade's
Army the of Potomac,

which is gonna latch
on like a bulldog

to Robert E. Lee's Army
of Northern Virginia.

When Grant comes down
to Brandy Station

to visit the headquarters
of George Gordon Meade,

Meade's staff are surprised.

This was a slightly
ordinary figure

who looked like a merchant
who'd just come from a store.

But then you met his eye,

that icy cold eye that
Grant could somehow have,

and suddenly you knew this man

was totally in charge of things.

One clerk was advised,

"When Grant gives you a
straight order, obey it.

"When you have
information for Grant,

"give it to him straight.

"And above all,
don't say 'sir' too much.

Grant's not interested in that."

Through most of the
winter of 1863 and 1864,

the Union army and
the Confederates

have been glaring at each other,

waiting for the spring to come

so that the new
campaign can begin.

Grant wants to get
south so he can engage

Confederates in
more open ground.

But before he does that,
he has to go across

the Rapidan River and
go through an area

deemed as almost Lee's hunting
ground for Union armies...

"The Wilderness."

Gentlemen?

Grant may have won some
victories in the west,

but this is Virginia.

We're strong here, sir.

And if he attacks,

we can make a play
for Washington.

And if he crosses the Rapidan,

he'd have to cut
through the Wilderness.

I can't imagine
he'd be fool enough.

We'd whip him but good.

General Longstreet?

I know Grant from
West Point and Mexico.

Do not underestimate him.

He will fight us every
day and every hour

till the end of this war.

There's sort of a sense that,
"Okay,

Robert E. Lee is the champion
of the eastern theater."

"And we've tried
challenger after challenger

"after challenger.

But now we're bringing in
our best guy from the west."

There's huge expectations.

I know Lee as well
as he knows himself.

I intend to attack
his weak points

and flank his strong ones.

We have two choices:

flank Lee and get to
Richmond from the west,

which leaves Washington exposed,

or head south,

get to Lee by going
through the Wilderness.

The rebs know those woods.

Could be deadly for
usto go through there.

We have to move quickly,
get out the other side,

- meet him in the open.
- It's a trap.

We'd be leavingWashington
undefended.

General Meade?

I beat Lee at Gettysburg.

I'd like to finish the job.

Then wherever he goes,
you'll follow.

We'll cross the Rapidan
into the Wilderness.

General,
our scouts report he crossed

the Rapidan last night.

His army is twice ours, sir.

We'll just haveto even the odds.

Catch them before theyget
through the Wilderness.

Have General Hill advanceon
the Orange Plank Road.

General Ewell,on the turnpike.

Yes, sir.

The wilderness of Spotsylvania

was 70 square miles
of dense forest.

It was difficult for mass groups

of soldiers to move through

this particular
area of Virginia.

A little further south is
Spotsylvania Courthouse.

The land around that area
is a lot more wide open.

So Grant says, "We need
to cross the Rapidan River

"and move through
the Wilderness,

"get to this wide-open
ground closer to Richmond,

"and in doing so,

"Lee's gonna have to
come out and fight us

and on ground of our choosing."

Lee knew this ground.
He knew it well.

He was going to use every tree

and every bush to try to
delay Grant's actions.

The great advantage
of the Union army

against the Army of
Northern Virginia

is in numbers and artillery.

In that choked vine forest,

numbers matter less,

and you cannot bring
your artillery to bear.

In fact, the Army of the Potomac

fought there against
Robert E. Lee

at the battle of
Chancellorsville

earlier in the war and had lost.

The battle of Chancellorsville

is Robert E. Lee's high point.

Lee is gonna violate all
kind of military principles,

divide his army in the
face of a larger enemy,

and,
though outnumbered two to one,

he will drive the Union
army back across the river.

This is the magic
of Robert E. Lee.

The Chancellorsville battlefield

and the Wilderness battlefield

are pretty much right
on top of each other.

And during the initial phase
of the Wilderness campaign,

when Grant and the
Army of the Potomac

cross the river,
they see the remains

of the battle of
the year before.

When Grant was traveling
with the Army of the Potomac,

he realized the
extent to which Lee

had gotten into the mind
of all of the officers.

And he knew that he had to
deal with the Lee mystique.

That was really one of
his major objectives.

The natural disposition
of most people

is to clothe the
commander of a large army

whom they do not know

with almost
superhuman abilities.

But I had known
General Lee personally

and knew that he was mortal.

The Army of the Potomac
numbers about 120,000 men.

The Confederate army numbers
approximately 62,000.

Lee knows he's outnumbered,

but he knows if he can
bottle him up somewhere,

those superior numbers
won't account for anything.

Both sides are confident.

The Confederates,
they've rebounded

since their defeat
from Gettysburg.

And also,
the Union Army of the Potomac,

coming off that
victory at Gettysburg,

they're ready to keep
following up that success.

That mentality, I think,
explains the ferocity

of the fighting that follows.

We had to have hard fighting.

The two armies now
confronting each other

had been in deadly
conflict for so long

without any decisive result,

they hardly knew which
could whip the other.

So the first time that Grant
and Lee go into battle,

the two headliners of the war,

at the Battle of the Wilderness,

May of 1864,
Grant crosses into territory

where Lee has his army deployed,

and it's a pretty brutal fight.

Lee was actually moving
very aggressively.

He wanted to attack Grant.

He wanted to push
Grant out of Virginia.

Once Grant crosses the river,

you see two steely-eyed
killers who go at each other.

It's relentless. It's brutal.

It's nonstop. It's exhausting.

General Grant,

Rebel forces are at
the Orange Turnpike

on the Plank Road.

Pitch into them at the first...

Pitch into them at
the first opportunity.

Call the battery and gun crews.

We'll hold this position.

Grant is going to tell Meade,

"You do not wait for
them to attack you.

You attack them."

Why does he do this?

Because his object is
to go ahead and fight

Robert E. Lee.

He takes tactical risk
fighting in the Wilderness

because there is a opportunity

to destroy parts of Lee's army.

It throws Lee for a loop,

because Lee thought
he had Grant pegged.

Lee's going off the
old rule book here,

Union army is not
gonna act aggressively,

and at the Wilderness,

that preconceived
notion that he had

really gets destroyed.

Grant firmly believes that if
he can retain the initiative,

he can force the other
army to react to him.

He believes the Confederate army

should march to a Union drum.

Therefore,
he's gonna continue to push

and drive those Confederates.

This is not one of those
wide-open battlefields

that you can see long
lines of clashing troops.

Visibility is less
than 20 yards.

Throw in the smoke
and noise of battle,

and now it's even
more confusing.

It had been a very dry spring.

Now, if you think of men
firing their muskets,

there's gonna be
a flash of fire,

and all it takes is one spark.

And the real horrors of
the Wilderness begin.

The fires are gonna
grow in intensity.

For the men who are wounded,

they can either crawl
to the enemy lines,

or they can always kill
themselves with a revolver.

For the living soldiers,
at the end of this fight,

they have to now listen
to men scream to death

as they're burned
alive in this fire,

and they now have to
smell their bodies

as its roasted in
the conflagration,

and that is something that
truly sticks with them

for the rest of their lives.

The Wilderness was a brutal,
bloody battle,

similar to the
battle they'd fought

at Chancellorsville
the year before,

almost in the exact
same location.

And that battle had
ended with the Union army

pulling back from the field

and trying to regenerate itself

and get itself back
into condition.

Grant might have been,
like the other generals,

justified in breaking off
and pulling back to regroup.

General Grant.

Do you wantthe casualty numbers?

We'll be the first to
attack in the morning.

Our men are exhausted.

So are his.

We go forward.

Lee's still waiting
for reinforcements.

So if we're the first to attack,

we have our advantage.

General.

General Meade.

Don't forget.

We possess strengths
they do not have.

Our numbers...

and our purpose, Meade.

Our purpose.

Right, sir.

I was anxious that the
rebels should not take

the initiative in the morning

and therefore
ordered an assault.

Union forces were successful
initially in the morning.

They catch the
Confederate 3rd Corps

under A.P. Hill by surprise,

they push them a good mile,

and it looks like Lee's right
flank is about to cave in.

- General.
- We're losing ground.

But Longstreet's moving
in from the west...

With the Texas boys.

And I'm glad of it.

Those Texas boys willstand
and fight all day.

Longstreet has arrived
with reinforcements.

Lee may counterattack.

Let him.

We'll stick it out.

Let's taken our land,
forced us out.

He's gonna advance.

I'm tired of hearing about
what Lee is gonna do.

Some of you think he's gonna
turn a double somersault

and land in our rear and
both flanks at the same time.

Go back to your commands.

Think about what we're gonna do.

Longstreet arrives to save
the day in the nick of time.

James Longstreet had
actually attended

Ulysses S. Grant's wedding.

And he is Lee's most
trusted subordinate.

He is the old warhorse.

The Confederates slam
into Union lines...

but the Union had
bolstered their defenses.

Ultimately,
the series of assaults fail.

And James Longstreet will
be accidentally wounded

by his own men,
shot in the neck,

nearly choking to
death on his own blood

before he can be
moved from the field.

The Wilderness is on fire.

One soldier describes it

as a battle of invisibles
versus invisibles.

They could not see
the enemy army.

Soldiers are trapped.

They cannot find their way out.

The woods were set on fire
by the bursting shells.

The wounded,
who had not strength to move,

were either suffocated
or burned to death.

By the end of two
days of combat,

the Union army has
sustained about 17,000 men

killed, captured,
wounded, or missing.

Confederates are about 11,000.

Grant has lost now more men
in the two days at Wilderness

than he did in the
two days at Shiloh.

This was a particularly
horrifying battle...

not only because of the
number of casualties,

but the forest is burning.

What that meant was,
Grant went into his tent,

flung himself down on the cot.

There was a need for some

emotional release or catharsis,

and Grant had never
shown that side

of his character before.

Our losses in the
Wilderness were severe.

We could claim no
victory over the enemy,

neither did they gain
a single advantage.

We have 'em hell,General Lee.

They gave us the same.

I'm told Longstreetwill survive.

Scouts say Grant's packing up.

Finally retreating, sir.

We won't see him here again.

Tell me, Colonel...

have you ever met Grant?

No, sir.

No.

I didn't think so.

If you had,
you know he's not retreating.

He's not a retreating man.

I now felt the full weight

of responsibility
on my shoulders.

You will go after Lee.

You will go after him
until he's finished.

It all depends on you.

Gentlemen.

Come on, boys! Let's move out!

After two days of
the most brutal,

vicious fighting in the
Wilderness of Virginia,

soldiers of the
Army of the Potomac

and their opposite numbers

in the Army of Northern Virginia

had fought themselves
to a standstill.

Usually when a standstill
like that happened,

the result was
that the Union army

would pack its bags and go
back across the Rapidan River,

as it had happened
literally one year before

at the battle of
Chancellorsville.

The question in the minds
of these soldiers was,

"What direction is Ulysses Grant

going to take us?"

In war, anything is
better than indecision.

We must decide.

If I am wrong,
we shall soon find out

and can do the other thing.

Not to decide may
ruin everything.

And so Grant arrives at
the critical intersection

in the Wilderness if he was
going to move farther south

around Lee's flank,

seizing the strategic initiative

to threaten the Confederate
capital, Richmond.

The soldiers were
waiting to see,

"What direction is
he going to take?

"If he turns to the left,

"we're gonna be retreating
back across the river.

"If he turns right,

that means we're heading south."

We're going south!

- Heading south?
- To Richmond.

- Richmond?
- To Richmond.

- We're heading south.
- We're headed south!

Suddenly, to their astonishment,

they're all wheeling
around to the south.

And it took tremendous
courage and tremendous

personal fortitude
on Grant's part

because Union casualties
were higher at the Wilderness

than Confederate casualties...

but Grant always had this
ultimate faith in victory.

And I think that there are
certain generals in history,

when they have that
faith in victory,

it's something that
communicates itself

to the troops.

At Wilderness,
that is a tactical loss,

and yet Grant stands
at those crossroads

and goes, "This is not a loss.

This is the first step
to the end of the war."

So as he heads south,
Grant will fight

in a scope and scale beyond
anybody's experience.

We actually see the changing
character of war here.

Technology starts to
be a big part of it:

steam engines, ironclads,

railroads, telegraph.

However, there is this
unchanging nature of war.

It's still a clash of wills.

There's still fear and interest.

There's still hope
about what might happen.

When you think
about the Civil War,

we say that Confederates
are fighting

for hearth and home

and for this cause of
a Southern way of life.

Well,
look at what the Northerners

are fighting for.

Think about all those people.

They're fighting for this idea.

The nation is new.

We're largely made
up of immigrants.

They have come here
because they've seen

what it's like in the Old World.

And that idea that all
men are created equal...

if it doesn't exist here,
it doesn't exist anywhere.

And therefore,
they're willing to fight.

The greatest enthusiasm
was inspired by the fact

that the movement was south.

Headed to Richmond!

We're going south, boys!

It indicated to the men
that they had passed through

the beginning of the end.

There would be no turning back.

Advance!

Hold on with a bulldog grip.

Chew and choke as
much as possible.

We've got Lee in a box, General.

Go after him.

I regard it as my duty

by asking of you the surrender

of the Confederate States Army.

President Lincoln has been shot.

The country having just emerged

from a great rebellion,

I ask patient forbearance,

one toward another,
cementing a happy union.